Unless you were born after 2010, you’ve lived through the technology revolution that began with the personal computer in the last two decades of the 20th century, but really conquered the world with the “smartphone.”
In less than a decade, these portable hand-held devices went from being communication tools (used primarily for making phone calls and secondarily for sending text messages) to becoming entertainment and information centers.
All of life, it now seems, revolves around the palm of the hand.
With just a few swipes and taps, you can find an answer to almost any question…get directions to any destination…access limitless forms of entertainment…take endless photos…catch up with thousands of “friends”…purchase whatever you need or want…conduct important business transactions…read for research or for pleasure…send email and text messages….
Oh, and make the rare phone call.
As I’ve heard countless times near the end of a YouTube video, “Have I forgotten anything? Let me know in the comments below!”
A techno revolution, for sure. Has any other invention of man so quickly and radically changed the world—and individual lives—as the smartphone? And with all its power and the vast array of helpful resources, life is so much better, right?
There seems to be a growing consensus of voices shouting, “No!” It’s as if a revolt is rising up against the techno revolution!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve encountered some of those voices.
First was the book, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt in which he seeks to answer the question, “What happened to young people in the early 2010s?” He summarizes his work this way:
The Anxious Generation offers an explanation by telling two stories. The first is about the decline of the play-based childhood, which began in the 1980s and accelerated in the ‘90s. All mammals need free play, and lots of it, to wire up their brains during childhood to prepare them for adulthood. But many parents in Anglo countries began to reduce children’s access to unsupervised outdoor free play out of media-fueled fears for their safety, even though the “real world” was becoming increasingly safe in the 1990s. The loss of free play and the rise of continual adult supervision deprived children of what they needed most to overcome the normal fears and anxieties of childhood: the chance to explore, test and expand their limits, build close friendships through shared adventure, and learn how to judge risks for themselves.
The second story is about the rise of the phone-based childhood, which began in the late 2000s and accelerated in the early 2010s. This was precisely the period during which adolescents traded in their flip phones for smartphones, which were loaded with social media platforms supported by the new high-speed internet and unlimited data plans.
The confluence of these two stories in the years between 2010 and 2015 is what I call the “Great Rewiring of Childhood.” Few of us understood what was happening in children’s virtual worlds and we lacked the knowledge to protect them from tech companies that had designed their products to be addictive.
Among his helpful pieces of advice, he suggests:
- “Don’t give a smartphone as the first phone.”
- “Don’t give a smartphone until high school.”
- “Delay the opening of accounts on nearly all social media platforms until the beginning of high school (at least).”
Evidently, Haidt is deeply disturbed by the effects of that technological marvel glued to the hands of naïve users.
I heard the second voice while listening to an investment-centered podcast. The host was interviewing his friend/guest who launched Techless, a company dedicated to producing “The Smartest Dumb Phone.” The targeted consumers are “people who want to reclaim screen time.”
The
Smartest
Dumb
Phone
Techless founder Chris explains the company’s mission:
Big Tech was built on the attention economy, a system where companies profit at the expense of our well-being. The convenience of “free” came at a significant hidden cost—one that is much higher than we thought it would be. I’m on a mission to redefine the world’s expectations for consumer technology. Let’s stop playing the game and push back against the exploitative practices of the attention economy. I want to create practical and beautiful solutions that have healthy design principles driving them. I want to not settle for “ethical” or “humane.” I want to do what I can to redeem this industry.
So his company developed a phone that has just a few essential “apps,” like a calculator, clock, notes, maps, camera, phone, and messages. No browser, no social media, no endless, mindless scrolling. And people are buying them!
The third voice came through a review and subsequent purchase of Erin Loechner’s book The Opt-Out Family.
The first part of her book shares some startling statistics that echo those cited by The Anxious Generation. While acknowledging that most concerned voices rightly focus on the amount of time spent on our devices, Loechner goes deeper, noting:
“time is no longer the only currency worth considering…. What about attention? What’s to be said of innocence lost? Of neurological patterns altered? Of lies believed?” (p. 15)
A few of the stats she mentioned gave me pause (pp. 16-17):
- Three months after starting to use a smartphone, users of all ages experience a significant increase in social conformity. Brain scans show that heavy users have significantly reduced neural activity in their right prefrontal cortex, a condition also seen in ADHD, and linked with serious behavioral abnormalities such as impulsivity and poor attention.
- 46% of parents report encountering YouTube videos that were inappropriate for their child’s age.
- Children who have been cyberbullied are three times more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers.
- More than half of middle schoolers in the United States cannot distinguish advertising from real news, or fact from fiction.…
- 40% of thirteen- to seventeen-year-olds report it is “normal for people my age to share nudes with each other.”
- 66% is the increase in the risk of suicide-related outcomes among teen girls who spend more than five hours a day on social media.
- 41% of teenagers say they are addicted to their mobile devices, and 36% say they sometimes wish they could go back to a time when there was no Meta [Facebook].
- 56% of parents say they spend too much time on their smartphones, while 68% say they are sometimes distracted by their phones when spending time with their children.
- Researchers have linked social-media use with decreased marital quality….
“The numbers don’t lie,” Loechner concludes, “social media and an overreliance on smartphone use are, at best, diminishing our lives and, at worst, destroying us. We see it. We feel it. We know it.”
That’s as far as I’ve gotten in The Opt-Out Family, but the subtitle gives a sense of what the book’s about: “How to give your kids what technology can’t.” I look forward to reading her suggestions.
As I see, hear, and read about increasing pushback—a revolt, if you will—against the technological revolution, I interpret it as a very practical 21st-century application of a 1st-century bit of Pauline exhortation.
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
– Romans 12:2
How easily we can be squeezed into the mold designed by the tech industry without our conscious awareness! Recall Loechner’s observation, “Three months after starting to use a smartphone, users of all ages experience a significant increase in social conformity.”
We see the value and benefits of a mobile phone and make the purchase. Good enough. I can now conveniently communicate whenever and with whomever I need. But how many of us have gradually—or not so gradually!—installed app after app without giving much thought to the impact on my time, thinking, desires, relationships…my soul!
As a starting point for all of us smartphone users who care to live according to God’s design, perhaps we should take a look at the app list on our phone and ask of each one, “Will this app further the renewing of my mind? Will this app further my fulfillment of God’s will for my life, promoting ‘what is good and acceptable and perfect’?”
You know, there’s a cool little feature connected to each app icon. If you hold your finger on the icon, an option box appears. And one of those options is “Uninstall”!
I tried it with Facebook, and it works! It disappeared!
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