Under One’s Skirt on the Camel
Facing Tech Addiction Beyond Shrugging and Bemoaning
Of course we all bemoan our tech addictions. The problem with this - first among many - is that if all we do is bemoan it, that is the same thing as coddling it. We’re like Rachel, hiding Laban’s household gods under our dress on the camel. But this will only lead to greater idolatries later. We’re being groomed, you know. You know? The tech that we think we are using is in fact using us.
This is not just a young person’s problem. The bored empty-nester, spending their quiet evenings on their iPad in front of the TV playing a mindless but addictive game is more common than we care to admit. After all, the pioneers of today’s social media apps and games learned their craft by studying gaming machines in Vegas. This is why the app slides up your screen like the fruit of a slot machine. You’ve been studied.
So what to do? Bob Newhart’s famous “Just STOP IT!” routine won’t help.
Here are a few steps to take that should prove helpful:
Test Yourself
Now, you might be thinking, “Nah, this little diversion doesn’t have an enslaving power over me. In fact, in a way it’s freeing - it gives me a little freedom during the day from my cares and thoughts.” Ok, I believe you. But is it only freedom? What if this freedom is actually enslavement? As a friend once said: “All sin feels like freedom until you try to quit.”
You can test yourself by repenting of another sin. Take the Sabbath seriously, and take a 24-hour break from your device. The resultant twitch is telling you something: this thing has its claws in you more than you realized.
Remember Love
Move on to preaching the gospel to yourself. God knows you are but dust, and He loves you anyway. So you’re not doing this to earn His love. You’re doing this because you’re loved. Perfect love casts out fear. Bad habits can become old habits by first remembering love.
Remember Faith
Faith looks both to the past and to the future. Faith looks back to the cross and remembers that (Romans 8:32) God gave us His only Son. This propels us to look forward in confidence that, if He would do that, how will He also not with him graciously give us all things?
To translate this to the problem of mindless screen time: if I give this up, will God meet me and replace it with deeper, superior pleasures? Yes, bet your life on it, for God gave the life of His Son to prove it.
Build Speedbumps
Most devices today have limits you can install. There are ways to self-hack and pwn yourself, to at least make yourself think twice before getting on the screen again. It may seem childish, but it’s still less severe than cutting off your hand or gouging out your eye.
Go Public
In his most excellent book, “Side by Side,” Ed Welch says that we humans operate best when we “go public” about our trials and hurts with God and at least one other human being. Being honest with God about your addictive behavior, about its enslaving tendencies. Confess it and ask Him for forgiveness. Then find a wise friend to tell the same. By “good” I mean someone who won’t let you off the hook about it, but who also won’t crush you with this information. This is somebody who knows 1 Cor. 10:12-14 and 23.
Faith, Working Through Love
Paul could sum up everything Jesus said and did simply thus: “It’s better to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35) And Paul could sum up his own teaching and doing this way: “Faith working through love.” (Gal. 5:6) Much of the problem in the last 70 years is that we have not replaced the work replaced by modern conveniences with more constructive work. But we were all made to work, and that in love for God and others. Work existed before the fall, and work will continue in the new heavens and earth. (It simply will not be infected with futility - imagine that!)
The point here is simple: replace receiving with giving. Replace the mindless time with exercising your mind to give something to others. One woman plants a flower garden, so that she has table settings for the next wedding at church. A man does woodworking to craft gifts for others. Another does light repair work for folks in church. Another prays and visits the infirm.
There’s enough need in this world to go around and then some. And we are part of the solution, the antidote, the immune system. But only by faith working through love. Mindless screen time and this love cannot occupy the same space at the same time.