Lately I have been reflecting on the words in the final chapter that Craig Detweiler put in his book “iGods”. He writes a chapter on Escaping Technology: To the Wilderness, here he describes the benefits of going offline and stepping outside our zone of wifi coverage to truly experience God as he intended us to. We are becoming like fish that no longer notice the water they live in, we don’t realize just how many electronic messages we are processing via our smartphones. By taking a step back, we can see if we are in fact dependent on technology, we can also test our commitments in our lives and help us realize what matters most to us.
“As we hurtle toward an unknown future with technology, we must plan some conscious pauses and be willing to use a mute button in our lives. Surely if Jesus felt the need to seek time away from the crowds, we could survive a day or even a week without social media, right?”(iGods page 219)
My Daughter Briel recently sent me a YouTube clip called “look Up” that really spoke to me and helps put this concept into perspective, if you have 3 minutes, check it out:
http://sfglobe.com/?id=637&
I love this quote that Craig wrote in the book on page 225, if sums up this post for me:
“We celebrate technology as a gift but resist the temptation to prostrate ourselves before it. We must not let it fashion and mold us into its insistent (now!), efficient (faster!), and greedy (more!) image. We are made for more than information processing.”
One part of our Good Digital Citizenship Curriculum is to help our students find a healthy balance between screen time and actual face to face play time. As parents you can be the curators of play and imagination by building in pauses away from technology for your children.
So good!