We need to be equipped to live in a world that is consumed with technology. It takes a lot of wisdom and self-control to know how to navigate life in a digital world. I believe this is one of the most important areas of discipleship today and we need to align our use of technology to God’s purposes and for God’s glory.
Defining the Problem
We are consumed by digital technology. It is affecting us in dramatic ways:
The organization EyeSafe found that screen time for adults rose during COVID from 10 hours/day in 2019 to over 13 hours/day in 2020! The average adult only has 3 hours of non-screen time during their waking hours!
The National Institute of Health reported that children ages 2-17 who have more than 1 hour/day of screen time have less curiosity, lower self-control, more distractibility, more difficulty making friends, less emotional stability, are more difficult to care for, and struggle to finish tasks.
The NIH also found that teenagers ages 14-17 who use screens more than 7+ hours/day are twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression.
Barna reported that only 13% of parents said that technology added joy to their lives and only 9% said it made them a better parent. Whereas 42% of parents said it caused them to waste time and 40% said it made them more distracted.
The shift to online school, remote work, and the increase in down-time at home during COVID have only made these problem more challenging!
What Does the Bible Say About Technology?
When God created human beings in his image, male and female, he gave them this command in Genesis 1:28, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Our God-ordained task is to be fruitful as God’s co-rulers for God’s glory!
How do we do this? Genesis 2:15 says that God put us in his creation to “work it and take care of it.” Our two tasks are to cultivate and protect God’s creation by using the skill, knowledge, and wisdom God gave us. The key is stewardship. We serve God through all of our human creativity and care, often developing technology to help us be wise stewards.
Technology can help us, as when Noah built a boat to follow God’s redemptive plan in Genesis 6-9. But technology can also go horribly wrong. In Genesis 4:17 Cain built a city for protection, relying on his own ingenuity rather than God. In Genesis 11 the Tower of Babel stood as a monument to human engineering to reach up to heaven, but God came down to scatter the people. You see, sometimes human technology can claim to be savior.
PRINCIPLE: When technology is placed in careful and wise service of our God-ordained role to steward creation, it brings God glory. But when technology usurps its subservient role and instead becomes our task-master or savior, it leads to idolatry.
Beware of the Idol of Progress
Our culture is marked by the idol of progress. We must realize that progress can be a false salvation story. It goes something like this: “If we work together and use our ingenuity, we can solve the crises of our day and achieve peace and wealth and happiness. We just need to look to the future, blaze a new trail, trust in ourselves, and we can do this!”
If progress is the goal, then technology is often sold as the means to that goal. One commentator put it this way: “If progress is god, then technology is his messiah come to do his will on earth.”
Here is the center of the issue for Christians: We must reject the false salvation story of progress and technology. These things must be put in their proper place: under the Lordship of Jesus and for the glory of God!
Putting Technology in its Proper Place
Andy Crouch in his book The Tech-Wise Family gives some helpful principles for putting technology in its proper place. It is time for Christians to discern the ways in which we have let technology over-step its subservient role in our God-given task of stewardship.
Ask yourself: What kind of fruit is technology bearing in my life? Are digital devices making my family more or less healthy and fruitful image-bearers of God?
Here are some helpful concepts to start a conversation with your family about putting technology in its proper place:
Relationships: Technology is in its proper place when it helps us bond with the real people we have been given to love. It is out of place when we use it to attempt to bond with people at a distance, like celebrities, whom we will never meet.
Connection: Technology is in its proper place when it inspires us to start conversations or connections with each other, or when it drives us to prayer and communion with God. It is out of place when it isolates us and prevents us from in-person connection or loving each other and God.
Humanness: Technology is in its proper place when it helps us take care of our bodies and embrace our humanness within God’s design. It is out of place when we buy-in to the false promise that technology will help us escape our human limits and vulnerabilities.
Culture: Technology is in its proper place when it helps us explore, learn, and master the skills and creative expressions of human culture that bring glory to God (music, cooking, art, accounting, sports, etc). It is out of place when we let technology replace the development of skill with passive consumption.
Awe: Technology is in its proper place when it helps us cultivate awe for God and for His works in creation. It is out of place when it replaces or inhibits our proper worship of God and our engagement in the natural world that God created for our good and his glory.
Wisdom: Technology is in its proper place when we use it with intentionality, care, and wisdom. It is out of place when we let technology dictate the terms of engagement and when we assume that technology is harmless or our savior.