I can vividly remember going downstairs in our home, logging in to some brick of a Macintosh computer, entering the year 2000 and waiting to see what would happen. Would the power stations fail? Electricity shut down? Data crumble in disarray with the odd “00” number sequence? Sigh, no worries, enjoy the new year. Twenty years have passed since that day…
Looking at some research, teens today spend an average of 7 hours and 22 minutes on their phones daily. When I do the math, the amount of time a teen spends on their phone from age 14 to age 21, will exceed the total amount of time I’ve spent on activities with my church my entire life, as I approach 50 years old (services, small groups, volunteering, trips, etc.). That’s a bit sobering. There is considerable research on the impact of our phones on our brains. I love technology, but the world is changing fast and it is hard for our brains to keep up.
Additionally, the technology and marketing platforms built into these great apps we use, are designed to give us more of “us”. It is similar to a pencil going back and forth on a piece of paper and digging in a dark groove. We are marketed more of what we want, based on our clicks.
On the surface, I could love this! Why worry about 31 other NFL teams when the technology knows I’m simply a Dallas Cowboys fan. Get the rest of that news out of my feed… that’s right. However, it doesn’t stop there. It’s also determining if we’re right leaning or left leaning politically, monitoring every click and attention signal we give. It narrows our world to... Us. And we wonder why we’re more divided? We are given less opportunities to hear another point of view, to engage with a broad set of content and ideas, or to explore new things. Our world gets smaller, easier, and more efficient - but divided from those who distract us from us.
For faith and the Church, a few thoughts...
We are being told, “you do you” while the Bible would suggest we are to die to ourselves as we love and serve others.
The information now available forces the Church to “up its game” and tell us why Jesus matters, how it will impact your life, and why you should care. A YouTube video of a leading atheist speaking at Notre Dame, works to dismantle Christianity in about 7 minutes and has several million views. Contrarian to the Christian worldview, it challenges the Church to stop with the cliche’ answers and to engage in these conversations.
The Bible suggests our image is in Christ. However, technology is putting “image” in overdrive with selfie, like, and follower generation.
If we hope to have relevance and to be in the conversation, we can’t run the same plays. We need to consider what is impacting the culture and mission around us.
A lot has happened these past 20 years, how are you responding?