Too Connected/Social?

I think it's safe to say that technology (more specifically social media) is both a blessing and a curse. It is great that we have such fabulous technology allowing us to connect with people across the world practically institutionally, but if it is taken advantage of and we let it get the best of us, it definitely is considered a curse. It can take away from our alone time, true alone time; an important time to reflect, learn, and grow as an individual.

There is a book called Crazy Busy written by Kevin DeYoung, the senior pastor from University Reformed Church in East Lansing, Michigan. I was able to read a booklet, which is a glimpse of the book, earlier today. During the book, DeYoung talks about the busyness that every one of us faces as we live in such a crazy world. Though, only 21 pages, the words I read were like a knife jabbed straight to the heart. I'm gonna cut straight to the chase here before I outline what I read: my take is that we really aren't as busy as we think or say we are. Intrigued? Please read on.

Here. Let me break down what DeYoung says are the threats of our ever-connectedness through Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Pinterest, vine, and of course texting. (There are more, but there's are the major ones and the ones that I use.)

1. The threat of addiction.
"Could you go a whole day without looking at Facebook? Could you go an afternoon without looking at your phone? What about two days without email?" DeYoung then went on to talk about how a particular man's experience with the Internet changed quite drastically. This man became more and more consumed with it that he soon admitted that it had control over his life. "His habits were changing, morphing to accommodate a digital way of life. He became dependent on the Internet for information and activity. He found his ability to pay attention declining. To quote the man, "It (his brain) was hungry. It was demanding to be fed the way the Net fed it-and the more it was fed, the hungrier it became. Even when I was away from my computer, I yearned to check email-links, do some Googling. I wanted to be connected." The word addict was used in this section. Yes, it was a harsh word but, if we're honest with ourselves, I'm sure a lot of us could say the same thing is true about ourselves. I have finally just recently came to terms with this fact about myself. Are you addicted to staying connected? "The only thing my mind can do, indeed the only thing it wants to do, is plug back into that distracted frenzied blitz of online information." To give it a Christian insight, 2 Peter 2:19 is mentioned. "...whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved." Ouch.

2. The threat of acadia.
"Acedia is an old word roughly equivalent to 'sloth' or 'listlessness.' It is not a synonym for leisure, or even laziness. Acedia suggests indifferece and spiritual forgetfulness." Ouch again. Can you now see why while reading this my heart just ached with conviction? "Acedia is evenings without number obliterated by television, evenings neither of entertainment nor of education but of narcoticized defense against time and duty. Above all, acedia is apathy, the refusal to engage the pathos of other lives and of God's life with them."-Richard John Neuhaus. "For too many of us, the hustle and bustle of electronic activity is a sad expression of a deeper acedia. We feel busy, but not with a hobby or recreation or play. We are busy with busyness. Rather than figure out what to do with our spare minutes and hours, we are content to swim in the shallows and pass our time with passing the time...We keep downloading information, but rarely get down into the depth of our heart. That's acedia-purposelessness disguised as constant commotion."

3. The treat of our digital world, the danger that we are never alone.
"I'm talking about our desire to never be alone." Peter Kreeft is right: "Unconsciously, we want the very things we complain about. For if we had leisure, we would look at ourselves and listen to our hearts and see the great gasping hold in our hearts and be terrified, because that hold is so big that nothing but God can fill it."  Quoting DeYoung from the book again, "And the scariest part is that we may not want to leave (this world of the connectedness that we have gotten sucked into).  What if we prefer endless noise to the deafening sound of silence? What if we do not care to hear God's still, small voice? What if the trivialities and distractions of our day are not forced upon us by busyness, or forced upon us at all? What if we choose to be busy so that we can continue to live with trivia and distraction? If 'digital busyness is the enemy of depth,' then we are bound to be stuck in the shallows so long as we're never alone."

That's a lot of hard truth to read huh? Discouraged or overwhelmed yet? Well, there's some good news! (Hopefully at least) And the best news, most encouraging news, is at the very end so don't grow weary, friends! DeYoung then gives some tips on what to do about this ever-rising problem of ours:

1. Cultivate a healthy suspicion toward technology and "progress."
"We could do with a little more 'distance' form technology, a little more awareness that there was life before the latest innovations and there can be life without it.

2. Be more thoughtful and understanding in your connectedness with others.
   a. Don't ask open-ended questions
   b. Don't send back content-less replies
   c. Don't cc for no good reason
   d. Don't expect an immediate response
We are so impatient, and I think it has a lot to do with how connected we are today. We always expect an immediate response. Just chill people. Let others live their lives away from their technology and do so yourself. (Don't worry people, I'm preaching to myself here as well!)

3. Deliberately use "old" technology.
"If you don't want to be dependent on your digital devices, make an effort to get by without them. Read a real book. Write a paper letter. Buy a nice pen. Call someone on the phone. Looking something in in the dictionary. (A real hardback one) Drive with the radio off and the iPod unplugged. Go on a run without music. The goal is not to be quaint, but to relearn a few practices that can be more enjoyable the 'old-fashioned' way."

4. Make boundaries, and fight with all your might to protect them.
"The simplest step to break the tyranny of the screen is also the hardest step: we can't be connected all the time. We have to stop taking our phone to bed. We can't check Facebook during church. We can't text a every meal."
Suggestion: have a basket where phones and laptops sit for a certain period of the day.
"Most of us would find a new freedom if we didn't check our phone as the last and first this we do every day." *Gulp* guilty. This is the probably the worst habit of all.

5. Bring our Christian theology to bear on these dangers of the digital age.
"While commonsense suggestions are always welcome, our deepest problems can be helped only with the deepest truths. Because of the doctrines of creation, we must affirm that man-made artifact can be instrument for human flourishing and for the glory of God."

Here's the best part of the entire read!!!:
"But because we have a God who chose us in eternity past and looks at a day as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day, we will not be infatuated with the latest fads and trends. And because of the incarnation, we understand there is no substitute for dwelling with physical people in a physical place...Likewise, because we understand our worth as image-bearers and our identity as children of God, we will not look to the Internet to prove that we are important, valuable, and loved, And, because we accept the presence of indwelling sin, we will not be blind to the potential idolatries and temptations we can succumb to online. And because we know ourselves to be fallen creatures, we will accept the limits of our human condition."

Amen. Maybe this will be a goal for myself and for those of you reading for 2014. If it is negatively effecting your ability to become closer to and more like Christ than you probably need to let it go. (And yes, I did just mentally break out into the song from Frozen) :) Happy New Year, friends!