The Role of Technology in Our Lives
How much time do you spend on the internet? With technology? With your phone?
Seriously. Think about how many hours you spend emailing, plain checking your email, surfing the internet, looking up recipes, playing with your phone, etc.
Do you feel you can step away from your computer? Your phone? Or at times, do you feel they own you more than you own it?
When you are surfing the internet, here is something to think about: is it benefiting you only or others as well? Do we selfishly spend time surfing, only feeding into our selfish wants, not realizing we could be surfing to find different ways to encourage or help others?
I want to get a little more personal and share with you how technology can effect my faith as well. I don’t want to waste my life – I don’t want to waste it in a job, living complacent, and not on the internet. Being a blogger, I spend a LOT of time on the internet. I sometimes question myself: if Jesus were to come back right now, would I be proud of what He found me doing? Granted I think it will be a more “triumphant” entry, but each moment, our all-knowing God, knows what we are doing. Do I feel I am wasting precious hours just surfing the internet? At times I do. Facebook. Am I surfing people’s lives on facebook because I care or just because I am nosy? Do I do something WITH the care I have for a person – do I tell them? Send them a message? Say a prayer for them?
Technology can also separate us from the very relationships we have been blessed with. For example, the dinner table. Pet peeve of mine? Answering texts or cell phones while at the table. What happened to uninterrupted family time? What about parenting – do you find yourself using the tv or ipad as electronic babysitters? Many families allow televisions in their kids’ rooms. Not that I am completely against that, but how often is each family member in their own room, watching who knows what, while you TOGETHER could be watching a program and interacting during it? Family time is precious and priceless. How are you choosing to spend it?
My husband and I have chosen not to have a tv in our bedroom. We watch tv before we go to bed, but our bedroom is called a BEDROOM for a reason – to sleep in. We want to protect and live up to the names of the rooms in our home. We also do not have cable because we know we would be mindlessly surfing through channels, like we can do with the internet all too often.
If your kids have their own computer and own tv, where is the boundary line of what they can watch and surf on the internet? Do you set limits? Limits on the number of hours they can spend on a technological device? If you allow them to spend countless hours on the computer, do you encourage them to spend the same number of hours outside?
Technology is something I have always struggled with personally. I do not want to become addicted, yet how I communicate and what I do (blogging) requires me to be on the internet. I have to set boundaries for myself. I sometimes find myself attached and realize I need to just STEP AWAY! Take a break. Go for a walk. Do something NOT with technology. This even means turning off the radio or Pandora.
Listening to LIFE is a beautiful thing.
Does how you use technology hinder how YOU listen to life? To God? Is your life so cluttered with technology that you often don’t HEAR God? Sometimes He speaks in those still, small whispers – are you ready, willing, and available to listen?
How are you spending your life? Each moment of the day? Do you have any regrets? Especially when it comes to technology? Don’t fear change or fear of the unknown. Take a leap and say “no” to that next click. To that next lead. To that next website.
Take time to just BE.
Well said! I have recently become "addicted" to YouTube videos. Like potato chips I can't seem to stop at "just one." I know I am too busy to get sucked in, and yet I seem to waste hours of my life watching videos.
Thank you for this timely post. I believe I will print out your wise words and post them in a conspicuous place to remind me.
I like how you said that you get "sucked in" because that is what happens with so much in life! I find myself getting easily addicted to things – it can be so simple to spend 5 minutes too long on a website or surfing the web. It is just too easy. Takes so much self-control! Thank you for your comment and feel free to print away too :).