When the entire world is at your fingertips, the temptation to never let it out of your sight is understandable.
Life-altering online advancements like GPS location software, social media connections, breaking stories are available to us whenever we want, wherever we want. With recent stories that have been surrounding Uganda’s elections, the lure to log into social media right in the middle of a Sunday church service is always severe.
Recent research has confirmed that cell phone “addiction” is actually a real thing. Professionals have even devised methods of determining if you suffer from a psychological condition that warrants actual medical intervention (symptoms include: reduction of competing behaviors, engaging in the behavior despite risks and negative consequences, withdrawal, etc.).
At the same-time, M.I.T. Professor Sherry Turkle has been kvetching about technology and its (mostly) negative impact on people and society for 30 years or more. Her latest tome, ‘Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age’, gets the closest to the truth so far.
In it, she laments how the smartphone in particular has created an atmosphere of shallowness and weakens the human capacity for empathy.
In a study of 1,600 managers and professionals, Leslie Perlow, PhD, the Konosuke Matsushita professor of leadership at the Harvard Business School, found that:
– 70% said they check their smartphone within an hour of getting up.
– 56% check their phone within an hour of going to sleep.
– 48% check over the weekend, including on Friday and Saturday nights.
– 51% check continuously during vacation.
– 44% said they would experience “a great deal of anxiety” if they lost their phone and couldn’t replace it for a week.
The amount of time that people are spending with the new technology, the apparent preoccupation, raises the question, “Are smartphones taking much more time than they should for us Christians?,”
“And while we’re not seeing actual smartphone addictions now,” David Greenfield, PhD, a West Hartford, Conn.,psychologist and author of Virtual Addiction: Help for Netheads, Cyber Freaks says, “the potential is certainly there.”
We have digital bibles these days: praise God hallelujah. But, as you close in to get to a certain scripture mentioned by the preacher, receiving a Whats-app notification at the same-time, what are the chances that you will not check the notification feed.
Are you overly looking at your smart phone? Here’s a list to help.
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You Look at Your Phone While You’re ‘Bored’ at Church
Even the best pastors have off days. And, let’s just be honest here, it’s easy to let your mind drift on Sunday mornings from time to time. But a sermon is no time to be checking Twitter.
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You Use Your Phone as a Crutch in Socially Awkward Situations
We’ve all been there: You show up at a party before the rest of your friends, and you don’t know anybody. Instead of attempting to meet new friends, you pull out your phone and pretend you are texting someone something really important. Next time, try keeping the phone in your pocket and do what they did in the old days: mingle.
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All of Your Alone Time is Spent on Your Phone
If every moment of solitude, waiting at a restaurant, bathroom break or evening by yourself is filled with browsing the Internet or playing phone games, you may want to cut back.
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You Consistently Have Zero New Items in Your Facebook Newsfeed
Yup, you’re checking Facebook too much.
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It’s the Last Thing You See Before Bed, and the First Thing You Look in the Morning
Besides avoiding some negative health effects, it’s probably a good practice to give yourself a little time before bed and when you wake up before checking your email. Pray, talk to your spouse, read—whatever you do, stay unplugged for a few minutes and enjoy some moments of non-digital life.
editor@ugchristiannews.com
