Digital Fasting During Great Lent: Breaking Free from Screen Addiction
by Christopher Muhlenfeld
The sacred season of Great Lent is upon us—a time of repentance, renewal, and return to God. For Orthodox Christians, this is not merely a period of abstaining from certain foods but a holistic fast encompassing body, mind, and soul. Father Russell reminds us that we should be fasting from anything that holds dominion over us—the key to drawing closer to Christ during Lent. In our modern, AI-fueled world, a new and more pernicious gateway to the passions has emerged, capturing humanity in a near-universal addiction: the smartphone.
While slightly larger and thinner than a pack of cigarettes, our phones share disturbing parallels with humanity's fading tobacco addiction. There was a time when cigarette addiction was as widespread and universally accepted as smartphone addiction is today. Screen addictions may harm us in more insidious ways.
Consider: what other modern invention can so effectively isolate two people—a husband and wife—lying side by side in bed? Each with phones to their faces, mindlessly scrolling, totally detached from one another. These devices excel at isolating us when we allow our passions to dictate their use.
Great Lent offers Orthodox Christians a golden opportunity to examine our lives for addiction to these infinitely helpful yet vexing devices. In Serbian Orthodox tradition, fasting has always been a path to purification. Our saints—St. Sava, St. Nikolai of Žiča, and countless others—teach that true fasting strips away distractions to make room for prayer, love, and communion with Christ and one another.
Yet today, our attention fractures across smartphones, social media, and endless entertainment. The average person checks their phone dozens of times daily, often without purpose, caught in a cycle of scrolling, notifications, and comparison. What begins as a tool for connection becomes a chain of compulsion, pulling us away from loved ones and, more importantly, from God's presence.
The Modern Desert
The holy fathers sought isolation in the desert, finding in that barren landscape the silence necessary for prayer and communion with God. Today, we face a different desert—one populated not by sand and stone but by endless notifications and digital distractions. Have your palms ever ached from holding your smartphone too long? That's a clear sign your device has dominion over you.
Just as ancient ascetics fought against physical temptations, we must struggle against the constant pull of our screens that fragment our attention and separate us from God and one another. Saint John Chrysostom[1] teaches that fasting isn't merely about abstaining from food, but about abstaining from sin, and then, cultivating virtue. Our use of technology often becomes not just a tool, but a passion requiring spiritual discipline.
Rather than reading more books about digital addiction—just another way to delay action—take simple steps now to draw nearer to Christ and one another this Great Lent by creating resistance between you and your device.
Practical Steps for Digital Fasting
What Are You Fasting From?
Clearly define what you'll fast from. Our devices are tools often needed for work. Frequently, it's one single app or website consuming most of our screen time. If I eliminate X (formerly Twitter) from my digital diet, my screen time drops by 95%. If you have a general addiction to screens and notifications, define a wider range of devices or apps to fast from.
When Will You Fast?
My plan is to fast completely from X throughout Great Lent. If I fall, just as with food, I'll get back up and continue. You might choose differently—perhaps fasting entirely from devices on Wednesdays and Fridays only or from sunset to sunrise: when the sun goes down, you put away all your digital devices and go analog.
The important thing is to define when you'll fast from technology. Write it down, because like any addiction, you may "forget," and the demons work overtime during Great Lent to help you forget!
Reduce Opportunities for Temptation
Do you have a tablet, laptop, TV, and multiple smartphones? Consider putting all devices except one into a drawer in the laundry room or garage during Great Lent. Reducing opportunities to pick up devices creates space to redirect time toward prayer, spiritually edifying reading, or fellowship.
Place a purple towel or blanket over your TV for the 40 days of Great Lent. This is really healthy for kids and adults.
Charge your phone in another room when you sleep. Waking up with your phone next to you is a sure-fire way to sabotage your entire day by making the phone the first thing that you reach for when you wake up. Eliminate that temptation and never bring it to the bathroom.
Start thinking of your smartphone as a “needle for a drug addict.” Ease of access promotes impulsive, unconscious usage. Get a standalone alarm clock. Yes, they still make them, and they’re very cheap.
Add physical discipline to your digital dieting. For example, try doing five pushups or squats before you touch your phone, or add five long bows and say the Jesus Prayer.
Be aware of Secondary Substitute Usages
Substitute usages are a way for your brain to find a new source of those feel-good neurotransmitters stimulated by usage. Many people discover that once they eliminate the smartphone, they begin to replace it with other types of compulsive usage. Be on the lookout for this trap!
Focus on Spiritual Growth
What kind of person are you when you don’t get what you want? Are you angry, irritable, easily frustrated, lazy, gluttonous, impatient, dramatic, anxious, generally ill-at-ease? Your smartphone usage may be covering up these things with satiation and distraction.
Ultimately, compulsive smartphone usage always drives non-peace. Pull back the covers of satiation, see who you are underneath, and fear not: you will be OK. Examine the person you have accidentally let yourself become, then focus on who you will be when you’re not getting that digital satiation the smartphone provides.
Or any substitute satiation, for that matter. The lie to oneself is, “I am OK as long as I get my coffee & my smartphone screen.” Compulsive usage always stunts healthy maturation, keeping us spiritually and emotionally self-centered juveniles. Lay it aside and advance in a healthy way, in a safe place, in communion with God and one another.
Implement Technology-Assisted Fasting Tools
- Enable screen time tracking on your devices. Review usage daily and adjust your techniques as needed.
- Install browser plugins to block problematic sites you struggle to avoid.
- Consider comprehensive software like Freedom.to for multi-platform, multi-device, multiple-schedule filtering.
- Place a rubber band around your phone or tablet to remind you to say the Jesus Prayer before use and to remember your digital fast.
Be Honest and Persevere
All have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. You may slip during your journey. That's okay. Return to your commitment quickly without wallowing in failure. Don't slide back into addiction. Connect with someone else from church who is doing a digital fast and check in daily for accountability. Come to Confession and move forward. We are a community—don't fast alone! You are on a team, and we’re headed for Eternity together.
Onward to Forty Days of Spiritual Growth!
Digital fasting during Great Lent invites us to rediscover what truly matters. As we create distance between ourselves and our screens, we make room for deeper communion with God and authentic connection with those around us. The spiritual disciplines we cultivate during these forty days can lead to lasting freedom from digital addiction, helping us use technology as the servant rather than the master. Remember that each moment away from your screen is an opportunity to turn toward Christ and one another.
May God strengthen us in our Lenten struggles, both traditional and modern, as we seek to cleanse our hearts and minds for His glory. Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen.
[1] John Chrysostom, "True Fasting," Orthodox.net, www.orthodox.net/articles/true-fasting-saint-john-chrysostom.html. Accessed 1 Mar. 2025.