The Grand Master
I grew up in the 70’s and I recall being allowed on the house phone for a certain amount of time. I was not allowed to be on it for too long as I was told I’d be seeing them in person or was already with them earlier that day. It was revolutionary for us when the extra-long telephone cords came out because then we could have private conversations in a nearby room with some privacy. That long phone cord created a new tension for our parents. They were simper times! The local library, the daily newspaper that was delivered fostered healthy offerings of learnings and growth for us. My parents did not have to contend with computers, cell phones, smart phones, phone applications and social media platforms. We had a phone on the wall that we shared, we watched one television show that our family members negotiated to watch together, our parents helped us navigate the entertainment and educational information that was brought into our home. We as a family were the Grandmaster of our intellectual and social influence. In our current reality there is an urgency to assess the long-term implications for the mental and social well-being of ourselves, our loved ones and the greater community. Society at large need to implement reforms to address challenges posed by social media.
In Smash the Technopoly there is a profound warning in Postman’s question “Who is the master?” he says, “It is increasingly clear that it ain’t us!”[1] That statement is poignant to me and here’s why. I’ve personally been impacted by the deep dive of technology addiction. The last few years my professional responsibility meant I had to respond to crisis in a timely manner, I had many direct reports, the pace was fast, and the stakes were high. The computer and my smart phone were joined at my hip. I was constantly checking my phone, wanting to be on top of everything, in response I suffered from insomnia, so I would scroll on social media until I fell asleep. I woke up responding to emails, checking text messages and I was applauded for my stellar performance, even those close to me felt it was just par for the course. Yet I was vulnerable and emotionally unhealthy. The articles are more personal to many of us than we might even know. I knew I needed intervention, but my overseers, mentors and peers did not have the awareness intervention is needed or how to respond effectively. I felt I was losing my humanity. The Anxious Generation says it’s about the changes we need to make to ourselves, intentionally to preserve our humanity.[2] The younger generation seem to be more aware of technology and social media’s negative impact seeing that 81% of young learners would choose to erase the smartphone and social media.[3]
In Technopoly, Postman helps us to distinguish between bring a tool-using culture and a technopoly. He highlights how some cultures have moral resources necessary to constrain and direct the uses for these tools.[4] There is an intrigue to building a healthy tool-using culture. We possess a powerful tool and we can retain this collective control by having a “Samurai Code.” The Samurai retrained the use of the katana sword by having strict regulations. There was a demand of honor required for the use of that sword.[5]
We see the intentions for the use of social media has changed. Facebooks early mission was “to make the world more open and connected.” [6]Unfortunately, the optimism has faded and there are greater harms. Communication is not as interactive, there isn’t the human intimacy of reciprocity. Rather, we have more of a grandstanding of personal opinions, polarity and commentary.[7] I do see a hope in this tension. I see the next generation is struggling to find healthier ways of reclaiming that control over their lives. I often see them taking social media fasts, publishing they won’t be on certain platforms due the manipulation, exploiting of emotions, fake personas, echo chambers, cyberbullying and sometimes the addiction and over-engagement. I see that road to reclaiming our humanity.
I felt anxiety reading The Past 10 Years. We’ve all experienced the political climate and how polarized it has been. This article affirms all we’ve been navigating with the Political Polarizations and Divisions, Extreme views on the social media platforms, Civil discourse, decline of critical thinking and decline of trust.[8] What I found refreshing was the note of hope Haidt says can be fostered by a renewed commitment for truth and civil discourse. I think due to the personal experiences of mental unhealth the collective is seeking to provide a healthier landscape for this.
In conclusion we see that we need to provide solutions, we need to lean in and implement reforms to label AI-generated content, be diligent in identifying misinformation and polarization. The AI is about to make Social Media more toxic shares the solution of urging policy makers and technology company’s to implement reforms.[9]
As I ponder my NPO “The Trust and Legacy Initiative, powered by The Collective People,” we need to think about our post-institutional reality. How is social media and technology impacting the health of our future generations of believers. What are we doing to create healthy change for our future leaders and faith-based organizations. Although it seems daunting, we need to embrace the reality there is a decline in childhood, the rise of smartphone use is impacting the humanity of people interacting and building community, our next generation is struggling with mental health due to our social media.[10] As leaders we need to lead change yet first we need to be aware of the impact of technology and we need to have clarity of how change can happen through policy interventions, educational reforms and parental involvement. We can bring the Kingdom of God here on earth even in this digital age so that we can help empower the next generation to be the Grand Master of their healthy mental, spiritual and physical life.
