This world can be a dangerous place for children. It is true today and it was true in the time of Jesus. Matthew tells a story told nowhere else in the Gospels about a massacre of very young children by King Herod. Herod was so afraid of a new king rising up to challenge his family’s power that when the magi failed to come back to him with the baby Jesus’ location, Herod ordered the massacre of all young children in the region. It did not matter to him that hundreds of innocent children would be killed as long as he could feel certain the threat to his power was eliminated.
Today children continue to be expendable pawns in the power games of our leaders.
From inner city kids without healthcare and quality education and threatened by daily gun violence, to suburban kids threatened with mass shootings in their schools, to refugee children taken from their parents and held in concentration camps and even dying in those camps, to active human trafficking of children around the world, this world is a dangerous place for children. It’s not that there are no good ways for our leaders to protect our children because there are ways to make children safer: better education, better healthcare, sensible gun legislation, or just plain respecting human rights. There are good ways to make our children safer but our leaders don’t care enough and are often actively hostile, especially when there is profit to be made at the expense of children.
As we prepare to bless our smartphones and electronic devices today, we should do so with eyes wide open to the profound change that has happened regarding technology and children’s use of it in particular. Sasha and I did not have cell phones until college and those were flip phones. Oscar got his first phone in middle school and it was also a flip phone. Marin go her first phone in middle school and it was a smartphone, and from the time she was very young she could pick up our smartphones and use them. And of course, now, everyone in the house has their own smartphone even grandma. And we all use these things too much.
What is a little scary, is that we really don’t know what these things and our overuse of them are doing to our minds and our well being. We can talk about content in minute, but just hours spent with eyes on screens and at at least the resulting decrease in physical movement must be doing something to all our bodies and our brains, but such changes must be particularly harmful to the developing bodies and brains of children.
Now we don’t know, maybe it is fine. We really are in the midst of a massive social experiment with how these things will change us. But what we do know is that those who design these devices and the content they transmit are not interested in our well being or the wellbeing of our children. They are interested in one thing and that is profit. And so far they are “making a killing.” To make a profit with these devices, you need to sell the content. Streaming services like netflix sell content. Video games makers sell content. Or you need to sell advertising. Social media like facebook, instagram, and snapchat, and free games like candy crush all profit from selling advertising. To sell advertising you need people’s eyes on the screens as much as possible. Therefore, the creators of the content whether it is social media, or youtube videos, or video games, or even news, are very good at creating content that is highly addictive; that keeps the eyes on the screen as much as possible during the day.
So having said all that let’s cut to the chase and talk about ways we as adults can discern good and evil when it comes to these devices and their use, and how we can set a good example for our kids, and help guide our kids in the use of these things. It may be that the first thing we need to do is change the example we set. Here are three ideas to consider: Content, Context, and Total Time.
Discerning content is about what we use our devices for. There are good things to use these devices for. Using them as a telephone is one. Reaching out and talking to someone we love or someone we are just getting to know. This is good. And really this includes the other ways of communicating: video chat, texting, even social media if we are using it to connect with loved ones. Many grandparents get facebook so they can keep up with pictures of grandchildren or even communicate with grandchildren. Beyond communication as content, there is also really quality programming out there that is part of the content we can consume. And we can use our devices to read books, to check the weather, to read quality journalism.
Other content is not so good. Of course, there are obvious things like pornography or toxic social media conversations with strangers or fake news or violent games. But then there are things like non-violent video games. What about candy crush or even video solitaire. We play these games to “kill time.” Think about that phrase for a minute. Or we use them to “relax” or “unwind.” But I wonder if these games are really better for reducing our stress level than say, stepping outside for fresh air, closing our eyes for 5 minutes, breathing deeply, sitting in silence, going for walk or real solitaire with actual cards. Anybody remember doing that?
Other content that is not so good would be news that is written for the purpose of making us angry, addictively scrolling through social media like instagram or facebook. Remember such sites do use algorithms to feed us content that keeps us scrolling and keeps us interested. If you are a facebook user just try changing your newsfeed setting to “most recent,” and somehow it is a lot addictive because we are not being fed what facebook wants us to see in the same way. Note: you can’t keep your newsfeed set on most recent, you have to set it to that everytime you open facebook.
