Health
Slashing screen time for mental health: Carlos Whittaker shares his unplugged journey
Ironically, it was a notification on his phone that prompted author and podcaster Carlos Whittaker to embark on a seven-week screen-free journey that would change his life.
Whittaker, who lives in Nashville on a “suburban farm” with his wife, three children and dog, knew he used his phone a lot, but didn’t consider it a problem until he sat down and did the math.
After getting an alert that he had averaged seven hours and 23 minutes of daily phone time that particular week, Whittaker realized that if he lived to be 85, he would spend more than a decade of his remaining life on the device.
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In the summer of 2022, Whittaker embarked on a seven-week journey across the United States, navigating his life without the use of any screens.
He documented the mission in his latest book, “Reconnected: How Seven Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human,” which was published on Sept. 10.
Carlos Whittaker, pictured, lived without screens for seven weeks in 2022 in an experience he described as life-changing. (Carlos Whittaker)
“That’s exactly what I did,” Whittaker told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview. “I lived with these monks and the Amish, and it absolutely changed my life.”
The author spent two weeks at a monastery, two weeks with the Amish and three weeks with his family, living entirely without screens.
“I lived with these monks and the Amish, and it absolutely changed my life.”
Before and after the experiment, Whittaker’s brain was scanned and analyzed by neurologists – and he details those results in his book.
Whittaker, who described himself as an evangelical Christian, was connected to St. Andrew’s Abbey – a Catholic, Benedictine monastery in California – which allowed him to stay in a guest cabin for the first part of his journey.
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Digital detox
Whittaker almost quit the experiment at the very beginning.
“When you can’t get out of your head by picking up your phone and scrolling TikTok or X or whatever it is, and you’re stuck in your own thoughts – that’s something we’re not used to, and I definitely wasn’t used to it,” he said.
This sudden digital detox led to “four days of panic,” he said, as he experienced “panic attacks, night sweats, heart palpitations [and] jitters.”
Whittaker said he nearly quit his experiment right as it began, finding the sudden lack of a smartphone to be physically taxing. (iStock; Carlos Whittaker)
Not having his phone felt like “coming off the drug of knowledge and the drug of control,” Whittaker said.
But on day five of the experiment, something changed.
“It literally felt like an elephant stepped off my chest and I could breathe again,” he said. “And I got it. But those first four days were the crazy days.”
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In the book, Whittaker writes about how he initially felt uncomfortable living among Benedictine monks and found their prayer routine to be “boring.” (Benedictine monks pray the Liturgy of the Hours, a daily prayer, at different times throughout the day.)
“I’ll be blatantly honest, the first two days, I was bored out of my mind,” he said. “We were praying five or six times a day.”
“When you lower the volume of life, the volume of God goes up.”
But eventually, he said, “I got it,” adding that he has kept up the practice of praying the Liturgy of the Hours even after leaving the monastery.
“I missed it so much. It created a rhythm in my day,” he said. “It gave some stability to some parts of my faith that maybe were unstable.”
Whittaker lived among the Benedictine monks at St. Andrew’s Abbey in California for two weeks, joining them for daily prayer and Mass. (Bryan Chan/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“What I learned from the monks is that every day, I had multiple opportunities to lower the volume of life and slow down — and when you lower the volume of life, the volume of God goes up,” he said.
After his time at the monastery, Whittaker moved to the Midwest and lived for two weeks with an Amish family. (The Amish are a religious group that eschews most modern technology.)
Getting permission to live among the Amish, however, was more challenging. Whittaker was rejected by many people he contacted, as they were wary of an outsider temporarily joining their community.
Whittaker spent two weeks living with an Amish family as part of his screen-free experiment. (iStock)
“We finally ended up with a sheep-farming family that was like, ‘Absolutely, come on in,’” he said. “And they helped me become as Amish as I could in 14 days.”
Throughout his seven screen-free weeks, Whittaker journaled and recorded videos each night on a small, screen-free camera.
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Those videos will be compiled into a documentary, also called “Reconnected,” that will be released on Oct. 25, he said.
New habits
While Whittaker has largely returned to life as it was before his experiment – including the use of a smartphone – he has made changes that he says have improved his life.
“This book isn’t about how bad phones are. This book is about how beautiful it is on the other side of the phone,” he told Fox News Digital.
“This book isn’t about how bad phones are. This book is about how beautiful it is on the other side of the phone.”
“Instead of setting up all these rules and restrictions for my screen time, once I fell in love with wondering, with noticing, with savoring, with 90-minute meals – with all of these things I was doing without my phone, I just picked up my phone less.”
Today, Whittaker uses his phone about 3-½ hours a day, four hours less than before the experiment.
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“I’ve legitimately added half of my life back, half of the years back that I was losing before.”
4 tips to cut down on screen time
Whittaker offered a few tips for those who want to limit their daily screen time.
1. Charge your phone outside the bedroom
“The first thing everyone needs to do is stop charging your phone in the bedroom and start charging it in another room,” he said.
