by Ruth Lindberg, MD

Perhaps this is stating the obvious, but technology is both a blessing and a curse. We all experience this on a daily basis. In the last 24 hours, I accessed a Bible commentary on my smartphone to help me understand some confusing passages in Judges. Over email, I helped a missions mobilizer brainstorm about a strategic short-term trip to an unreached people group, and then I texted an old friend who might be a good fit for this opportunity. I also went down an information rabbit hole after a Facebook post from an acquaintance caught my eye as I was scrolling through my feed. I made negligible progress writing this blog post, because the text notifications on my phone kept me from giving it my undivided attention. Screen Time on my iPhone says I picked up my phone 132 times yesterday—what? That can’t be right. Someone else must have been picking my phone up repeatedly while I wasn’t paying attention.

Okay, I confess. It was me, every time. I wasn’t paying attention to what I was paying my attention to. Modern technology’s goal is to capture my attention, and I gave it away without putting up much of a fight.

Our attention is worth a lot of money; companies the world over apply their best and brightest minds to grab their share of it. Why should this matter to us as disciples of Jesus Christ?

It matters because of what it does to our souls. John Mark Comer wrote this in his excellent book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:

“What you give your attention to is the person you become. The mind is the portal to the soul, and what you fill your mind with will shape the trajectory of your character. In the end, your life is no more than the sum of what you gave your attention to.”

None of us start our day with the goal of wasting our one precious life taking in media and an endless stream of information. No one picks up their smartphone thinking, “Okay, now it’s time to let whatever social media puts in front of me shape who I am.” However, attention is like money—we only have so much of it. The more we spend on media and tech, the less we have available to give elsewhere, including to God. As Alan Noble writes in Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, tech “disrupts our ability to encounter and contemplate the holy.” God often speaks to us in a still, small voice. Ever tried to listen to a still, small voice in a crowded room full of noisy conversations?

Tech shapes who we are as individuals, and it also affects our relationships and communities. Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, says humanity is living in a “period of head-spinning technology-driven disruption.” His choice of the word disruption is apt. We’ve all been in conversations with others who are looking at their device the entire time we are talking—a chance for meaningful connection, disrupted. Teachers are bewildered by their students’ inability to sit still—their overstimulated brains unable to sustain concentration on something that doesn’t entertain them—and the education of the entire classroom is disrupted. Social media algorithms that feed us endless helpings of what we already agree with disrupt our ability to appreciate other viewpoints, contributing to the polarization of society.

We all want to pay attention to Jesus and whatever is good, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable. Nevertheless, our devices, full of sound and fury, lead us toward a lesser version of life than the one Jesus wants for us. I want to make space for God to give me that abundant, better life He promised is mine in Christ.

Ready to live this out? Here are a few ideas, many of which have helped me break the spell of tech on my life and have a closer relationship with God:

• Utilize Screen Time to see where you waste the most time. Then delete those apps (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, ESPN, TikTok, Pinterest, games, etc.) or put screen time limits on those problematic apps and websites. I deleted Instagram off my phone for a time after I realized how much time I was spending mindlessly watching Reels. I lose track of time whenever I play mobile games, so those also had to go.
• Don’t have your phone on you or right next to you all the time. I find even having it in my field of vision can distract me, so I put mine just outside of my peripheral vision or put a book on top of it. Start small—how about keeping your phone on the kitchen counter during dinner, rather than in your pocket or on the table?
• Put your phone on silent or Do Not Disturb when you are spending time with God or are getting together with friends or family. Most texts and emails are not emergencies. You can customize your settings so notifications from certain people still come through if necessary.
• Turn app notifications off for all but the most essential ones. Sound notifications for the messaging app I use with my sisters? Sure. Banners that pop up across the top of my screen from my fantasy sports app, YouTube or Target? No, a thousand times no.
• If your biggest time-sucking device is the TV, move it so it isn’t the centerpiece of your living room or cancel your Netflix or Hulu subscription.
• Practice the spiritual disciplines of silence and solitude. Blaise Pascal, the faith-filled French philosopher and mathematician, was spot on when he said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

This will be hard—not only because we are all at least a little addicted to technology, but also because we have an enemy who doesn’t want to give up ground. The devil wants us distracted and shaped by anything and everything but God. Know that turning off tech can be an act of spiritual warfare as well as an act of worship. Ask God to help you resist the siren song of all your tech devices.

Technology is unavoidable in our day, both in our professional and personal lives. To eschew it all is not realistic, but we need to have a healthy suspicion of the technology we give our attention to. Jesus has so much more for us than what our devices can give. Let’s turn off the tech, sit at His feet and choose what is better.

Dr. Ruth Lindberg is a family physician. Her husband Doug is CMDA’s Director of the Center for Advancing Healthcare Missions. She lives in Brookfield, Wisconsin with Doug and their two children.