Like most people, I have a love/hate relationship with my cellphone.  I love the fact of having a library of information in my pocket.  However, I hate it for other reasons.

So, after teaching about Daniel in the Old Testament, I decided to experiment.  I locked the cellphone in a closet for 10 days to see what would happen.  I hypothesized that when those 10 days were over, I would better understand my own habits and feel much better.

What are your thoughts?  The fact that you’re reading this article tells me two things.  1) Chances are you have a love/hate relationship with your phone. 2) You’ve often wondered what would happen if you didn’t use it for 10 days.

If you get depressed every time you look at your screentime each week, you might want to read further.

I’m not the first person to run a ten-day experiment.  In the Old Testament, a scholar named Daniel proposed a ten-day experiment of his own.  He was being held captive in Babylon (a type of the world, by the way) and the leader of the guards insisted that he eat the King’s diet of meat so that he would be a better counselor to the king.  Daniel, however, had convictions.  So he asked to run a ten-day trial.

For ten days he ate pulse.  Pulse, from what we know, consists of vegetables.  Specifically, some say that the vegetables consisted of beans or peas.

So, for ten days, Daniel ate pulse.  Sounds exciting, right?

When his experiment was finished, Daniel’s hypothesis was correct.  The diet enhanced his physical appearance.

I had a similar hypothesis or guess.  My guess was that I’d be better off without a cell phone.  Here are some of my takeaways.

First, some people were not pleased regarding my decision to begin a cell-phone fast.  For good reason, they believed I was neglecting duty and responsibilities.  That may be true.  It was just something I hadn’t thought about.  After all, I still have a land line as well as a work line and social media.  Remember, I did not say I would not use the computer.  I said I would not use my phone.

Confession: The first night, my wife got stuck in the snow with some friends and couldn’t reach me.  She was, however, able to contact my neighbor that I was hanging out with.  If not, we still had AAA.

Here are some of the inconveniences I encountered.

Google maps are great!  I came to appreciate them more after trying to find a distant destination on my day off.  Normally I would just plug the address into my phone and go.  Instead, I went on the computer and printed out the directions.  They worked fine.  The problem is they don’t tell you to renavigate when you miss a turn.  So, a normally simple task became much more difficult.

Along the same line, it would have been helpful to find the nearest gas station when I was thirty miles off the grid with less than a quarter tank of gas in a Chevy Silverado!  A normal day out began to feel like an episode of Survivor.  Worst case scenario, I would have spent a night in the woods with my German Shorthair Pointer.  Not something I wanted to do in the middle of Winter in the Northeast.

I do a lot of research these days, so it would have been nice to Google the many questions I had while away from the computer.  Sometimes I wrote things down.  In the end, none of the questions I had needed to be answered.  In fact, I don’t remember Googling any of them once I got back to a computer.

I also could not measure steps or take pictures.  While this seemed like an inconvenience at first, it later proved helpful as we’ll see when I talk about the benefits later.

I was also concerned that people might not be able to get a hold of me.  While this was never a major concern, it did loom in the back of my mind.  Worse yet, I was concerned that some people would feel as though I was ignoring them (I didn’t make a social media post explaining the fact that I was abandoning my phone for ten days).

In summary, the off-grid mishap with very little gas was probably the most disturbing aspect of my experiment.  In retrospect, I could buy a GPS unit for my vehicle and try the experiment again.

Here are some of the benefits I encountered while going 10 days without a cell phone.

While walking my dog, I suddenly found myself enjoying it more than usual.  This happened quite often while going without the phone.  In this case, I thought about checking my steps on the fitness app, but realized I couldn’t.  At the same time, it occurred to me how many times I looked at the app and felt guilty because I hadn’t exercised as much as I thought I should have.  Again, after realizing this benefit it became more apparent.

I also wasn’t able to take stupid pictures and post them on social media.  Unlike the past, I couldn’t document highlights of my day like I had in the past.  Therefore, I could make better use of my time rather than using it to strategize.  I didn’t end up with a hundred pics on my cellphone that I’d never look at again.  There were no photos of Steak dinners or Deer antlers to post on my social media feed.

Not once did I experience the guilt of spending too much time staring at my phone and scrolling.  Not one time!  For the first time in years, my screen time would read 0!  In fact, it was an amazing feeling to sit in a public waiting room and reflect while everyone else in the room was glued to their phone.  This confirmed my suspicion that the cellphone had become a way to escape the mundane and boring moments in life.  Rather than escaping by phone, I was able to read, reflect, rejoice and pray more than I would have if i was glued to my screen.

As you can imagine, there were many other negatives and positives, but here is what I decided after my cell-phone fast. 1) My cell-phone had come to represent clutter in my life.  It cluttered my heart, mind, and soul.  It’s existence in my life sometimes kept me from focusing on what’s really important.  Things that matter.  2) However, I plan on keeping it at this time.  That could change in the future, but it’s going to stay.  If I ever feel like putting it away again, I will, but it has an important place.  3) Rather than abandoning my phone, I’ve decided to use it more wisely.  I’m in the process of deciding how that looks, however, whatever shape or form it takes, my usage habits will change.

How about you?  What are you going to do?  I hope that after reading about my experiment you have been challenged to conduct an experiment of your own.  It may not include your cell-phone.  Perhaps you want to experiment with exercise or reading the bible for ten days.  The choice is yours.  I promise you this, if you run an experiment for ten days, you will discover things that you couldn’t otherwise.  Write about your results and share them with friends and loved ones.  I’d love to hear all about it!