In today’s day and age, it feels like five minutes don’t pass without hearing the familiar ding of a text or the classic iPhone ringtone jingle we’ve all come to know well. Technology is embedded into the way society today runs, with online communication, search engines and mobile tools being essential to the 7.9 billion individuals who depend on mobile devices daily. Like everything else we have access to, phones and technology can either be used in a healthy, productive way, or in a harmful manner that’s damaging our daily productivity. Technology overuse is one of the biggest challenges teenagers experience today, although some teens may not see it as an issue at all.

We recently began the month of Elul, which means Rosh Hashanah is right around the corner. The Talmud refers to Elul as “days of favor,” a time when it’s easier to access Hashem’s forgiveness, change our bad habits and renew ourselves. It was the first day of Elul when Moshe ascended Har Sinai to receive the second set of luchot, tablets, and was able to obtain forgiveness from Hashem after the Chait Ha’agel, the sin of the Golden Calf. He returned from the mountain 40 days later on Yom Kippur. In modern times we observe these 40 days, from the first of Elul to Yom Kippur, as a season of teshuva, repentance, called Yemei Ratzon, a time to reflect on ourselves in the past year, what we want to change about our habits, and how we should move forward. Some have compared these 40 days to the 40 weeks it takes for the human fetus to be formed because Teshuvah is in some sense a rebirth. Now is the perfect time to make changes in our lives and alter our negative habits.

In recent years “30-day challenges” have sprung up all over social media, where an individual will commit to a goal and stick to it for 30 days. Whether it’s something extreme like not consuming sugar for 30 days or something easy and simple like complimenting a stranger every day, these challenges are designed to bring positivity and productivity to your day. Many say that 30 days is just the right amount of time to commit to a new task or change and curb a habit, because we are more likely to live up to our resolution if we commit to it for 30 days.

So the countdown to Yom Kippur is the perfect time to make a change in your life. Take inspiration from this time of teshuva and vow to make changes for yourself. As I said before, technology is the way our world runs; we need to communicate with each other and tend to other needs on our devices, but it’s during those downtimes when you have a choice to either scroll through Instagram or complete that task that you’ve been meaning to do. Try a 30-day Elul challenge and commit to it; here are some examples of how to reduce technology in your life:

• Put your phone away while eating dinner or when with your friends.
• Don’t check your phone during Mincha or class.
• Set app limits on your phone to grant you an hour free of screen time per day.

This Elul let’s all be inspired to make changes to our daily lives, one fewer social media post at a time.

Mordy Barnett is an eleventh grader at The Idea School, a Modern Orthodox, project-based learning high school in Tenafly, New Jersey.