[1] Smyth, Nicholas. “Smash the Technopoly!” After Babel, December 19, 2024, https://www.afterbabel.com/p/smash-the-technopoly
[2] Smyth, Nicholas. “Smash the Technopoly!” After Babel, December 19, 2024, https://www.afterbabel.com/p/smash-the-technopoly
[3] Jon and Zach’s findings that just about 50% of Gen Z’s report wishing that TikTok and X were never invented
[4] Smyth, Nicholas. “Smash the Technopoly!” After Babel, December 19, 2024, https://www.afterbabel.com/p/smash-the-technopoly
[5] Smyth, Nicholas. “Smash the Technopoly!” After Babel, December 19, 2024, https://www.afterbabel.com/p/smash-the-technopoly
[6] Haidt, Jonathan and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. “The Dark Psychology of Social Networks: Why it feels like everything is going haywire,” The Atlantic, December 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/
[7] Haidt, Jonathan and Tobias Rose-Stockwell. “The Dark Psychology of Social Networks: Why it feels like everything is going haywire,” The Atlantic, December 2019, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/12/social-media-democracy/600763/
[8] Haidt, Johnathan “Why the Past Ten Years have been Uniquely Stupid” The Atlantic; 2022; 9https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
[9] Haidt, Jonathan, Eric Schmidt “AI Is About to Make Social Media Much More Toxic” The Atlantic (blog), May 5, 2023; https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/05/generative-ai-social-media-integration-dangers-disinformation-addiction/673940/
[10] Jonathan Haidt, “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” The Atlantic (blog), March 13, 2024, https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/.
About the Author
Judith McCartney
10 responses to “The Grand Master”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Judith,
Thank you for sharing your own challenges with technology. I am sorry to hear that and hope that there has been some relief from the anxiety and insomnia that it was causing.
I agree with your articulation of the need for society at large to implement reforms, yet I struggle to see how that can come through the legislative system in today’s inflamed political climate. Could you share your thoughts on how we, as leaders, can have a meaningful impact in that area?
Hi Darren,
Thank you for your comments. I have found relief from the impact of technology as of late. Had to make some important decisions to protect my health.
I agree with you regarding legislation and how that may not be a strong choice for long term change and sustainability. I think we need to make changes one person at a time. Sometimes we just need to look at change through the lens of humanity. Humanity can make changes by starting with changing themselves and in turn inspiring others to do the same. I feel we need to have a roadmap for this change and align ourselves with like-minded people who can share their best practices. We can change the world one person at a time.
I appreciate your comments Darren.
Judith
You are becoming my nostalgia queen. First, banana seats. Today, wall phones with long cords. I challenge you to weave in the oversized Goody comb in your back pocket. Kids these days and their loud music just don’t understand.
I’ve been concerned about the effects of social media since watching the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma. The articles rightly focus on the harm to adolescents who have not formed a healthy sense of self. Your description of being tethered to your mobile phone illustrates that we all can be manipulated by the attention-demanding information age. When the pandemic caused our engineering team to work from home, I gave quite a bit of coaching on how to create boundaries and separation rather than sleep from the office. I’m sorry that your environment lauded the opposite.
Your description is past tense. What caused the change?
Hi Rich,
I feel lately I’ve been incredibly nostalgic! Fun that you noticed that. Life seemed to be much simpler before the social platforms and technology. The irony of the impact of technology in the ministry world was the tension. It took me a good 7 months to experience the unhealthy ministry landscape and I chose to resign. I tried my very best to self-direct the urgent pace, but the infrastructure would not allow me to. My health was being impacted and knew I had to leave. Its almost been 2 weeks since I left and I feel much healthier.
