Media & Technology
iPhone as Dinner Date, Night Market, Hong Kong
Media and technology are everywhere. As I sit here in Huntington Imaging Center waiting to get X-rays a man walks in and comments, “Everyone is on a device.” I stop writing, look around and see the 15 other patients in the room all staring at a screen; most phones, but two working on laptops. Me? I’m writing this paragraph on my phone. What does this mean? Is this a positive phenomenon? I get home and around the dinner table I remind my children that their phones are to be charging in the kitchen by 10pm and that under no circumstances are they allowed to sleep with their phones. “You must disconnect,” I preach as we pass the salt and pepper around the table. What does this mean? Is this a positive phenomenon?
Briggs’, A Social History of The Media helps me contextualize the experiences of my afternoon and evening. Fighting against the assumptions that media is making everything worse and that media is improving everything (P2), Briggs offers a short history of media that is balanced and fascinating. Reading this book put into perspective for me that fear and religion have gone hand-in-hand with media since it’s beginning. Even though there is no agreed upon “ground zero” of when the phenomenon of “The Media” actually started, fear and religion have always been partners with it.
Fear
I fear what media is doing to my children and members of my church…and me. I love my iPhone and could not be a bivocational pastor without it. I believe, like Martin Luther did about the printing press, that my iPhone is, “God’s highest gift of grace” (P24). I have the power to multitask and pastor and teach and write sermons and lesson plans in the palm of my hand. Just like the advent of newspapers taking a more important role than pamphlets during the American Revolution (P85), my iPhone is essential to church planting. Because of the power of technology and media accessible through my phone, I pioneered a local church here in southern California, and am planting in urban and rural Uganda.
With this grace comes fear. Just like mobs destroying the first printing press station in Russia, the “priestcraft” of monks, and the subversion of power by the Greeks with their alphabet to the monopoly of power Egyptian priests had through their hieroglyphs, I am afraid my teens don’t need me anymore for knowledge. If they don’t need me, then I lose control of them. I lose power over them. Then I start to feel the same way about the people in the church I pastor. They don’t need me to gain Biblical knowledge. There are countless amazing sermons and Bible tools at the touch of their fingers. I fear I will become irrelevant to my children and my flock. Like Postman, I fear my children and my disciples have the potential to “amuse themselves (and their spiritual life) to death” (P220). Briggs shows us that society has always changed as a result of media. Parenting and pastoring are two things that must evolve to keep up with new media!
Religion
Media and religion go, and have always gone, together. Judaism, Islam, and Christianity have historically been oral cultures with the need of “face-to-face” communication (P7). According to Emile Male, Christians could learn everything they needed to learn from going to church and seeing the images and statues located there (P8). Media for Ottoman Turks was full of sin (P14). Sermons, books, and blogs are each significant parts of our current media frenzy. Media has helped and hindered Christianity in America, and Christianity in America has helped grow the media. I was especially happy to read about Thomas Malthus and his contributions through media, to not only church as a pastor, but to the field of economics as a bivocational pastor!
It might seem ironic at first that one of the most recent books we are reading for this class feels so outdated. Briggs writes about Afghanistan and Iraq with no mention of ISIS (because it didn’t exist at the writing of this book) or Obama sending more troops to Syria. Briggs’ numbers on Facebook uses are well, so 2008! Now there are billions of Facebook users and even this cohort relies heavily on Facebook. However, upon reflection, this phenomenon is not ironic at all. It is simply the nature of media today. Media needs to be viewed “as a system, a system of perpetual change, including technological change, in which different elements play greater or smaller roles” (P 5). Everything changes. Today media is morphing at a increasingly rapid rate. This causes fear, and makes me seek Jesus and His freedom more and more.
About the Author
Aaron Peterson
I am a working priest which means that I am a husband(to Lisa), dad(to four wonderful children), senior pastor and church planter(The Hub Vineyard Church), and high school social studies teacher(Verdugo Hills High School LAUSD). I am currently working towards a DMIN in Leadership & Global Perspectives @George Fox Seminary.9 responses to “Media & Technology”
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Aaron,
As you described the waiting room scene I thought of one of my favorite lines from the tv show, M*A*S*H (I think from the mouth of Col Potter), “If you’re not where you are, you’re nowhere.” When I see scenes similar to what you’ve described, or depicted in your i-phone dinner date picture, I want to ask, “Why can’t you just be where you are?” It seems like no matter where people are, or who they’re with, they want to be somewhere else. This is deeply troubling. Now, the waiting room is different from the dinner picture (I think) but still…
Does your family own a television? If so, is it ever on during dinner? What would you say to people who want the tv on during dinner?
Hi Marc. Yes we own a TV but it is not in our living room or dining room. When the Dodgers make the playoffs or other special occasions we will take our dinner to the TV Room and watch and eat. Other than that, I tell my kids that I value them too much and our time together to share with TV or their phones.
AP,
Good post….like you, I have a healthy dose of fear with media especially with young girls. How do you warn or safeguard your church and family about the responsible uses of media?
J
This is a real issue in the church. I did preach a sermon, “The Hub & Facebook,” after one of our people posted some inappropriate pics of our Marriage Retreat. I think it helped. I think social media is another opportunity for discipleship.
Aaron,
That is the same strategy with the phone that I use with my own teenager. Her phone and my phone are in the kitchen at night to charge and to help us both resist the temptation to be in conversation in the middle of the night with anyone. This has saved me much heart ache and a struggle over this powerful tool of communication.
Student ministry has this new and unique issue that students sitting around a table like you have pictured would prefer to text each other instead of talking to the person setting right next to you. It is a major phenomenon that I have to work really hard at breaking because I can do the same thing.
The art of oral communication or even personal communication is a new art form. How do you encourage breaking this issue and how do your enforce that in your school and in your church?
I know when we travel and go to camp I have ziplock baggies for everyones phone to go into for five days. Amazing how much closer our kids are after a week of really communicating with their friends. Amazing.
Hope all is well and enjoyed this post.
Kevin
I love the ziplock baggie idea!
When we do worship with youth group we pass a basket around and ask each person to put their phone in it. A reverse offering if you will.
However, I’m finding adults are just as bad, if not worse, than the teens.
Aaron,
Great blog and great insight! I very much resonate and agree with your sentiments: :Everything changes. Today media is morphing at a increasingly rapid rate. This causes fear, and makes me seek Jesus and His freedom more and more.” With the rapid rate of change, do you see a backlash against media that would slow or reverse it’s pace?
Aaron
Hey Aaron. I just don’t see it slowing or reversing. You?
Love the opening of your post! I recently read, “The group most likely to see themselves as lonely, stressed out, and concerned about the future is the unmarried, whether divorced or never headed to the altar” (Churchless, Barna & Kinnaman, 21). Why? Why are singles experiencing the most stress compared to their married contemporaries? Perhaps, we have created a society where men and women date their iPhone, instead of the individual. Perhaps, we have created a community where communication is locked behind a screen and a keyboard. Most young adults are adding their detailed profiles to Match.com in a search for that special someone; however, I tend to wonder if they’re really searching to end their singleness or appease their loneliness.
Many friends have chosen to ‘disconnect’ during Lent; however, I’ve never been brave enough to remove my connection to the world. I feel like if I ‘disconnect’ I’ll be losing the ability to influence. So much of my ministry is tied to being online. This can be an incredible source of connection in reaching the world, but it can also lead to personal burnout. How have you found the balance of reaching others through an online presence and disconnecting for individual health? Do you find it difficult to disconnect without feeling guilty?