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.
