Using Facebook as a Force for Good this Lent, Part 3: Fasting

Intro:

The purpose of putting our smartphones on grayscale for Lent is to choose a form of Lenten penance that requires sacrifice while also allowing us to regain an element of thoughtfulness and recollection in our use of these devices, which can distract us from purposeful Christian lives. However, while this Lenten resolution is a good first step, it may not "solve" all our usage struggles.

Perhaps that is why so many people, instead of grayscale, choose other specific resolutions, such as giving up online shopping or social media. At times, we may feel that it the struggles come with impulse control in the little bits of time we have free. We look for distractions on our phone, and find them easily, but we are left feeling that online window-shopping or mindless social media scrolling was not the best use of our time. It lacked a sense of purpose and increased our sense of a lack of impulse control or meaning in our usage.

The question for today is how we might approach Facebook during Lent, using it as a force for good, rather than mindless, time-filling, quasi-entertainment. We consider this question with the traditional Lenten penances in mind: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving and offer concrete suggestions for using Facebook well this Lent, rather than simply giving it up.

Fasting:

The Lenten practice of fasting is, first and foremost, about food. The fasting that we still practice on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday consists of only one full meal and two smaller snacks. Until the Lent of 1967, this fast was kept on all the days of Lent (excepting solemnities). The changes to penitential practice for Lent in the United States now allow for a much broader interpretation of fasting, and people voluntarily choose to "give up" or fast from various foods or items during Lent.

The idea of going grayscale for Lent is about fasting from the color on our screens, and, like the traditional practice of fasting, it allows us to regain a sort of thoughtfulness or recollection that comes from a constant reminder. Every time we see our phones, we recognize that they look different. Many other people choose to fast from social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. There are various good reasons to consider such a fast, as well as other reasons to avoid this fast.

First, it is helpful to recognize that the traditional fasting encourages abstaining from something that is fundamentally good for us; food is necessary for our very survival. Lenten resolutions may allow us to work on sin struggles, but our Lenten sacrifices should not be about "giving up" a particular sin. For example, if we struggle with gossip, we should try to give that up during Lent, but not as a Lenten resolution. Rather, we should always be making efforts to combat that sin, not looking to take a 40 day break from it before we plunge back in.

So, when it comes to Facebook, a good question for examination is whether it regularly causes us to sin or is sometimes a near occasion of sin causing a struggle. If we recognize that we become insensitive, rude, or careless on Facebook, insulting others perhaps, or demeaning them, or using Facebook as a way to make a name for ourself, presenting ourselves as amazing people, then Facebook itself may be an occasion for sin for us, and we may need to give it up - not for Lent, but forever!

However, we may see that Facebook helps us to maintain long-distance relationships with family or friends, to find ways to help those around us in need, allows us to feel supported by others, and sometimes to engage in meaningful conversations on important topics. That doesn't mean we might not sometimes struggle with wanting to make rude remarks or wanting to show off our kids. But, especially if we are using it purposefully and thoughtfully, Facebook does not have to be an occasion of sin, and fasting from such a good may not be the best Lenten resolution for us. It may, rather, contribute to our feeling isolated from others.

Nonetheless, we may still recognize some problems with how we use this "good." Like food, we may turn to it when we're bored for entertainment. We may fill our bits of time with it, absent-mindedly looking through it when we might do other more productive or prayerful things. In such cases, there can be value in adopting some discipline here. In addition to using Facebook as a force for good by intentionally looking for almsgiving and prayer opportunities, we may want to limit our time, by setting a screen time limit on our phones or by purposefully setting aside a set time period designated to social media. We often think in terms of "all or nothing," but sometimes the best solution is, instead, something thoughtful and intentional. If we have our phones set to grayscale, we will already find less pull and enjoyment from social media, such as Facebook. Thus, rather than simply giving up Facebook, we may want to discipline our use of it, making it a force for good guided by the Lenten practices of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

Grayscale and the Traditional Lenten Triad of Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving

Putting your phone on grayscale for Lent may seem like quite an unusual Lenten resolution. In fact, if we look back over 2,000 years of Christianity, I think we can be pretty certain that this particular Lenten resolution was not ever a popular voluntary Lenten penance. So we might ask ourselves why go grayscale, especially when it is not a traditional Lenten practice?

