The Bad and the Worse of Technology

I scroll through Pinterest. I tap through statuses. I shoot a picture and share it with a friend. My phone is something I use everyday. It is also something that I know I use too much. In reality we probably all know we use our phones, or laptops, or tablets, or whatever it is that we have, too much. The questions are: do we understand these problems to be as big as they actually are and do we want to take measures to stop them?

More and more people are putting down their books and picking up their phones. It has become increasingly evident that this trend is severely handicapping our brains. Many children can barely read a grade appropriate book, hold a meaningful conversation, or sit through a service, yet know all the capabilities of a smart phone and the internet. Whether we realize it or not, smartphones have trained us to skim. While on our phones, all we need is a few taps and swipes and we can jump from one thing to the next and in that we can constantly keep up with the latest and keep ourselves highly entertained. This effect carries over to the rest of life, causing people to have short attention spans, low comprehension levels, and little concentration in work and conversations. Also, with all the virtual talking going on, many people are missing or losing their emotional and communication skills. Let’s start using our phones less and reading more good books that stimulate our brains.

One thing that we often tend to forget about is how Google, YouTube, Alexa, and generally everything spies on and tracks us. If you have a Google account and use it, then someone has access to all of your contacts, searches, YouTube trends, photos, general location, and various other things. In your Google settings you can limit what Google can see and use, but that can only protect you so far; some of this is out of our control. Another thing you can do to protect yourself is to cover the cam on your laptop so you know you won’t be spied on with that. I hope it isn’t that we have anything to hide, but in the future what we think is private information could easily be used against us. Google, Amazon, YouTube, and Pinterest also censor, blocking and removing any content that they don’t want people to see. Such content includes politics and anti-vaccine and other health-related topics. If you want to search without being tracked and censored, use a different web browser such as Duck Duck Go. The reason behind this tracking and censoring eventually boils down to the control and money that drives a few people. Let’s never let those motives rule our lives! This can tend to scare me, but I just have to remember that God is in control and no matter what happens He’ll always be there for us!

“Yes, step away from screens, and let the glories of creation break your heart and let the handiwork of God’s creative genius wash you as you ski mountains, hike trails, and scuba dive into oceans. But don’t stop there. Climb the summits of Scripture, too. Let God’s word pierce your intentions and cut down into your truest motives, and let yourself be convicted, broken, and remade-which is the feeling of standing in the breathtaking presence of God.“

-Tony Reinke, “12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You”