a text . He sent His Son to live , teach , and eat with us . Jesus has returned to His Father , but He has not left believers alone . He has given the Holy Spirit to be with them forever .
Phones are helpful because they enable us to connect with people who are far away . But we must guard against letting the phone ’ s values cause us to devalue face-to-face community . We need to help our students prioritize face-to-face encounters and model for them what it looks like not to let phones distract them from quality conversations .
EXPERIMENTATION
We won ’ t be able to do a good job of valuation unless we have used the technology we ’ re evaluating . That leads me to Dyer ’ s second recommendation : experimentation . It ’ s important to experiment with different technologies and document what we learn . Experimentation is especially helpful when comparing technologies .
Dyer describes an experiment he conducted with sources of news . For two weeks , he purchased a newspaper every day . He avoided television , radio , and websites . He got all his news from the paper . Here ’ s what he learned : “ The differences were staggering . I found that I treated news differently when I paid for it and that I was exposed to stories I normally wouldn ’ t have seen online . I also found it difficult to take a news break at work since everyone could see me pull out the newspaper , whereas no one noticed when I opened up a browser tab to a news website .” 2
This kind of experimentation can be assigned to students as a project . Students can choose an activity that can be done using different technologies ( e . g ., sources of news , ways of communicating with friends , methods of studying for a test ). Then , using a handout provided by the teacher , they can document how these technologies differ from one another and how they make different impacts on the user .
LIMITATION
Valuation and experimentation enable us to understand the blessings and burdens of technology . To ensure that we are maximizing the blessings and managing the burdens , we need to limit our use of technology and encourage our students to do the same . Dyer says this can be viewed as an application of the Bible ’ s theme of rest . God has woven recurring periods of rest into His creation : nighttime , winter , and the Sabbath . God does expect us to work , but He also expects us to step away from our regular duties from time to time .
Resting from technology is especially important because recent technologies are very powerful . There ’ s a huge difference between a typewriter and Google or Instagram . If we never step away from these powerful technologies , we will never develop an accurate perspective on them as both blessings and burdens . We also will not be able to recover from the numbing they cause . To overcome the self-absorption caused by social media use , a person has to do without it for a time . To overcome the habit of shallow reading , a person must walk away from Google and read a book .
TOGETHERNESS One of the most damaging values of recent technology is the individualizing of experiences that once were shared with others . Music , school , church , and entertainment — all of these used to be shared experiences . But now , they can be experienced in isolation with a phone and earbuds . This level of isolation has contributed to a “ cocooning effect ” that leaves our young people feeling less comfortable around others and more inclined toward loneliness and depression .
We need to help our students cultivate the blessing of togetherness . We can do this by encouraging them to decrease their use of technologies that cut them off from other people .
It ’ s possible to listen to music with earbuds , but it ’ s a richer experience when we listen to music with others . We can watch a movie on our phones , but we get more out of it when we watch a movie with others . We can go to church without leaving our house . But when we do , we are watching a service ; we are not experiencing the church . I ’ m not saying we should tell students to throw away their earbuds . They have their place , but most of us need to reduce the place we give to them .
We also need to encourage our students to develop the habit of using their devices in a public way . It is not a good idea for people to lock themselves in a room for hours with their phones and devices . When people are all alone surfing the internet , interacting on social media , or texting , they end up doing things they would never do in public — things they should not do . Tell your young people that if they need to be on their phones , they should do so with other people around . The presence of others will provide the accountability they need , the accountability we all need .
Toward the end of our race ’ s first day , God said something we should never forget : “ It is not good that the man should be alone ” ( Gen . 2:18 ). If that was true in the Garden of Eden before the entrance of sin , how much more is it true at a time when we hold in our hands a window to the entire fallen world ? ■
Dr . Bryan Smith has worked in Christian education for thirty years . He has been a classroom teacher as well as a textbook author . Currently , Bryan serves as the Director of Biblical Worldview at BJU Press . He and his wife , Becky , have six children .
ENDNOTES 1 . John Dyer , From the Garden to the City , Second Edition ( Grand Rapids : Kregel , 2022 ), 212-216 . 2 . Ibid ., 213 .
RENEWANATION . ORG 45