The average person spends 11 hours per day watching, reading, listening to, or simply interacting with media.  

• On average we consume (send + read) 128 text messages per day, which works out to about 3,850 per month
  
• 15.2 million text messages are sent per minute worldwide
• The average person spends 2.25 hours per day on social media
  
• 500 million tweets are sent per day which is 6,000 per second
  
• 95 million photos are uploaded to Instagram per day
  
• 3 billion snaps are sent and 400 million stories are created on Snapchat every day.  20,000 photos are shared every second
  
• Every day 5 billion videos are watched on YouTube with 400 hours of content being uploaded every second
  
• Almost 25% of the world is on Facebook (2.01 billion) and the average user visits the site 8 times every day
  

Like a wild fire that consumes everything in its path, media and social media have consumed almost every aspect of our lives.  While they have brought countless awe inspiring benefits to our lives and our culture, they have also flooded our lives with a deafening noise that can hinder us in our pursuit of intimacy with Jesus.  The Media Fast is an opportunity for you to mute the noise so that you can connect with Jesus, family and friends in a deeper way.

CREATING YOUR MEDIA FAST PLAN

Stepping away from social media and turning the TV off will likely be difficult at first, so it's important to develop a plan for how you are going to invest your new found time.  Here are a few ideas to get you started...

Choose what media you are going to fast from

• Note: a media fast is from media outside of what is necessary for work and school
  
• Fast from all social media
  
• Fast from TV & Movies
  
• Fast from computer time - outside of work & school
  
• Fast from a combination of the above or all of the above
  

Strengthening relationships with family and friends

• Have a weekly game night
  
• Go on some adventures - have each person in your family or group of friends choose a place they want to go, and then schedule a day to do each one
  
• Make the most of mealtime - pick some conversation themes or topics to help you get to know each other better or to simply bring some laughter to the dinner table
  

Growing in the discipline of prayer

• Every time you feel that urge to jump on social media, stop and pray for a family member or friend
  
• Spend the time it takes to watch your favorite show in prayer
  
• Use some of your TV or Internet time to read a book on prayer
  

Getting to know Jesus more intimately

• Spend your evening TV time digging in to God's Word and talking with Him in prayer
  
• In place of some of your evening TV time, go to bed early so you can get up early and start your day with time in God's Word and prayer
  
• Use your afternoon social media time to work on memorizing a section of scripture
  
• In place of your daily tweets and posts, pull out a pen and write in a journal the things you are thankful for, who God is to you, questions you have for God, or things you desire to see God do in your life.