Strange and Stranger

We’ve always had strange things to talk about. If you grew up going through the grocery store checkout lines you no doubt were drawn to the headlines on the National Enquirer. Admit it, whether you believed the stories you still looked at them and maybe occasionally read them. Two-headed creatures, UFOs, alien abductions, reincarnation and much more made their ways into that publication. We are a curious lot and the writers and publishers of the ubiquitous rag knew that. They scratched that itch for us even if we didn’t want to admit it. One would think in the age of cell phones we’d get a high quality picture or video of Big Foot, Sasquatch, the Loch Ness monster, an alien spacecraft or the little green men who fly them. But no, these mythical beings must also know that and have adapted to the times and pick on only people who are Luddites and can’t seem to get tech to work for them at the very moment when fame could be theirs. I suspect one conspiracy theory is that they are behind all the AI abilities to produce a highly realistic version of themselves so that people will just pass off the real evidence of their existence as fake. As you can see, I have a more than skeptical view of all of this, but I would love to be proven wrong. So far these are just figments of people’s imaginations and sell a lot of newspapers or produce quite a few clicks and likes.

It Will Only Get Worse

With the advent of social media and the explosion of podcasting it is vastly easier to learn more about the fake than the real. And I mean seeing hours and hours of so-called information based on less than dependable sources. Information on anything your little pea-picking heart can stand is right at our fingertips as long as we have an Internet connection to bring it to us. Add to that the mysterious algorithms that push more of what we just lost hours of our life to, to entertain us in between ads. Add to that all the life stories of people who were brainwashed by one cult after another or duped by some con artist. Crime summations are another big draw. One would think that with the ability to research these claims they wouldn’t proliferate as much. Au Contraire Mon Frère. No, that would mean intentionally taking time away from these diversions to research them and that is such a waste of time. You see these videos are as much entertainment as they are anything so instead the vast majority ignores the veracity of them as long as they tickle our collective fancies and take our minds off the dead end jobs we have or don’t have. They are adult babysitters of our downtime and this trend isn’t going away. And I haven’t even broached the cottage industry of those posting videos to criticize the original ones. It is a literal catch-22 of social media.

How Are You Doing?

Look, we all need what we call a mental break from the hustle and bustle of our days. Not all of us have jobs that bring us joy with the majority of us working to pay the bills and have some money left to do more enjoyable things. I get it. I actually lived it until I retired. But for those of us who are Christians we can’t look at life that way. We have things like the Great Commission to fulfill. We’re told we aren’t citizens of this world and to live like the citizens of Heaven we truly are. So how does this online world fit in? I like how an article about this from Ligonier.org addresses the topic:

We live in an unprecedented age of digital connectivity. In this strange new world, we are electronically linked to endless numbers of people and places as well as a flood of information. Smartphones, laptops, and tablets connect us to just about everyone and everything. We are connected all the time and everywhere.

The article rightly points just how fast our world changed:

It has all happened so fast. Personal computers have only been in homes since the late 1970s. And the ubiquitous smartphone —now in the pockets and purses of more than 2.5 billion people—was only unveiled in 2007. Tim Challies writes: “Over the past three decades, digital technologies have powerfully changed our lives. They are woven into the very way we understand and relate to the world around us. We are now a digital culture. We are no longer who and what we were just a few decades ago.”

Brave New World

The article mentions that those of born in those last 30 years are the first to grow up in this digital age:

Indeed, we are the first generation to experience this brave new culture of digital connectivity, and those who are under fifteen years of age have never known anything different. While many of us are immigrants to this new digital age, our children and grandchildren are natives. It’s all they’ve ever known. It’s all they will know.

Christianity didn’t change at least we hope it hasn’t because of it. The danger is how it can disconnect us from our faith:

Our culture is a swelling sea of digital connectedness. But are we, as Christians, becoming spiritually untethered in the midst of it? Are we being careful and wise with our technology? Are we losing our spiritual moorings in this vast and growing ocean of digital technology and omni-connectedness? Has the endless connectedness of our modern age actually made us less connected to the things that really matter, things that have ultimate significance? For instance, has it made us less connected to God and to our families? Could it be that our gadgets and gizmos that guarantee so much are actually fostering a new level of spiritual and relational superficiality in our lives? Isn’t it time to stop and ask, Do I own my technology or does my technology own me? God’s Word states, “Look carefully how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil” (Eph. 5:15; see also Rom. 12:2).

Watch Your Walk

Those are extremely valid questions, ones we need to take seriously. As the verse in Romans tells us we need to make sure that God is doing the changing and the world isn’t doing the molding:

More than a directive to improve time management, this is a divine command to live circumspectly—to walk with God carefully, purposefully, and wisely. Christians should never live passively, allowing the culture to shape and mold them into its image. Indeed, if we are not careful, the tools of digital technology that we have shaped will soon be shaping us. Social scientists have demonstrated that this is already happening in our culture. Indeed, millions are addicted to their screens because of social media, video games, news, sports, and entertainment.

The article issues a challenge to us and I agree with it:

Dear Christian, this will happen to you if you let the flood of new digital technology roll over you without any serious reflection about how best to harness it for good. Therefore, take some time to evaluate your use of digital technology. And may your most solid and growing connection be to Christ.

That is the best advice we can get for the world we’re living in now. I pray that you and I heed it.