One thing about these devices and content that is so different from other ways of consuming content is how fast we can move from good content to bad content. Going from reading the Washington Post to watching pornography can happen in a second. It used to be a kid had to put down whatever else they were doing and go find the place where the pornography was hidden in their room or their parents’ room. It took some planning and effort to see pornography. Now you can skip back and forth between a game of Candy Crush and hardcore porn in a millisecond. But, even more than conscious choices like that, we can be innocently scrolling through cat videos, which are like a drug to some people by the way and then suddenly we are reading a headline about Hillary’s emails and all the anger of that insanity rises up within us. “I can’t believe they are still talking about that!” So the point is, choosing quality, meaningful, uplifting content is not easy with these devices.
A second thing to consider is context. That is what is your context when you pick up your device? Are you with family or friends. Are you with loved ones. Are you in the car? Obviously not if you are driving. But, what about just riding in a car. I wonder how much family conversation has been lost in cars because everyone can plug into their own little worlds on their phones. And what about in the grocery store line or on public transportation or in a cafe? Have we lost the ability to have enjoyable conversations with strangers because we are so wrapped up in our phones? What is your context when you are using? Before logging on we would do well to consider, “Should I be doing something else in the is context?”
And finally, total time. That is total time we spend on screens. How much is too much do you think? An hour a day? Two hours? Three? Four? Especially when we think that 20 years ago we spent zero hours a day on smartphones, how much of what Mary Oliver calls our “one wild and precious life” are we willing to give to these things. The world is filled with living breathing people with interesting ideas in their heads, and real-time facial reactions. The world is filled with incredible natural beauty. The world is filled with people who need help. And the world is filled with people we love. How many hours a day are we willing to give to our screens? What or who are we willing to trade?
I started this out by talking about the dangers that these devices raise for children, but most adults have to get a handle on their use and probably we can’t address it with our kids until we get a handle on it ourselves.
I know I may be sounding alarmist here, but what we do know for sure, is that all the technology we use whether we are children or adults, is highly profitable for someone. People are profiting off our use of this stuff and some people are profiting a lot. These are people who don’t know us and have no concern for the well being of our children. The more we use, the more we are connected, the more profit they make off our quality of life. Are we giving them that profit in exchange for our quality of life?
So as we turn to bless these devices that have such potential for good and such potential for harm, we need to do so with eyes wide open. Using smartphones and other devices for good, to help us love others and love God, create beauty and bring joy, to be more connected, are noble goals, but reaching them will be an uphill battle. We are working against their design which is to keep us using them as much as possible, at all costs. We need to pay attention to the content we consume, to the context in which we use them, and to the total time we surrender of our “one wild and precious life.” It may be that the best way we can use these things for good is to put them down.
So, now that that cheery little sermon is over. Let bless these things.
Take a moment to think about the times we use our phones. Let’s start with good things we use them for: reading the quality journalism, reading books, checking the weather, watching high-quality movies or television, reaching out to loved ones, through e-mail, text, social media, or phone, perhaps even playing games together. Think about the ways you use technology that feels wholesome and good. And give thanks for those good things.
Now let’s think of the times we may use these things that are not so great. When we are checking out of reality in the presence of loved ones or in the presence of strangers: grocery store lines, in a coffee shop, on public transportation. In bed late at night when we could be sleeping or engaging with our partner, reading fake news or just stuff that confirms our own biases, playing mindless games to “kill time,” low quality TV and movies, binging a show, compulsively checking social media for comments or likes on your posts, total time engrossed in your screen. Think about ways that using these things takes us out of the real world and God’s good creation. And ask God to help us reconnect to the real world.
God help us to limit our use of these things. Help us prioritize the real people present with us. Help us discern high quality, meaningful, beneficial content verses meaningless or harmful. Help us know that we are enough just as you have created us without anyone else giving us a single like or comment. Amen.
Govans Presbyterian Church 