First of all, what are the traditional triad of Lenten penances?

Prayer- spending extra time in prayer or increased intensity in prayer, e.g. attending daily Mass during Lent, saying a Rosary daily, dedicating extra time for mental prayer, reading the Gospels using  lectio divino, keeping a gratitude (to God) journal, etc.

Fasting- giving up those foods that we enjoy. Before the Lent of 1967, all Catholics practiced daily Lenten fasting with partial abstinence from meat, excepting Fridays, which were days of complete abstinence from meat. Voluntary fasting since 1967 has come to include many things, such as fasting from chocolate, snacks, meat, dairy, soda, alcohol, coffee, etc.

Almsgiving- dedicating additional funds toward the poor. Especially given a more simple Lenten menu, there should be extra money available to give to those in need. Almsgiving can include direct giving to the poor and beggars, as well as charitable giving to organizations dedicated to helping the poor. It can also include the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, such as visiting the imprisoned and clothing the naked.

Now, where might going grayscale on our phones fit into this schema? The answer is...everywhere! In his book, The Strangest Way, Bishop Robert Barron borrows the Buddhist idea of "monkey mind," to describe what sometimes happens when we begin to pray, placing ourselves in the presence of God. Even with the best of intentions and desires, our mind eagerly jumps from topic to topic, distracting us from the presence of God.

Smartphone usage is a sort of a training in monkey mind, an easy way of exacerbating a tendency that we already have. Jumping from app to app, from bright red circle notification to the next, scrolling quickly through a social media feed, or skimming news headlines and emails. There are a multitude of ways we use our phones - often to good purpose as an amazing tool - and yet, it feeds a sort of monkey mind, where conscious choice can be minimized as we follow the whims engineered by app designers who study how to distract us and employ those means to win our attention.

There are wonderful prayer apps that we can download to our phone...but, lovely and useful as they are, they nonetheless appear as one app among many. Even with dedication to a particular prayer practice, we can easily fall into a desire to get that breviary done so we can go back to FaceBook. Having a smartphone does not preclude having a good prayer life, but we must admit that facilitating and encouraging monkey mind through training ourselves with these screens can detract from and diminish the quality and quantity of our time in prayer. Going grayscale has been evaluated as increasing conscious choice, meaning we are ruled once again by our reason and not the drunken monkeys jumping around in our head. Those who advocate a grayscale phone setting claim that it also diminishes overall usage on the phone, which means the minutes available for prayer time increase.

Fasting from certain foods during Lent is also a way of increasing consciousness, of thinking more carefully about what we are consuming. It can help us to live more simply and be aware and appreciative of our resources. The bright colors of the screen are highly consumable, albeit not by our mouths and stomachs. Many of us have had that experience of having our attention drawn to the bright red notifications, feeling like we must click in order to get it erased. Push notifications draw our attention to breaking news, and we feel a desire to consume this news immediately. Fasting from food is a way of slowing us down, and so also is fasting from color. Our phones become less attractive and less consumable.

Almsgiving is a practice that ultimately has its root in seeing God in others, acknowledging the truth that when we give to others, we are giving to God and showing him our love. Many of us have had the experience of feeling ignored by others who are looking at their phones. Many of us have also had the experience of knowing that someone near us feels ignored because WE are looking at our phones! The attractiveness of entertainment or communication with others that we love can easily distract us from the people that surround us. It can prevent us from recognizing God in others and from identifying their needs. We can miss out on opportunities for the corporal and spiritual works of mercy because we are buried in what is happening on our screens. If going grayscale, combined with an intentional desire to be more present to those around us, can help us to decrease our overall phone usage, we can be more present to others, recognizing God's presence in them.

So, in short, while going grayscale on a phone is very new as a specific Lenten practice, it is nonetheless in continuity with the tradition of Lenten penances. The aim of the U.S. bishops in making Lenten penances voluntary in 1967 was precisely so that the faithful could identify penances that would be meaningful and appropriate to the current situation. Going grayscale is a great example of a penance that addresses the needs of our times.