Liberty University Students Unplug: Campuswide Digital Rest Aims to Curb Anxiety and Rebuild Real-World Bonds

Why this matters now: liberty university students are the primary test case for a campus experiment in reclaiming attention — a monthlong Digital Rest designed to swap scrolling for prayer, conversation and focused study. The program asks students to step away from social media, entertainment and online shopping for the month of February, pairing spiritual prompts with practical tools meant to blunt the daily pull of smartphones.

Who feels the impact first: Liberty University students and residence life

Students across campus are the immediate focus. The second annual Digital Rest frames the break as a spiritual discipline rather than an anti-technology stance, encouraging participants to remove nonessential apps and disconnect from social feeds. Campus leaders packaged scripture readings, devotionals and guided reflection prompts in a digital rest guide called "Lookup" to help students replace screen time with intentional spiritual and relational practices.

Here's the part that matters for day-to-day campus life: the university has supplied 300 smartphone blockers known as Bricks, placed in every residence hall for student use. Those devices block social access on phones while leaving a small set of utilities available — students report the blocked mode still allows weather, calendar, clock and a Bible app. For students who struggle with habitual checking, the physical and software constraints are meant to be a simple, nightly reset.

What's easy to miss is how the campaign pairs behavioral nudges with spiritual framing; the guide and the Bricks aim to make abstaining portable and repeatable rather than a one-off pledge.

How the initiative is structured and what students are doing

• Duration: a full month in February, presented as a closed period of intentional unplugging.
• Scope: students asked to disconnect from social media, entertainment and online shopping; many also delete nonessential apps.
• Resources: a "Lookup" guide with scripture readings, devotionals and reflection prompts for prayer and community engagement.
• Tools: 300 Bricks placed in residence halls that block social platforms while permitting a few essential apps.

Student reaction has been mixed but notable: some discovered how often they automatically reached for apps, while others said the pause improved face-to-face conversations. Campus spiritual leadership described the effort as an intervention against phone-driven anxiety and a way to encourage students to reclaim their attention without rejecting technology outright.

The Barna Group research cited in this context underscores the initiative’s rationale: a sizable share of Gen Z report frequent uncertainty and anxiety about decisions, and a large majority believe their generation spends excessive time online. Program leaders have tied those trends to the need for renewed habits that prioritize controlled tech use.

Micro timeline (verifiable from current program details):

• Program labeled the second annual Digital Rest.
• Runs for the month of February.
• Campus deployed 300 Bricks to residence halls to support the effort.

The real question now is whether a monthlong pause will produce durable changes in attention, anxiety and spiritual practices. Early indicators on campus — more intentional conversations and decreased habitual phone-checking among participants — suggest immediate behavioral shifts, but longer-term effects remain to be seen.

For students weighing participation: small practical steps used in the program are replicable off campus — deleting nonessential apps, using blocking tools, and pairing tech limits with purposeful activities like guided devotionals and community time. These tactics aim to make the initiative both achievable and applicable beyond the campaign window.

Editorial aside: The bigger signal here is how combining physical tools with spiritual and reflective guidance creates a clearer pathway for habit change than exhortation alone.