A Week Without Screens

📓 Ben’s No-Screen Diary

🗓️ MONDAY: Day one. I woke up and reached for my phone. It wasn’t there — Mum had locked it in her drawer. I felt like a fish without water. I didn’t know what to do with my hands.
🗓️ TUESDAY: Very bored. I tidied my room. That’s how bored I was. I found three pounds and a sock I lost in Year 5.
🗓️ WEDNESDAY: I went to the library after school. Mrs Hill gave me a book about a boy who is shipwrecked on an island. His ship sinks in a storm, and he swims to the beach with nothing. I read 100 pages without stopping.
🗓️ THURSDAY: Something strange happened. On the way home, I noticed things I had never seen before: a blue door on Harbour Street, a cat that sleeps on the post office roof, an old man who whistles to the seagulls. I usually walk with my head down, looking at my phone.
🗓️ FRIDAY: I was fidgety all evening. I couldn’t sit still — my legs kept moving and I kept picking things up. Dad said, “Go outside!” So I went to the park and played football with Max until it was dark.
🗓️ SATURDAY and SUNDAY: Easier. I finished the shipwreck book and started another one.
🗓️ RESULT: I got my phone back on Monday. My screen time before the challenge was five hours a day. Now it’s two. Checking my phone was just a habit, like biting my nails. I still love games. But I’ll never tell Ms Green she was right.