On Tuesday I wrote a post entitled “Don’t Let Google Make You Stupid“, wondering if blogs, Twitter, texting, and email, combined with my sinful, lazy heart, are causing me drift away from hard reading and hard thinking. My greatest concern is that my ability to grapple with and think deeply about the scriptures may suffer.
So how am I going to fight the Google Machine? Here’s just a few things I’m hoping to implement more consistently in my life:
Fight For Real Reading
Blog reading, email, Twitter, Facebook, and texting are in some ways like junk food. Easy to consume large quantities without getting anything of substance. And to be honest, it’s so easy to just fire up my laptop and munch on a few quick emails. If that’s not bad enough, my phone is chirping every fifteen minutes to inform me that I have a new email.
I want to fight for chunks of real, substantive reading, starting with the scriptures and delving into other brain-busting, soul-expanding books. I want to ponder the scriptures, drawing out the connections between the great storyline of the Bible. I want to read books written by people that plumbed the depths of scripture. I need real food for my soul.
Slow Down
This is purely practical. At times I need to slow down, ponder, and apply. I don’t want to just know God’s truth, I want to live God’s truth. I need to connect biblical truth to where I’m living. Hitting the brakes and pondering a profound sentence in a book like “Sin & Temptation” will move me in that direction.
If a blog post is particularly good, I find it helpful to print it off. I’m tempted to skim when I read from a screen. Actual paper slows me down.
Write It Down
There’s something about ink spilling onto a page that brings clarity to thought and focus to the mind. As I read scripture and scratch my thoughts onto the creamy pages of my Moleskine journal, I find myself focused on the words before me. Writing keeps my mind tethered to what I’m reading. It allows me to string thoughts together. My pen is a weapon in the battle against distraction.
Pray
I don’t want to miss the obvious and most important. Apart from the empowering grace of God, I’ll always default to the path of least resistance. I need God’s grace, and I’m confident he’ll convict where necessary and give me grace to change.
Blogs, Facebook, Twitter, texting, email – all tools to be used for the glory of God. I just want to keep them in their proper place.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Amen. Thanks.
Thanks for giving me a healthy look at my terrible reading habits. I really do need to carve out more time to read those soul-expanding books that help me grow in my walk with Christ. Fantastic post.
Brilliant advice, thanks!
after the post from the other day, i’ve been challenged to set aside more time for reading. last night was one of those nights and it was so encouraging… esv study Bible, exodus… the red sea…
thanks!
I can’t highly enough recommend doing a social media fast (no FB, Twitter, etc…). I did this for 40 days up until the election. It was extremely helpful in reminding me to pray throughout the day when I would normally be distracted by online banter.
I appreciated your last post on Google and this one. What I’ve started to do is do more book reviews on my blog. And since I’m now getting free books from publishers for me to review on my blog, I’m using my blog to commit myself to having to read books. So the more I blog, the more I will read. It seems like a win-win situation for me, and so far its working out well.
Blessings in Christ,
Bob Hayton
I have feeling the same way about how much time I spend on the internet reading. I do try and read edifying things, but it is getting in the way of more important things.
Very, Very, Very true….
Wow – this was so helpful. I’ve known for a couple of months now that my reading habits were not what they used to be. Thanks for the practical help!
Great suggestions, and I think all those things will bear fruit. Where distractions abound, the fight for more discipline is called for. Thanks for an encouraging follow-up!
Great post, Stephen! Thanks for the helpful suggestions. Sometimes it helps me to just turn off the computer, period.
I agree that in this era we are subject to 'flash'. As a composer of music, I find people have been conditioned to expect immediate stimuli in anything and everything involving entertainment. However, perhaps that marks the direction mankind is to take. It's impossible to say that it should be one way or the other.
The 'old world' promoted values like 'think before you speak' and that 'logic' must be present in art and literature. The 'new world' seems much more hell-bent on raw emotion, immediate reaction. The latter has it's pros and cons of course. The cons seem obvious, as for the pros, it helps us immediately question information. This trait would seem important for those who spend a lot of time on the internet.
However, fasting from the internet, in my opinion, would serve little to know purpose. If you are able to identify what it is that you dislike about the use of internet, then the next natural step would be to reach some sort of decision on how to fix it for the long-term. I highly doubt taking a 40 day break from using the internet is going to do anything for you other than heighten your desire to return.
The internet is a wonderful and powerful tool that I am sure will be spoken about in our future history books as a defining technological and sociological development of civilization.
It's not my intention to attack the author of this post, but I must point out that the title 'Fighting the Google machine' and the key message 'Don't let Google make you stupid' seems to me like a desperate attempt at attracting readers.
In fact, I would go as far as to say that this article is making something out of nothing. I don't believe Google or the internet is to blame. It is the nature of our sociality, at least for that which concerns the occidental world.
The internet, as plentiful in great information as it is, is still in it's infancy. Strong sources of information are actually quite rare. But let us not forget that even with the inauguration of such important defining educational tools such as the Encyclopaedia, there existed a transitional phase in which the good information was weeded from the bad information. However, this source acting as a book for instructions on how to build different objects would demonstrate nevertheless the basic principals. I'm sure taking a 40 day break from the Encyclopaedia wouldn't have accomplished much.
Aside from the educational benefits of the internet, the most prominent areas are business and socializing. In my opinion, one of the greatest feats of the internet is the ability to speak with other people from countries foreign to your area. I have created strong friendships via the internet with people who I have never met and may never meet due to the distance. One of the most amazing things I can point out is that through these friendships, stereotypes and prejudiced beliefs that have been in existence since the massacre of Saint-Barthélemy have been nullified through these bonds of friendship and the in-depth look into one's culture.
If you need a reason to rejoice your love for Jesus Christ or whichever God you may believe in, please don't confuse yourself and others with this kind of notion. We don't need to point the finger at something in hopes to say life could be better if only we did this or that, etc. etc. Be happy that you are alive, be happy that you have food, that you have friends, that you have family, and that you have the internet!
So long as colleges, universities and other higher learning institutes that promote a school of thought that puts into question anything and everything we have learned as a civilized and sentient species, human beings will continue to become more and more educated.
Lastly, please don't confuse the evolution of language with it's quality, i.e. 'spelling, definition of words'. I realize for some people, and obviously the author of this blog, change is not easy. However, change is inevitable my good sir.
P.S.
Here are a few 'chunks of real, substantive reading':
Charles Darwin – On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Richard Dawkins – The Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins – Evolution: The Greatest Show on Earth
P.S.S.
Isn't it so cool how we can talk about this things thanks to the internet.