For the past week, I've done a screen fast. That means I've tried to look at screens as little as possible. I do work on the computer, so take that with a grain of salt. However, I was able to cut out all forms of entertainment that are screen-based. No video games, no TV, no movies, no Netflix, no surfing the internet for fun, no cell phone games.
In the way that a food fast can help you break and change old eating habits, I was hoping that a screen fast would give me the opportunity to remember that I have a choice in how much I look at screens, and to remember what it's like to look at them less.
In the beginning, it took some extra concentration to break my old habits. I usually watch a TED talk or the Daily Show during my lunch break. I was immediately derailed. Without my old standby, I had to find something else to do with that time. Luckily, I just got a great graphic novel of one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld stories, so instead I read during my lunch break. I briefly thought about concentrating entirely on eating while I was eating, focusing on the sensation and nourishment, but once I started into the story I was lost to it.
Besides reading more, I also found myself doing more cleaning. I managed to de-clutter some areas of my office that have been junky for years.
I found my attention span growing longer. Where I would normally be distracted from something within a few minutes, I found myself able to hold my attention for much longer spans of time. We forget that those rapid eye stimulators give us tons of dopamine, and it's easy to get addicted to the stimulation.
Overall, my screen fast brought back the intention into my screen-using decisions. It gave me a break from my "default" patterns and gave me the opportunity to re-evaluate when and why I would choose one form of entertainment over another.