“Buy an alarm clock. I know it’s the craziest, most old-fashioned thing, but all it’s going to do is wake you up.”
One of Whittaker’s suggestions to cut down on screen time is to buy an alarm clock. (iStock)
2. Don’t pick up your phone right away
People should avoid looking at their phones for “at least 30 minutes in the morning,” Whittaker suggested.
“Just drink your coffee. When you’re just drinking the coffee, [it] tastes so much better. You get to savor it,” he said.
3. Subscribe to print media
Whittaker subscribes to a newspaper rather than relying on the constant buzz of a smartphone app.
4. Use the ‘do not disturb’ feature
“I’ve actually placed my smartphone in permanent ‘do not disturb,’ so I never get a ‘ding,’” he told Fox News Digital.
Whittaker said his smartphone is permanently on “do not disturb” for everyone except his family and his assistant. (iStock)
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Whittaker has set up his phone so that only his assistant and family can immediately reach him.
“I never get a buzz. I never get a notification,” he said.
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Bryan Johnson, a biohacker and longevity guru who has claimed “we may be the first generation who won’t die,” revealed he has an autoimmune condition causing his stomach to “eat itself.”
The Los Angeles-based tech entrepreneur, 48, has previously shared publicly that he is hoping to live until the year 2140, when he would in theory be 160 years old.
Now, Johnson says he has been diagnosed with autoimmune gastritis (AIG), a chronic autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the stomach’s acid-producing parietal cells, reducing stomach acid and impairing vitamin B12 absorption, according to Nature Reviews Disease Primers.
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“My stomach is eating itself,” he wrote in an Instagram post. Johnson also shared that anywhere from 2% to 5% of people likely have this disease.
“I’m going to try to solve it,” Johnson went on. “Will share all.”
Bryan Johnson, a biohacker and longevity guru who has claimed “we may be the first generation who won’t die,” revealed he has an autoimmune condition causing his stomach to “eat itself.” (Getty Images)
The biohacker shared that as a child, he ate sugary cereal, drank sugary soda and “gobbled down fast food.”
“I became a young father of three and began building a business,” Johnson went on. “Juggling that stress and grind, I let my health slip and gained 40 lbs. Within a few years I’d fallen into a deep, chronic depression.”
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“Somewhere in that timeline, my body began developing an autoimmune process affecting my thyroid and then my stomach lining,” he added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Johnson for comment.
AIG can remain hidden and can be challenging to diagnose, Johnson noted, often surfacing years after damage has already occurred to the stomach. It can cause iron deficiency, B12 deficiency and anemia, and can also increase the risk of stomach cancer, the expert warned.
“Low iron stores get normalized and rarely investigated at all when anemia hasn’t shown up yet,” Johnson wrote. “That blind spot is what hid mine for a decade.”
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He also shared that for 11 years, he has had low levels of ferritin, a protein that stores iron inside the body’s cells. Ferritin releases iron when the body needs it, supports muscle function and carries out other essential processes.
“We continually tried to raise my iron levels with food and supplementation, but nothing would work,” he said.
The Los Angeles-based tech entrepreneur, 48, has previously shared publicly that he is hoping to live until the year 2140. (Getty Images)
Johnson acknowledged that some common biohacking techniques — including hard training, sauna and hyperbaric oxygen — all raise the body’s demand for iron.
“But none of them explained the core failure: Despite me taking iron orally, trailing every formulation and using every timing trick, none of the iron would stick.”
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Johnson underwent a colonoscopy and upper endoscopy, which examined his entire intestinal tract. Five biopsies were also taken from his stomach, which found “clear signs of early autoimmune gastritis: early atrophy confined to the acid-producing lining.”
In January 2026, the biohacker stated in a post on his website that “by 2039, my goal is immortality.”
“In the age of AI, multiomics, and custom-built DNA, proteins and cells, no condition should be presumed incurable simply because no one has yet tried to cure it with today’s stack,” Johnson said in his post. (Getty Images)
He detailed his strategy for defying aging, which includes embracing a strict regimen to slow or stop biological aging, using AI to accelerate longevity research, testing new treatments in lab-grown cells and organs, and reaching “longevity escape velocity” — in which medical advances would eventually extend lifespan faster than he ages.
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“I may fail at this task, but my team and I will try our best,” he wrote at the time.
There is currently no cure for AIG, which Johnson said he wants to change.
Johnson acknowledged that some common biohacking techniques — including hard training, sauna and hyperbaric oxygen — all raise the body’s demand for iron. (iStock)
“In the age of AI, multiomics, and custom-built DNA, proteins and cells, no condition should be presumed incurable simply because no one has yet tried to cure it with today’s stack.”
Johnson ended his post by urging others to prioritize their health.
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“Care for yourself, care for others, care for the planet and care for our animal friends. Care for life, as it’s the most precious gift there is.”
The longevity guru also shared an image showing the detailed findings of his five stomach biopsies.
