After I published Unplugged and Unplugged 2.0, I chanced upon numerous references to the topics of smartphone, digital fasting, and the Sabbath.
So now I’m sharing what else I’ve learned.
Voila!
Unplugged 3.0
‘Sabbath is a time to transition from human doings to human beings.’
Matthew Sleeth in 24/6: A Prescription for a Healthier, Happier Life
Techno (or NoTech?) Sabbath
The first link I noticed was close to home.
“God Killed Your Cell Phone”
My pastor, Matthew Vander Els of Founded In Truth Fellowship, illustrated his sermon The Sabbath and Jesus with the story of the failure of his smart phone during his vacation and the resulting forced “sabbath.” (see about 9:20 for the story)
He finished his story and asks, as if we were asking him, “Matt, what does this have to do with anything?”
His reply:
It has to do with knowing when we have created idols out of acquiring and chasing things. Things that exist in space around us. And not valuing or keeping sacred the moments of time, the moments of time that in and of themselves contain eternity.
Tech Shabbat
Another article I saw was by Washington Post reporter, Emily McFarlan Miller, about Tiffany Shlain:
“How Taking A Break From Tech For Shabbat Brought New Purpose To This Internet Pioneer’s Life.”
Tiffany Shlain is the creator of the Webby Awards honoring the best of the internet.
Shlain, who identifies as a cultural Jew, gathers friends and family for dinner on Friday evening. Then she, her husband and their two daughters unplug their devices for the next 24 hours.
Shlain has written, 24/6: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week, to explain her concept of “Tech Shabbat” and it’s benefits to mind, body, and soul.
Discussing her family’s decade-plus practice of a Tech Shabbat, she says
We’re just so much more with each other on our Tech Shabbat. … We’re laughing, we’re cooking, we’re around the table, and there’s not a screen in sight. Everyone’s present in a very different way when there’s no screens anywhere.
It also feels like it makes time slow down. I think technology is speeding up our sense of time. So I feel like we have this great device to press the pause button and just slow it all down. And what’s the one day you want to feel really long? It’s Saturday.
Digital Detox
I also found Tony Reinke, in the Crossway article, “6 Keys to a Rewarding Digital Detox,” who wrote:
A digital detox can help direct your gaze away from the digital media glowing on screens and recenter your life on what matters. … Like all fasting, a digital detox is a way we can disconnect from good things in order to reestablish love for the greatest thing. A digital fast can help us reaffirm that God himself is everything we need.
He promises:
As we sever from our screens, as we become more attentive to what is not on a screen, we become more attentive to where God calls us to focus our attention. And then we can get more sleep!
While social media may not be the ‘spawn of the devil,’ it definitely is not always benevolent.
It’s existence, it’s purpose, is not to “connect people.” Its raison d’etre is to make money for the stockholders. Tony Reinke quotes “marketing guru Seth Godin (intentionally not active on social media).”
“Social media wasn’t invented to make you better; it was invented for you to make the company money,” Godin once said. “In social media you become an employee of the company. You are the product they sell. And they put you in a little hamster wheel and throw treats in now and then …
The big companies of social media went from being profoundly important and useful public goods that created enormous value, to becoming public companies under pressure to make the stock price go up.”
Some Findings
Last year, Kevin De Young wrote “What I Learned on My Week Long Digital Fast” for The Gospel Coalition website.
De Young set down the ground rules for the digital fast for himself, his seminary students, and his family. Then he evaluated his fast. His conclusion:
So in the end, my takeaway from the digital fast is simple: less is more. We all know that, but few of us are willing to do it.
I’m convinced almost all of us would be happier, healthier, holier, and more productive if we checked email less, checked social media less, turned on the television less, went to the movies less, picked up our phones less.
This year, De Young wrote about limiting the negative effects of technology in “5 Ways to Ensure Our Souls Aren’t Strangled by Screens,” on the Crossway website.
I find #4 true, but difficult:
-
Make boundaries, and fight with all your might to protect them.
The simplest step to breaking the tyranny of the screen is also the hardest step: we can’t be connected all the time…
Most of us are long overdue for screen Sabbaths— segments of the day (even whole days) where we will not be “on the grid” or in front of an electronic device.
While I consider #5 is quite thought-provoking:
-
Bring your Christian theology to bear on these dangers of the digital age.
… Because of the doctrine of creation, we must affirm that man-made artifacts can be instruments for human flourishing and for the glory of God. So we do not dismiss new technologies out of hand.
But because we have a God who [is not limited by time], we will not be infatuated with the latest fads and trends.
And because of the incarnation, we understand there is no substitute for dwelling with physical people in a physical place. So we do not accept virtual encounters as adequate substitutes for flesh and blood relationships.
