Tech and Spiritual Growth

I was reading an article at Public Discourse by Deion Kathawa titled, "On Tech and Dignity: The Posthuman Technology That Threatens Us All (Part I)", and wondered how much my exposure to media was affecting my ability to hear the small still voice of God in the midst of the torrent of distractions filling my leisure time.

"In monopolizing and monetizing the fragile and limited human attention span—we could justifiably say that it has been stolen—platforms and providers like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and YouTube anesthetize human creativity. Eventually, they extinguish people’s capacity to experience authentic silence, which is critical for self-reflection and spiritual growth. The longer you’re on social media, the longer you’re subject to the tyranny of the 'endless scroll,' and the less capable you are of experiencing leisure, which is the capacity to ask life’s big “why” questions and to receive answers. Without leisure, we can’t engage in self-reflection, undergo spiritual growth, or experience authentic silence; stripped of meaning, our day-to-day labors degenerate into oppressive toiling."

I would add television to the thieves mentioned above stealing our attention. Pewsterspouse has an element of attention deficit disorder and does not do well with silence. I wonder if the constant din around us has contributed to the rise of this disorder in children, teens, and adults. I wonder if the rise in praise bands in church and less quiet time in some of the megachurches are a means of catering to  the decreased attention spans of people.

Tech has helped us participate in Wednesday night Bible Study with our church family as we live quite a distance from our parish building, so Tech does have some good points.

Tech lets me focus on what God wants me to communicate as well, and I type and think better when I work in silence.

Distractions can be a form of addiction, or a false idol. 

Prayerful silence, focus on God's word. and Jesus are the cures.