Book Review: 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
I picked up this book early this year as I was getting involved in Student Ministry at my church in Atlanta - and a lot of conversations among us leaders revolved around the impact of cell phone usage with our students... and quite honestly with us. I expected to be a little convicted, because I am engaged on social media, but not to the extent that I was.
Tony Reinke (look him up - this is a smart dude) is a writer at Desiring God and John Piper put together the forward. Uniqely - Reinke combines a theological rigor with the normal statistical "phones are screwing us up" research out there, and uniquely in my mind delivers the "so what" when it comes to the most important thing in our lives, namely our connection with Jesus Christ.
He doesn't approach this topic as one outside of social media, but as one who is a digital native that understands the benefits of technology and the dangers that our "glowing rectangles" that demand our attention have. I gave up most social media for Lent as a result, and my wife told me that she could tell the positive difference that being disengaged from "the book" had on me. I'm probably ready again for another social media detox soon. The writer, in the last chapter, says that he regularly takes two-week detoxes from social media to keep it from consuming him. I really think that approach is wise.
Ironically, I did post on Facebook a couple of times about this book. Social media, used wisely (obviously Tony Reinke and John Piper are both active on social media, so don't think of this as a "technology is evil" book - but as a "use wisdom with technology" book). Here are a couple of posts:
https://www.facebook.com/chriswillis96/posts/10161372089055082
https://www.facebook.com/chriswillis96/posts/10161380872720082
All of the 12 ways really spoke to me in some way... the isolation, the getting comfortable with secret vices, the craving for immediate approval, the addition to distraction... being some of the most poignant ones. However, the ones that really spoke the loudest was around this idea of "feeding on the produced" versus digging deep into the real world that God has given us... even our tendency as Christians to "feed on the produced" when it comes to how we feed ourselves spiritually - through pithy quotes on Twitter, glossy inspirational Bible verses that don't contain much context, and following only authors and thought leaders that largely agree with me. There is a danger in that, because both the world we live in and the depth of the scripture that the Holy Spirit breathed can't really be contained in inspirational quotes and cute Gifs (however you pronounce them). We need to "feast on the Word" and this typically comes at the expense of the overly produced Christian memes, and instead leads us into the pages of the God-breathed Scriptures to let God speak to us.
But there are more good things in there, and I would definitely encourage you to pick up this book, and perhaps like me after reading it develop a plan to keep social media from owning you. It is a tool that can be (and is) used for God's glory, but like with any tool we need to understand when the tool is using us and when we are using the tool. For me, that regular social media fast is one of those things. But that may not be for you - you need to wrestle with God on that issue yourself.
Tony Reinke (look him up - this is a smart dude) is a writer at Desiring God and John Piper put together the forward. Uniqely - Reinke combines a theological rigor with the normal statistical "phones are screwing us up" research out there, and uniquely in my mind delivers the "so what" when it comes to the most important thing in our lives, namely our connection with Jesus Christ.
He doesn't approach this topic as one outside of social media, but as one who is a digital native that understands the benefits of technology and the dangers that our "glowing rectangles" that demand our attention have. I gave up most social media for Lent as a result, and my wife told me that she could tell the positive difference that being disengaged from "the book" had on me. I'm probably ready again for another social media detox soon. The writer, in the last chapter, says that he regularly takes two-week detoxes from social media to keep it from consuming him. I really think that approach is wise.
Ironically, I did post on Facebook a couple of times about this book. Social media, used wisely (obviously Tony Reinke and John Piper are both active on social media, so don't think of this as a "technology is evil" book - but as a "use wisdom with technology" book). Here are a couple of posts:
https://www.facebook.com/chriswillis96/posts/10161372089055082
https://www.facebook.com/chriswillis96/posts/10161380872720082
All of the 12 ways really spoke to me in some way... the isolation, the getting comfortable with secret vices, the craving for immediate approval, the addition to distraction... being some of the most poignant ones. However, the ones that really spoke the loudest was around this idea of "feeding on the produced" versus digging deep into the real world that God has given us... even our tendency as Christians to "feed on the produced" when it comes to how we feed ourselves spiritually - through pithy quotes on Twitter, glossy inspirational Bible verses that don't contain much context, and following only authors and thought leaders that largely agree with me. There is a danger in that, because both the world we live in and the depth of the scripture that the Holy Spirit breathed can't really be contained in inspirational quotes and cute Gifs (however you pronounce them). We need to "feast on the Word" and this typically comes at the expense of the overly produced Christian memes, and instead leads us into the pages of the God-breathed Scriptures to let God speak to us.
But there are more good things in there, and I would definitely encourage you to pick up this book, and perhaps like me after reading it develop a plan to keep social media from owning you. It is a tool that can be (and is) used for God's glory, but like with any tool we need to understand when the tool is using us and when we are using the tool. For me, that regular social media fast is one of those things. But that may not be for you - you need to wrestle with God on that issue yourself.
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