Meghan Posey, of CRU, in “Why I Had to Try A Digital Fast: 6 Ingredients That Will Help You Fast From Technology,” wrote of her conclusions:
God made me for relationships. I learned that I had a deep need to bond and form connections with other flesh-and-blood people. Not only did I want real relationships, I wanted them to go deeper. I wanted more meaningful conversations with the people in my life.
My Facebook fast uncovered my longing for God. My friend Sheri has a tattered Post-it note on her fridge with this C.S. Lewis quote: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.”
Digital fasting added relationship time to my life. I noticed I had more hours on my hands. Instead of reaching for my phone to see what people were up to, I used that extra time to catch up with them in person.
So why do our phones, the internet, and social media, so many times, so much of the time, consume us?
Seeking Fame (Or At Least, Notoriety)
TMI
Too Much Information
That’s what I see on the only social media I use, FaceBook.
I just recently “got on” FaceBook. Mainly to stay in touch with my church family.
So I haven’t “friended” many people yet.
But still, whoa, people, I did not need to see that! (And I wish I could un-see it!)
The whole purpose of social media, it seems to me, is to connect with as many people as possible, the more, the better.
So you may have hundreds of “friends,” thousands of “followers,” and no one to meet you for a meal, let alone someone who will help you when you get sick in the middle of the night!
Of course, people today also seek public recognition.
Andy Warhol anticipated this desire to be famous, or at least notorious, in his most well-known statement: “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”
It led to the concept of “15 minutes of fame”—the idea that celebrity, from media scandals to memes, will almost always be fleeting.
Unfortunately, this aspect of human nature isn’t new.
Christianity Today’s article, “Your Digital Life: Hidden with Christ: Serving the God ‘who sees in secret’ in a world where there’s pressure to post everything,” tells us that the people of the church in Colossae were not much different than people of today. Human nature (the flesh) is human nature, today, as then.
In the midst of a world obsessed with what can be observed by others, Colossians 3:3 says something very foreign: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”
So, when Colossians 3:3 says that your life is hidden in Christ, it was a bombshell to these ancient urban Christians, completely distasteful and undesirable—just like it should be to us.
The Colossians were just like any modern urban dweller. In some sense, they were more concerned with public recognition than we are when we consider that the love of honor … was deeply entrenched in their society. What they did and why they did it was to gain further recognition from others.
So what do you think?
- Would you like to have the opportunity to deepen your relationships?
Your relationship with God?
Your relationship with those you love?
- Would you like to take a digital fast?
- Would you consider a No-Tech Sabbath?
Here’s some actions to consider.
Techniques To Help You Unplug
Delete your apps
Delete social media apps from your phone or laptop.
Having them not easily accessed will make avoiding them easier.
In any case, they can be reinstalled again, if you decide to do so.
Go greyscale
This one was new to me. I didn’t know it could be done.
Tony Reinke explains:
For the apps you may need professionally and personally (email, phone, navigation, etc.), one trick is to mute your screen’s colors for a season.
On the iPhone, go to: Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Color Filters: on > Grayscale.
Losing color makes pics, video, apps, and app badges (those little number bubbles) less attractive and compulsive.
Refocus on spiritual disciplines
I have ten Bible apps on my phone. Four of them I use regularly.
Even so, often I open email before opening one of Bible apps or going to my desk to read a hardcopy Bible.
As Tony Reinke notes:
We grab the phone, turn off the alarm, and immediately start clicking around for digital candy. As we remove social media from our lives and our mornings, as we push the phone out of sight, we can more eagerly focus on the spiritual disciplines. A weeklong detox will help reset this priority in your life.
During the time I wasn’t receiving emails, it was easier to put reading the Bible first. But with email restored it’s become harder. I may have to become more intentional and ignore email on my phone and only read them when I am at my computer.
This quote, again from Tony Reinke, struck me in my heart:
Until the love and acceptance found in Christ become real to you, all the love and approval your screens offer you will never satisfy the hunger you feel inside.
Read Soul-feeding Books
- Read, in its entirety, at least one book that provides nourishment to your heart and soul.
- Browse (then buy from) a “bricks and mortar” Christian book store; ask an employee for recommendations.
- Google or search Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc., for possible books to read.
- Ask friends what they are reading, or what they would recommend.
- Dip into several books to find one which speaks to your heart.
Instead of looking at the Fast as time without your phone, look at it as a Feast:
What are all the things that you have more time to do?
And fill your day with that.
2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:2-3 NASB
A last quote from Meghen Posey:
Sometimes it’s necessary to disconnect from the world in order to reconnect with God.
Sometimes it’s necessary to reorder your priorities to notice what is happening to your soul.
Blessings,
TLThomas
See also