We’re busy working on the book and haven’t been able to add much content for social media, but that’s coming. Our Facebook page and Twitter are now live. Please give us a follow and spread the word.
Tag: social media
Anxiety from Lack of Stimulation
We are wired to crave the temporary satisfaction from writing e-mails, crafting tweets, returning calls, downloading music, playing games, checking out websites, sending text messages, and taking photos of our food. They are the hooks that enrapture us. They are the casino slot machines that keep us moving from one machine to the next, ultimately resulting in our anxiety when we are left to face the world unstimulated.
– Matt Knisely, Framing Faith, p. 13
I relate to this line of thought, especially lately. It is odd that having nothing to do can cause anxiety, but it happens. Boredom should be the least stressful thing in the world, but when you’re bombarded with constant light, constant bells and whistles, it’s hard to decompress. Can you face the world when you’re not stimulated?
Relational Junk Food
But our society has begun to treat our relational needs much the same way we’ve come to treat our physical needs. When we’re hungry, rather than take the time to cook a well-balanced, filling meal, we rush to grab something out of the freezer that we can quickly nuke and then eat while watching TV or finishing up some work. And when we’re relationally hungry, so often rather than sitting down with our children or spouse to hear about their day or setting up a dinner date with a good friend, we open Facebook or Twitter and peruse through the recent posts of the day, stopping to click ‘like’ or shoot off some quick replies. Or we look to see if a picture we posted on Instagram earlier that day has been commented on much – and if it was, that temporarily fills us…until we close our computer and crawl into bed with the same dissatisfied, empty feeling that we went to bed with the day before…
-Matt Knisely, Framing Faith, p. 12
I like the analogy of social media as the relational equivalent of a frozen dinner thrown in the microwave.
Technology and Modern Man: Always on Call
In the past, only a few professions – doctors, plumbers perhaps, emergency service technicians, prime ministers – required this kind of state of being constantly on call. Now almost all of us live this way.
– John Freeman, The Tyranny of Email, p. 7
I have been one of the dinosaurs who have refused to buy a smart phone. I already feel like I’m ‘on call’ enough as it is. I see men and women, boys and girls, living as if their phones are surgically attached to their hands, and it makes me wonder just where we’re headed. I recently met a little girl, probably about 9 or 10 years old, who told me she couldn’t live without her iPhone. I assured her that she could. She doesn’t know what she’s signing up for, or what it might cause her to miss.
I do not think that there is anything intrinsically bad or wrong with texting, or email, or social media of course. Like most things, it comes down to how we use them, and if we can live without them. If you can’t live without it, it has effectively become an idol. And, as I’ve heard Tim Keller say, referring to Elijah’s showdown with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel, your God will either bleed for you or demand that you bleed for him. Only one God bleeds for you, but many demand that you give your life to them.
As I post quotes from this book, and as I post reflections on the state of modern communication technology, my only intention is to store up insights from the book and offer reflections on how we might make our own bleeding stop. How can we use such technology as a good gift from God without allowing it to effectively take his place in our priorities and use of time?
You can see my little poetic take on the matter HERE.
