This yr 1000’s more Christians will follow the lead of a US church that fasted from smartphones and located that relationships with one another and with God improved.
Social media and addiction to smartphones have been blamed for most of the societal ills which have steadily got worse over the past 15 years. The possible harmful effects include: mental health problems in adolescents, especially girls; political division and polarisation; fomenting riots; racism and antisemitism; isolation and singleness – and there are lots of more.
A frontrunner in questioning and opposing the widespread use of smartphones has been researcher and writer Jonathan Haidt. On his ‘After Babel’ Substack newsletter, he writes continuously of research that shows the harms of the technology revolution, and showcases initiatives that promote the wiser use of smartphones.
In October he encouraged churches to cleared the path in turning away from phones and towards one another. Haidt published an article by Pastor Darren Whitehead of the multi-site Church of the City in Nashville, and writer of the recent book: “The Digital Fast: 40 Days to Detox Your Mind and Reclaim What Matters Most.”
Whitehead had led a quick from technology on the churches he oversees in Tennessee after observing a number of the negative effects of phones on his 10,000-strong congregation.
“People were struggling to attach deeply with God, one another, and even themselves, as technology increasingly monopolized their attention,” he wrote on After Babel.
Whitehead shared how he was inspired to start out the fast because his three daughters had said they wished he could be on his phone less. Speaking on the “Couple Things” podcast, he said, “It was sort of a wake-up call for me, and as a pastor I used to be just feeling these devices have seeped their way into our lives.
“I feel like sometimes we’re so overloaded with information we are able to know more about what’s happening within the conflict within the Middle East than we learn about what is going on on within the hearts of our youngsters.”
He told the Aro podcast that doing the fast together as a church had advantages.
“Doing it as a gaggle, doing it as a neighbourhood, doing it as a family, doing it as a church, is a lot easier since it’s a shared experience,” he said.
“You’re almost gamifying all the thing, and also you’re encouraging each other, and you understand if anyone’s cheating, you are sort of calling them out.”
Writing on After Babel, he describes the positive effects on the church and its members: “What might have been a mere exercise in self-discipline become a shared transformative journey of spiritual renewal and collective freedom.”
He argues that folks often get on social media because they’re afraid of missing out on something. This pressure will be relieved if people abstain as a gaggle: “By engaging within the Digital Fast as a community, we collectively resisted the societal pressures of digital overuse and helped one another discover a healthier rhythm of life.”
The congregation first pledged to remove all of the apps from their phone and only use their device for calls and text. “Many rediscovered hobbies, rekindled relationships, and engaged in deeper prayer and meditation,” he wrote.
Towards the tip of the fast, he encouraged discernment about what technology could be allowed back into their lives. “Families reported having more meaningful meals together, small groups found themselves more engaged in discussions, and individuals shared how the practice of digital fasting had spilled over into other areas of their lives. The ultimate goal was to cultivate a deeper hunger for God’s presence.”
Their experience has now sparked a movement of churches following this lead. Already Whitehead says that “tons of” of churches with greater than “100,000” members have signed on for a Digital Fast across the US in 2025. Others are invited to affix in during January or in the course of the season of Lent. Those who pay for the programme through DigitalFast2025.com receive a workbook, access to sermons and an app to watch digital usage – though it says that churches who cannot afford it would have the opportunity to be funded.
He gave a number of tricks to the Aro podcast for doing a digital fast: firstly to purchase an alarm clock. If phones are used to wake us up, the notifications are the very first thing that somebody will have a look at within the morning. He also advised to avoid TV too, and to spend the new-found free time on meeting up with friends and spiritual reading.
“Ultimately, the Digital Fast was about greater than technology; it was about reclaiming the sacredness of presence and attentiveness,” concludes Whitehead.
“It was a modern-day spiritual pilgrimage through the wilderness of the digital age. And for Church of the City, it was a journey value taking—a journey that led us not away from life, but into its fullest expression.”
Haidt has been interviewed in various Christian media outlets in regards to the effects smartphones is perhaps having on children.
“As long as children have a phone-based childhood there could be very little hope for his or her spiritual education,” he told Terry Mattingly.
“An essential precondition is to delay the phone-based life until the age of 18, I might say. Don’t allow them to fall off into cyberspace, because once they do, it is going to be so spiritually degrading for the remaining of their lives …
“There’s not much you possibly can do in church in the event that they are spending 10 hours a day outside of church on their phones.”
Heather Tomlinson is a contract Christian author. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com/Â or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