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At 93, sprightly referee Frank Foster is still brandishing red and yellow cards and running the field three times a week for his local soccer association.
Having taken charge of around 5,500 matches over a 46-year officiating career, the great-grandfather credits his longevity and match-day stamina to a lifetime of healthy habits and a foundational diet, news agency SWNS reported.
Foster puts his remarkable fitness down to the strict wartime rations he was fed as a teenager, noting that it ensured he grew up eating “healthy food” rather than “sweets and cakes.”
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Decades later, his game-day preparation is still fueled by wholesome nutrition, always starting with a morning bowl of oatmeal, cereal or marmalade on toast to give him the energy to last the full 90 minutes.
The meal keeps him active enough to referee men’s, women’s and children’s games, a hobby he jokes he will never blow the final whistle on.
Frank Foster started refereeing in 1980. Today, he still officiates men’s, women’s and children’s games around three times a week. (SWNS)
His sharp mind and authoritative presence on the field are just as strong as his physical endurance.
A military veteran who aced his referee exam in 1980 with a 98% score, Foster relies on old-school discipline to keep matches under control, SWNS reported.
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He believes modern elite officials are too “soft” and allow player antics to ruin the sport. To maintain order and keep players from acting out, he lays down strict ground rules before kickoff. He has no patience for intimidation or theatrical diving. “Those who go down like they have been shot, well, I would just book them,” he said.
He is equally uncompromising when squads try to crowd him on the field.
Frank Foster is pictured before he became a referee. (Frank Foster/SWNS)
“I wouldn’t let them surround me at all,” Foster told SWNS.
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“I would say to the players, ‘Stay where you are,’ and ‘If you move one more inch, I will give you a yellow card.’ You need to stamp your authority and let them know who is in control.”
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He also avoids the modern stress of video-reviewing plays, which he believes creates unnecessary “aggression and disappointment” over microscopic offside calls, adding, “I think it spoils the game.”
Foster credits his longevity to wartime rations, adding that he avoided sweets. (SWNS)
“Sometimes it is only the player’s toe that is offside — it is ridiculous.”
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Foster says he “never thought” he’d still be doing this at age 93, but he makes the most of that gift.
He keeps his kit freshly washed, making sure it is “neat and tidy” for when he gets on that field.
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Foster, of South Yorkshire, England, also scrubs his black Adidas boots after every game, making sure they are “nice and clean” for his next match.
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Summer fun in the sun is being taken to a new extreme.
“Tanmaxxing” is a social media trend that involves maximizing sun exposure and tanning the skin more intensely.
Popular among Gen Z, the practice combines time spent in direct sunlight with a variety of tanning products like oils, bronzers and gels.
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Creators on social media are showing off their dramatic tan lines and outdoor set-ups — some even forgoing sun protection or adding tanning bed sessions.
“Tanmaxxing” is trending on social media as a way of maximizing sun exposure. (iStock)
While spending time outdoors can help boost mood, support the body’s production of vitamin D and reduce screen time, dermatologists warn that excessive sun exposure — especially as promoted by the tanmaxxing trend — can be dangerous.
New York-based board-certified dermatologist Dr. Michael Tassavor, MD, emphasized that there is “no such thing as a safe, natural tan.”
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“Tanning is damage,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “Tanfluencers sell a deep tan as a ‘wellness upgrade,’ but a tan isn’t a glow-up — it’s your skin’s visible distress signal that DNA damage has already happened.”
“As a skin cancer specialist, I’ve taken care of thousands of skin cancers on patients who ‘tanmaxxed’ before it had a name. Most regret it.”
Using a tanning bed before 35 years old can raise melanoma risk by about 75%, an expert warned. (iStock)
The World Health Organization classifies UV radiation and tanning beds as Group 1 carcinogens, which is the same category as tobacco and asbestos.
Using a tanning bed before age 35 can raise melanoma risk by about 75%, Tassavor noted.
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“The damage compounds silently and shows up years later, once the easy window to intervene has closed,” he said.
According to Tassavor, two common beliefs behind tanmaxxing are false: Skipping sunscreen does not produce a “better” tan, and a base tan does not protect the skin from future sunburns.
“Most of your vitamin D can come from diet and supplements, and your skin is efficient enough to top up what it needs from ordinary incidental exposure,” a dermatologist said. (iStock)
Sunlight “isn’t the enemy,” the dermatologist noted, but there’s no need to chase it.
“Most of your vitamin D can come from diet and supplements, and your skin is efficient enough to [get] what it needs from ordinary incidental exposure,” he said.
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“Vitamin D matters for bone density, and sun does give some people a genuine mood lift, but there’s no evidence that anyone has to go out of their way to sunbathe for it, and no evidence that diligent sunscreen use harms bone health.”
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To safely expose yourself to the sun, Tassavor recommends using SPF 30 sunscreen and reapplying every two hours. Tanning beds should be avoided “entirely,” he cautioned, because there is “no safe dose” of UV exposure and using them accelerates skin aging.
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