A WEEK WITHOUT SCREENS

With the exception of Tim, our whole family just spent a week completely free of screens. We posted notices in a couple online places so people would know to call if they needed to reach us and the two of us with e-mail addresses set a vacation response letting people know they wouldn't get an immediate reply. Then we unplugged from screens. No Youtube videos or library movies for entertainment or education. No Skype, e-mail, or texting for the sake of chatting (I did respond to three texts about scheduling, which I told the little Ws ahead of time I would have to do if those texts came). No accessing bank or library accounts. No writing on or reading Facebook or blogs. No checking the news, weather, or event schedules for church or other groups we're part of. No maps or recipe sites for menu planning. No screens at all. (We don't have any TV channels, which is why I didn't list it above.)

We'll never be anti-screen, but I knew that the the little Ws and I all needed a detox. The problem wasn't how much time we were spending on screens, as there's no set amount of time that's right for everyone all the time, but that we were avoiding other parts of life in favor of screens. It was about our motives for and dependence on screen time.

On Saturday night I had each of us write down (or dictate, as the case was with Teebs) what we thought the pros and cons of our week were. I combined them into a joint list, which we spent a few minutes going over on Sunday. Here is what we came up with.

NEGATIVES
- less entertainment options
- less time with friends
- "I like it so much." (Referring to screen time.)
- missed the fun of screens
- couldn't look things up
- missed specific screen things that are really enjoyed
- inconvenient for some practical things
- "Screens are the best thing ever!" (I assure you this W likes plenty of non-screen things.)

POSITIVES
- less time with friends (meaning friend time wasn't consuming the day)
- more time outside
- not asking/being asked for screens all the time
- found other things to do
- more family time/interaction
- more creative play (still hoping I get permission to share picture proof)
- less wasted time
- not doing screens every day (the lack of a daily dependence/expectation)
- listened to different music (busted out CDs we hadn't listened to in a while, since Pandora, Spotify, and iPods were off limits)

There are a few areas of life where I'm trying to make some changes, things that have slowly become less than ideal and which I want to be more proactive about choosing wisely. As is often the case, there's overlap in all the areas, including screen time, so it will be interesting to see what changes we make moving forward. I decided to be offline on Sunday several months ago, but I don't know that we'll come up with a strict plan for overall screen time from here on out. I suspect that we'll spend less effort specifically trying to reduce screen time to a certain number of hours or minutes and just increase our effort to invest more time doing what we find more valuable instead.

How often do you go screen-free? Do you go "all or nothing" and ditch every screen or prefer a modified version of reduced time on certain devices, times, or days? Are you content with the amount of time your family currently uses screens, regardless of purpose, or would you like to see some sort of change?