BLANK screens. Cellphones on the fritz. Wii games sitting dormant in darkened rec rooms. For a swath of teenagers and preteens on the East Coast, the power failures that followed Hurricane Sandy last month represented the first time in their young lives that they were totally off the grid, without the ability to text, play Minecraft, video-chat, check Facebook, or send updates to Twitter.

If they wanted to talk to a friend, they had to do it in person. If their first post-storm instincts were to check a weather app, they resigned themselves to battery-run radios.

As the full scope of the storms damage became obvious, it was clear these inconveniences were hardly grave. And because most children, and adults, eventually found some kind of connection via an unaffected neighbor (or Starbucks), the withdrawal was often more of a tech diet than a total fast.

But the storm provided a rare glimpse of a life lived offline. It drove some children crazy, while others managed to embrace the experience of a digital slowdown. It also produced some unexpected ammunition for parents already eager to curb the digital obsessions of their children.

Early this year, when Michelle Obama revealed rather draconian rules about technology for her daughters (no TV, cellphones or computers during the week except for homework), Pam Abel Davis of South Orange, N.J., used the news to threaten her tech-addled children with Obama-esque regulations. My son in first grade signed a pledge for TV turnoff during the week to win a gold medal, said Ms. Davis, a senior program officer at the Robin Hood Foundation. But it was too much. He said, Mom, lets just go for the silver.

The storm hit Ms. Daviss neighborhood hard but spared her home, which became a charging station for friends of her daughter, Lucy Reynal, 13. Then last Sunday, electricity was shut off while fallen trees were cleared from the road, and within minutes the house emptied out, no longer useful to the teenage power vultures.

Lucy almost had a heart attack when the Wi-Fi went down, until she saw pictures of the devastation all around us, Ms. Davis said. I had just bought a hand-cranked phone charger, thinking it would be a kitschy Hanukkah gift. We were winding it ferociously, sweating and running out of breath.

Hegemony over the car adapter that provided precious power resembled a scene from Lord of the Flies, according to Gail Horwood of Scarsdale, N.Y., an executive at a consumer health care company. Bridget, 15, and Lila, 11, unearthed every ancient defunct flip phone in the familys past and tried to arrange sleepovers where they could recharge. There was a throwback moment: Lila had to study for a test of state capitals, so as the lights were flickering just before the blackout, she found a childhood jigsaw puzzle of the United States. But any resourceful return to old-school methods were not expected to last.

Not a chance, Ms. Horwood said. Its a digital world, and they live in it.

The Zanders of South Salem, N.Y., experienced a blackout last year, so were getting good at the 1800s in our house, said Lauren Handel Zander, who runs an executive life-coaching company. Her three children live for Mommys iPad, she said, likening the first days of the blackout to rehab. Its like coming off drugs, she said. Theres a 48-hour withdrawal until theyre not asking about the TV every other minute.

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Hurricane Sandy Reveals a Life Unplugged