FOLLOWING JESUS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
FOLLOWING JESUS IN THE DIGITAL AGE
By: Jack Guyler
In many ways, it may be more difficult to follow Jesus in our current culture than it has been in many years. When you stop to think about what has converged upon us in the last decade, a world-wide pandemic, political upheaval, and division that many say we haven’t seen since the days of the Civil War and the advancement and how technology has become mainstream in our lives.
Jonathan Haidt in his recent best seller, The Anxious Generation, states that things have changed drastically in our culture, especially for Gen Z, because we have moved from a play-based upbringing to a phone-based upbringing. In his book, he outlines from his research, the effects this has had on the younger generation from dramatic increases in anxiety and depression to higher suicide rates. And this has led to all generations being adversely affected.
Haidt is not bashing technology. As Christians we shouldn’t bash technology either. Most of us use it daily. And most of use every day what at once was “new technology” but now we take for granted. Think of things we use every day that at once people were leery of as “new technology” (even though it was not called that at the time):
Cars
Planes
Ships
Batteries
Electricity
In-door plumbing
Appliances
Computers / printers
Dishwashers
Calculators
Radios / TV
GPS
Phones (land lines)
Sports and gym equipment
Technology, like money, is not bad. Jesus made this point in His teachings. He said the love of money is the root of evil. He also said don’t allow money to enslave you. These same things can be said of technology. Technology can become the enemy of our souls when we allow it to rule over our lives (when it causes us to lose touch with real people, the real world and God).
Haidt in The Anxious Generation says things changed for adolescents and Gen Z beginning around 2014 as smartphones, front loading cameras and social media began to emerge as mainstream things in our culture. This is when kids went from a play-based upbringing to a phone-based experience. By 2015, kids had little time for free play.
He documents what this has led to:
1. A Significant rise in depression, mental illness, anxiety and suicide rate
2. A great reduction of free play for today’s youth. Free play helps to shape developing brains, allows youth to make mistakes and learn from them, meet and development friendships, and they move their bodies rather than sitting and looking down. In addition, conformity is accelerated, loss of independent thinking, loss of physical activity, youth following others and influencers more than parents, making unhealthy comparisons to others, and not being prepared to meet the challenges of the real world
3. 9/11 and the Global Financial Crisis didn’t affect millennials in an adverse much because these events brought people together to fight against common enemies and for our nation. This has the opposite effect of Social media which often divides people.
4. Four Major Harms from a Phone-Based Childhood:
(1) Social Deprivation – vibrations, pings, notifications become addictive. Not just for youth, but for adults as well who can’t resist checking their phones while ignoring the person they are with
(2) Sleep Deprivation – concentration, focus, relationships, learning all suffer
(3) Attention Fragmentation – On average, people get 192 alerts daily. We are no longer fully present with the people we are with or closest to. We give our attention to something and then a ping from our phone serves as an off-ramp to something else. Notifications give a hit of dopamine to our brains in a similar that a potato chip does. That is why you can’t just eat one chip
(4) Addictive – loss of focus, lose ability to make plans and follow through (we want another hit of dopamine). Phones have become not just a tool, but a way to escape
But it isn’t just kids or the younger generation that has been affected by our devices, phones and social media. We are all shaped by the digital age. This includes adults and those following Jesus.
“Christians have not only been caught up in this maelstrom of polarization [referring to social media], but in many cases, we’ve become its chief participants.” – Arthur Brooks
If we are going to follow Jesus and be the best people we can be – people living out the fruit of the Spirit – then we can’t lose focus and get entangled in technology. We want to leverage it, but not be mastered by it. Here are some questions to ask yourself as to how technology is affecting you:
Questions:
• How has the internet/technology affected you?
• How does it affect those you love?
• Do you play less?
• Do you exercise less or move less?
• Do you find yourself escaping into it, especially after dinner in the evening?
• Do you see your friends as much as you used to?
• Where are you getting your information from?
• Who/what is influencing your thinking? Values? Political views? Shopping habits? Spending?
• How does a vibration, ring tone or ping affect you?
• Do your kids or spouse tell you that you’re on your phone too much?
• Do you sleep with your phone? What is it doing to you?
• Has your attention span or focus changed? Has it shrunk?
• What is your scale of addiction?
These questions will help you to evaluate what technology is doing to you and then can decide whether you are becoming enslaved to it or whether you are leveraging it for good in your life.
The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt, 2024
