I Completed Humanality's Digital Detox on Hallow: Here's What Happened

+JMJ+

My smartphone is still ruining my spiritual life. 

Several weeks ago, I published an article titled "My Smartphone Ruined My Spiritual Life." I wrote this piece while participating in Humanality's "Digital Detox" on Hallow and promised to update readers after completing the challenge to see if all the hype I generated would remain. Here we are, weeks later, and I remain even more resolute in my conclusion. 

The central irony is that, despite my firm resolution and significant improvements in sleep, mood, and prayer quality, I began to excuse myself for the little ways I gradually slid back into my pre-detox ways. Instead of avoiding my phone's internet browser, I nonetheless found ways (often illegitimate) to use it: "What's the harm in using it once?" or "I won't do it again; it's just this one time." As harmless as it seems, I found myself reverting more and more each day to my addicted state, convincing myself that it wasn't so bad. A candid look at my screen time revealed that these seemingly minor slip-ups were significant, as my average screen time jumped from 2 hours a day to an astonishing 4 to 6 hours again. This trend indicates a screen time usage of 28 to 42 hours a week, resulting in at least one day per week that I lose because my face is buried in my phone.

What changed? In a sense, nothing has; I'm still the same broken person I was before and during the challenge. The reality is that phone addiction is as real and oppressive as many other modern addictions, and therefore, relapse is expected. Although this type of addiction may not carry the threat of near-death experiences like others, the toll it takes on one's health and, more importantly, one's spiritual life should not be minimized or overlooked. In their 2021 systematic review, Ratan et al. (Smartphone Addiction and Associated Health Outcomes in Adult Populations: A Systematic Review) concluded that the most significant issues linked to "smartphone addiction" were anxiety, depression, insomnia, and even musculoskeletal problems. Notably, it states that "this review indicates that smartphone addiction shares similar features with substance abuse," particularly in how the "dopamine hits" impact our dependency on smartphones, as I discussed in my previous article. Although the research acknowledges its limitations, it serves as a call for further medical inquiry into the effects of smartphone addiction. 

What about my spiritual life? That had also begun to go down the drain. During the detox, I could pray several hours of the divine office, tackle my daily rosary, and even study scripture beyond my usual study hours in my graduate theology program. Now, it seems that the most notable achievement of my day is my little morning offering when I wake up or perhaps the blessing before meals. The greatest success of my spiritual life during the digital detox was my ability to once again converse with the Lord for an extended period, moving beyond my usual complaints and petitions. That spiritual habit has faded in recent days, and I hope that my openness in this article can help restart things but also remind readers to take an honest look at how their smartphones are damaging their spiritual lives.

If anything, my experience before and after the digital detox has shown me that I must remain entirely dependent on Our Lord if I am to achieve anything. These reflections reminded me of Paul's words to the pagans on the Areopagus: "In him, we live, and move, and are" (Acts 17:28). Our modern crisis of smartphone addiction easily likens us to this pagan nation that built an altar to an unknown God. How can we know God if we cannot even look up from our phone screens? As St. Paul reminds us, even today, we must be humans who seek God, for this desire has been placed upon us by His design. As Andrew Laubacher (Humanality's Executive Director) said at the end of each Hallow session, "Humans engage reality." Through this engagement with our reality, we can look up and see God, who is no longer unknown to us but loved. 

If you haven't downloaded the Hallow app (which is great in its own right) and tried Humanality's Digital Detox, I highly encourage you to do so. Lent is just around the corner, and perhaps this is a challenge that God is calling you to embark on to see Him more clearly than ever before. My sincere hope is that more people will confront their smartphone addiction and that we can return to a culture that engages with the world that God created for us. So, put down your phone, take a look around, and embrace this great gift that God has given us. You will be amazed by what you discover.