John O'Keefe, writing in This Ignatian Life about going on retreat:

Before I left, I turned off all my email and vowed not to check it for 7 days, even though my retreat was only 3 days. The retreat place had almost no cell service, so I was unplugged there is well. It actually felt fantastic to disconnect. I am one of those people who is perpetually plugged in, almost obsessive about checking my email when I see the little numbers ticking up on the inbox icon on my iPhone. Not this week. I walked into the retreat center and started a technology fast along with this long-delayed encounter with silence.

I have to say, it was fantastic for me. I pray regularly, so I do make space for silence in my daily life, but there is no substitute for serious silence and for time dedicated to prayer. A retreat is time for focused discernment and for clearing a space for the spirit of God to work it’s way to the forefront of our attention. For this we need time, we need rest, and we need silence….

I never did turn back on the automatic fetch feature on my iPhone. One of the fruits of silence was the clear message that I don’t need to be controlled by the tyrannical upticks of email counts on my mobile devices. God is good.