Ok for anyone who knows me or has read any previous blogs you know the title of this post is a “hook.”

One of the more significant changes I’ve made in my journey toward greater life balance is reduce my screen time and social media usage. I dropped all the major platforms and didn’t just suspend but deleted nearly every account. No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Tic Tok. In addition, I dumped nearly every news app and deleted dozens of others from my devices. The only platform I visit and follow content creators on is YouTube. I am a strong advocate for less screen time.

Father Martin Bernhard, a monk in the Monastery of St. Benedict is quoted as saying – “When the light in most people’s faces comes from the glow of the laptop, the smartphone, or the television screen, we are living in a Dark Age.”

That’s a compelling and chilling statement, and rather frightening to me. I don’t think this is at all what Jesus had in mind when He said, “You are the light of the world.”

Whether its binge watching “The West Wing” on Netflix, playing PlayStation 5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch gaming consoles, trying to break our record on Candy Crush or scrolling through various social media feeds, we are spending and squandering an unbelievable number of hours with our faces buried in screens.

We hide behind our profile avatars thinking we are engaged in relationships, and the truth is we aren’t. We curate what we want our followers or subscribers to see and believe about us, rather than relating to others in an authentic manner through vital relationships.

Instead of spending endless hours gazing at our 60-inch flat screen televisions, lap top computers or a smartphone LCD screens, how about spending time on the “screened-in porch” for some real human interaction. I am using the image of a “screened-in porch” as an example of where families, friends, and neighbors can gather to spend time physically in live encounters cultivating relationships around a meal, a fire pit, board game, or just sitting together having conversations and spending time with one another. It doesn’t matter whether the venue is a screened-in porch, a kitchen table, living room sofa, or a coffee shop, the core issue is, instead of virtual relationships try building vital relationships.

I think one of the worst inventions that has isolated us especially in the neighborhoods we live in is the garage door opener. How many times do we reach for the remote opener attached to our car visors as we approach our homes, drive our cars into the garage, close the door behind us and enter our houses through the garage, never greeting, engaging with or make human contact with our neighbors. We have lost the art of engagement with our neighbors through the “front porch”.  How sad is that? 

I’m not so naive to think that the masses are going to suddenly abandon their screens and social media platforms and opt for a simpler life.  But can we at least put a governor on our screen time? Many phones today can help you track how much time you average on your device each day. Start monitoring and set a goal to reduce that average over time. Also consider doing an audit of all your apps. Uninstall those that you don’t use regularly. Instead of having a social media account for every platform that comes along perhaps you can limit that number to just a few.

We need more social interaction and less social media. So yes, let’s pursue more “screen time” …” Screened-in porch” time that is, face to face (no book).

• YouTube