Five Reasons to Join Plugged In for Screen Fast 2026

When I was a kid, our television went out for a week. And yes, it was a long, long week. At the peak of my boredom, I sat down in the middle of the kitchen and watched our drip coffee maker make coffee. You know, just as a little hint to my parents that they weren’t taking the broken TV seriously enough.

Screen use has grown exponentially since I was a surly 12-year-old. And stepping away from them hasn’t gotten any easier. The average teen spends around eight and a half hours daily on a screen—and let’s be honest, we adults aren’t much better.

But we all should get better, even though it’s not easy. Many studies have shown that giving up screens for a while can come with huge dividends. Let me give you just five of them, backed by science.

1. You’ll sleep better. The light from screens can keep you up. Plus, how easy is it to sleep when you’re texting at 2 a.m.?
2. You’ll reduce your stress levels. Setting down the screens will obviously reduce doomscrolling, but it can also lower your cortisol levels—hormones designed to keep your body more alert and more stressed.
3. You’ll be more productive. Even though your cortisol levels will go down, you’ll get more done thanks to fewer social media interruptions.
4. You might improve your mental health. When you’re not comparing yourself to every smiling person you see on Instagram (not to mention sans doomscrolling), you’re bound to feel better.
5. You’ll strengthen your relationships. Instead of offering thumbs-up and smiley faces to friends’ posts, you just might have more time to talk with them face-to-face.

So how long should you give up your screens to reap these benefits? An hour? A day? A whole week?

Well, a week is what we’re encouraging for Plugged In’s Screen Fast 2026. And, don’t worry, I’m gonna be right there with you. I spend my career dealing with screens, so I’m looking forward to spending a little time away from them.

Now, we’re not asking anyone to quit their jobs or stop doing their homework. Screens are such an important part of our lives that it’s hard to step away from them completely. And if you come to Plugged In, we won’t turn you away. (We’ll still be posting plenty of reviews, videos and blogs.) But if you join me in this screen fast, we will ask you to step away from unnecessary screen usage: movies, TV, social media, TikTok videos, that sort of thing.

Plugged In’s Screen Fast 2026 will officially launch March 22 and run ‘til March 28. And if you sign up (which you can do at this link), you’ll receive our free week-long Survival Guide that offers some thoughts on how you can use all that extra time you’ll suddenly have to get closer to your family, your friends and perhaps your own under-utilized talents.

Oh, and we hope this screen fast might help you draw closer to God as well: Each day in our Survival Guide includes a short devotional. We also felt that launching this screen fast the week before Holy Week might encourage more prayer, introspection and focus on what should really matter to us.

But, of course, you can do your screen fast and use our Survival Guide any time throughout the year: Want to get your teens’ screen time under control before summer vacation? Before school starts in the fall? During the Christmas season? You have free license to use our materials anytime you wish. And it’s not like we’ll complain if you decide to do a screen fast more than once.

So sign up and get your free Screen Fast Survival Guide. And after you complete your fast, tell us about it on Facebook, Instagram or right here on the blog. You can even send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com. Let us know how hard it was to give up screens, what you feel you received in return … and whether you ever resorted to watching a coffee maker make coffee.