Surviving the Digital Apocalypse - Notre Dame Class Goes Light

May 2025

This is a guest contribution to the Light Phone blog.

Brett Robinson

University of Notre Dame

Last fall, I taught a course at Notre Dame called “Surviving the Digital Apocalypse.” Most of the students said they signed up for the class because the title sounded “interesting” but they didn’t really know what to expect. I explained to them that ‘apocalypse’ comes from a Greek word that means unveiling or a revelation. So the goal of the class was to discover what was being unveiled in the digital age. How is it reshaping how we see the world, nature, and ourselves?

It’s not really news to anyone, especially parents and teachers, that young people are suffering the most from the negative effects of smartphone use. Social psychologists like Jonathan Haidt and Jean Twenge have documented the skyrocketing rates of anxiety and depression among screen-addled kids. But it’s not enough to simply ban phones or condemn technology. There has to be a via media - or middle road - for negotiating such a fraught and complex moment.

In order to find a sense of balance in a virtual world that can feel like a hall of mirrors, you have to step outside of the funhouse for a moment and regain your senses. The students and I spent the first week of the class outside by the lakes that form the northern boundary of the Notre Dame campus. We hiked the nearby trails with two local ecologists, Fr. Terry Ehrman and Sr. Damien Marie Savino, who “unveiled” to us the elegant network of intricate biological relationships that keep nature in balance. We soaked in the sun and the smells of the early autumn plants and we delighted in the play of birds on the shining water.

After witnessing what balance looks like in nature, we applied the same thinking to ourselves. What kinds of relationships do humans need to find balance and flourish? First, we need meaningful relationships with others. We can simulate conversations and such online but we can only live out our relationships in person. Without the act of being present to someone, especially when that person is struggling, the relationship loses something. In the same way that looking at a picture of a lake is not the same as being there, when all of our senses are engaged, we are more fully ourselves.

We also need relationships with people, living and dead, who have written things that are meaningful to us. Poetry, short stories, philosophy, and theology made up the bulk of our syllabus as we read our way through a series of reflections on what it means to be human in a technological age. Those deeper conversations allowed the students to share their vulnerabilities and worries as well as their hopes and creative ideas for the future.

Finally, we addressed the impact of smartphones on our interior life. We decided to take a pledge to go without smartphones for at least a week and to use a Light phone instead. We promised to share with one another how our habits and perceptions changed as a result. Some students extended the experiment for several additional weeks and reported even more mental and spiritual benefits. All of the students reported some form of psychological or spiritual healing and relief while they used the Light phone. For those that went back to their smartphones, they found it easier to limit their screen time and remain focused on life-giving activities like reading, exercise and time with their friends.

The video below shows how the students discovered a new equilibrium that helped them flourish in new and surprising ways.

"Surviving the Digital Apocalypse" from The Light Phone on Vimeo

Playing in picture-in-picture

Video by Grass Roots Media