What Does Your Smartphone Say?

We are a culture immersed in digital technology. Today's handheld smartphones are more capable than NASA's 1970's room-sized computers. We can talk, read, video-chat, surf, write, compute, play ... well, just about everything ... all right there in one device. Now, of course, I'm oversimplifying things. There are certainly limitations and all that, but, still these things are ubiquitous, omnipresent, everywhere. (That's what's known as repetitive and redundant.) People wake up and, before anything else, check their phones. They are on their phones checking, chatting, or otherwise most of the day and, before they go to sleep, check their phones again. There are smartphone addicts today -- and not a small number -- who don't believe they could be without their phones for very long on any given day. Rangers at National Wildlife Refuges are reporting an alarming rise in the fear young visitors experience at all things natural. Why? Largely because the average 8-18 year-old spends more than 7 hours a day using entertainment media. Their closest connection to nature is movies about monster creatures that will kill you, so they don't know what to expect in real nature. Besides, why endure the hardships of outdoors when they can simply "experience nature" online?

Our technology tells us a lot about who we are and what we think. In fact, our technology is often telling us what and how to think ... intentionally. There is an identity connected to some technology. Apple ran the "I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" ads for awhile, suggesting that PC users were boring while Mac users were cool. For many the tag still works. "You're an Android user? Not cool. Only iPhone users are cool." Then there's the whole tablet idea. "You're still using a laptop? That is so last year!" But more than that, what we do with our technology tells us a lot about how we think.

My wife and I were out to dinner for an anniversary at a nice restaurant. Nearby the staff set up a table for a large party, a dozen or so. As people arrived, it was clear that it was a family birthday party or some such. As people settled in, out came the smartphones. By the time the wait staff was ready to take their orders, two or three of the crowd were actually conversing while the rest were immersed in their phones. The message was loud and clear. "We're happy to be here ... just not much interested."

You might begin to wonder if your smartphone is a tool for you to use, or if you're just an appendage for your smartphone. Do you check your Facebook and Twitter feed before you check your Bible in the morning? How long can you go without that digital device? How much reading time do you get in comparison to your screen time? No, they are, as it turns out, not the same. They've discovered that our digital culture is training us toward "tl/dr" -- "too long/didn't read" -- as we succumb to soundbites, 140-character comments, and skimming. As a result they're finding we read less in time and content because we're being trained that way. Beyond that, retention, they tell us, is dropping. We tend not to memorize things we expect to have readily available. With "google" as a verb, now, they tell us we're not likely to try very hard to remember much.

These are just starter questions. It turns out that our smartphones are changing us, and not always in a good way. It turns out that we are saying things with our smartphones that we likely don't realize we're saying. Are you texting instead of talking? What does that say? Does your phone use suggest a set of priorities that you don't realize? How many genuine, personal interactions does our phone interfere with? Because that "like" or text or funny cat video or just about anything I find on my little screen seems to be far more important than you or you or even you.

Look, I'm not saying smartphones are evil. That's nonsense. They are tools. Tools can be useful. So can they. You can use a hammer to pound nails and that's useful. I'm not saying that they're evil and you should get rid of them. But if your strongest urges are to use that hammer to break fingers or kneecaps or skulls, it just might be time to get it out of your hands and out of your sight. Mind you, getting rid of a hammer that incurs urges to harm isn't the answer; it's a stopgap. But it's a good place to start (Matt 5:30).

For believers, we have a higher calling. We're supposed to "let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matt 5:16) Is your smartphone helping you do that? Does your technology assist you in loving God and loving others? Does it push you to spend time with Him, to pray, to serve others? Is that smartphone a hammer to make things we should be making or is it for breaking things up? Since we're supposed to "do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor 10:31), shouldn't that "all" include our digital media? Something to think about?