I recently found myself in the phone section of a department store looking nostalgically at a Nokia 6310. The shop assistant was doing his best to lure me towards the newest Galaxy models, but I was determined to consider the question – can I live my life without a smartphone? After 20 minutes of internally battling between ‘I really want my life to be less controlled by my phone’ and ‘how will I take photos, do my banking, find my way anywhere?!…’ I left having bought nothing.
I’m not alone in my struggle to make wiser choices about technology. Questions about technology and its uses are front and centre in the world we live in. In my experience, most of our conversations revolve around limits: limits on screen times, age restrictions on social media apps and bans on smartphones for certain ages or in certain contexts. Of course, there is real value in considering these things but I wonder if, as believers, we have more to contribute to the conversation. Does the Christian worldview offer more foundational wisdom to help us navigate the world in which we find ourselves?
One author who is helping me think more deeply about this whole area is Andy Crouch. As a ministry team, we’ve read his book The Life We’re Looking For – Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World and in my church we are going through his Tech-Wise Family course together. Both these resources have been so helpful in making me think intentionally about this and it’s led to many helpful conversations with others in my church family. Let me share with you some of the most helpful ideas. My goal is not to tell you everything Andy Crouch says, I’d much rather you read it yourself! Rather I hope to get you thinking and whet your appetite for more.
Made for love
Andy Crouch starts with the question of what it means to be human. His most basic answer is that we are made for love. We find out who we are not by looking in a mirror, but rather by looking into the faces of other human beings. We are not made to be independent, rather we are made to live in dependent relationships, first with God, and then with each other, and it is only in these relationships that we truly flourish. He says:
Of all the creatures on earth, we are by far the most dependent, the most relational, the most social, and the most capable of care. When we love, we are most fully and distinctively ourselves.
Andy also says that as human beings we are made for love as multi-dimensional complexes. He refers to Jesus’ words quoting from the law in Mark 12:29-30:
Hear, O Israel; the LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
To be human is not to be someone who just thinks, or who just moves around. As humans made in the image of God we are heart, soul, mind and strength complexes, and all of these dimensions are necessary to live in love towards God and towards others.
Enhancing our humanity
In approaching this whole area, the most fundamental question we can ask is, ‘How does our use of technology enhance or hinder us from being fully human, from living in love with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength?’
To answer this question Andy Crouch develops the idea of ‘easy-everywhere’. He talks about the dream that we have been sold of impersonal power. We can do things today with an ease that our grandparents could not have imagined. Yet is that always good for us? To take a very simple example of where and how I choose to do my shopping. A trip to a supermarket with self-service tills will always be quicker than one without them. Yet, in my village, I have got to know the people who scan my shopping and can say, ‘Hello!’ when I see them. Self-service tills might make my life easier, but not using them makes me more human.
Devices or instruments?
Andy Crouch talks about the difference between devices and instruments. Both use technology but have a very different effect on who I am and how I function. A device is something that does a job for me, requiring minimal input or effort from me. An instrument, while it enables me to do something I couldn’t do without it, also requires skill, effort and creativity from me. A friend of mine recently replaced his push-button pod coffee machine with one that requires him to grind and weigh out the coffee and then choose the right temperature and time for brewing it. One gave him a decent coffee with very little skill. The new machine is teaching him patience and a greater appreciation of the skill of baristas. With some perseverance, he will have learnt more of the art of coffee making. That’s the difference between a device and an instrument. Or for those of us who are less interested in coffee, it’s the difference between a ready meal zapped in a microwave, and a homemade meal lovingly cooked on a stove. One is convenient, the other calls me to be more fully human.
Now convenience isn’t all bad. There are times when I’m incredibly grateful for the conveniences of modern life but if I fill my life with ‘easy-everywhere’ how will I grow? What is going to help me develop skill, perseverance, creativity and compassion? How can I intentionally fill my life with more instruments and fewer devices so that it helps me and those around me grow as heart, soul, mind and strength humans living in love?
There is so much more I could share from these resources but I hope this gets the conversation going. In the world we live in, technology is unavoidable. Over the coming year we’re going to consider more of these issues in the magazine but in the meantime, why not get together with others in your church family to go through the Tech-Wise course (available free of charge here: https://barnacourses.thinkific.com/)? It will help you think more deeply and develop practical principles for using technology in your home, family, work and church life. Then, the next time you find yourself in a conversation about technology, you will know that you have something meaningful to contribute because, like in all areas of our lives, the gospel is relevant and has something good and life-giving to say.