Judith, the wall phones with longer cords bring back memories. We weren’t even that sophisticated in our home. For years, it was one phone within earshot of everyone. You kept your act very clean, and there wasn’t much privacy.
I empathize with your story about how you worked through a critical and time-consuming problem and its effects on your personal health. I went through a different challenge as a leader, and the responsibility and weight it carried were crushing.
I always felt behind and needed to outthink the “enemy.” I was on social media clockspeed and adjusting on the fly. This week’s articles brought that back to the surface in an unhealthy way.
Your post did strike home with me in a different way. Some articles focused on the Anxious Generation, which grew up with the tools. But as you and I have shared from personal and professional experience, we aren’t exempt from challenging situations that revolve around using these tools. We were both slaves to the master but in different situations. What do you see as distinct from a strategy for individuals in our generation to work through this? Do we have the necessary set of disciplines to wield the sword differently? We might have the discipline, but not the speed?
I recently convinced my mother to switch from a flip phone to a smartphone, intending to make her (and our) life a bit “easier” because she now lives alone. There are technological advantages to communicating and locating services, but we stripped it down to the basics. She doesn’t get issued the entire arsenal of weaponry.
Thank you!
Hi Michael, thanks for sharing your personal experiences with the cord phone and your recent experience with your mother! Technology has such a great impact on us today.
Do we have a set of disciplines to wield the sword differently? I’d say we need greater awareness to start. It feels like the story of the frog in the kettle. Its a slow impact but great negative long-term experience. The disciplines is one thing but I’ve been thinking more about how awareness and then creating a workable model that provides resources to keep us healthy in this world of technology. I think we need to take the time to become more self aware of technology’s impact and then be vigilant in finding those who can share their best practices with us so we can discipline ourselves to lean into a healthier version of technology. The world of technology has grown so quickly and we are blindsided. We need to catch up to the reality of what’s going on.
The scary part is that many folks are doing nothing to respond to it because they do not know how.
Judith, the celebrational response of your constant availability and response time is a very relatable situation. I’m glad you brought this up. EXPECTATION is the word that comes to mind. What new types of expectations could leaders cultivate practically, that both meet the needs of the work at hand and create health for those doing the work?
Is this still an issue for you? Have you changed these habits? If so, how? Asking for a friend…
The expectations for leaders usually come from within, yet I felt an urgency to help a church that needed much of my time. I was telling myself it was only going to be for a short while but it was never-ending. I eventually resigned and that was recent. I was capable, but the infrastructure was pacing this unhealthy landscape.
I have been in ministry 42 years and this is the first time in the last 20+ years there was incredible pressure to outperform. Healthy Leaders need to identify what is healthy for them. Our identity is in Christ and not in all the things we do. I knew what was a healthy pace yet the landscape had a recent crisis and I was too invested. Most of us know when we need to pivot and balance. The gold in my life was the support of my spiritual mentors, they helped to assure me of the value I bring and in tandem, they would unpack what was healthy for me during that uncertain future. Also knowing myself well helped to direct my personal confidence that it was time to resign. I had the resources to identify organizational and leadership health, I gathered the courage to move on.
1. listen to the Holy Spirit in your life. That should tap is real and your spirit usually know what to do.
2. Gather a few mentors who know you well and want to invest in your personal health..
3. I was not used to be in such chaos and challenge and I found courage within. Thank you for your engagement Christian.
Judith
Great piece Judith. I also recall using the cord phone and the era of limited technology in our daily lives. There seemed to be more intentionality about human connection. I’m curious about how we can bring and show God’s kingdom on earth in this digital explosion we are in? Is it possible? Or is it too late?
I’m an idealist at heart and feel we can innovate a healthier pathway in response to this explosive digital age. It worries me how quickly the tech age has grown and impacted us. Im assuming the majority of users of social media do not have protocols to respond to its use. I’ll admit, I really don’t. My only metric is the amount of time.. but I think, collectively we can build something much more creative and smart for our generation and future generations. I would like to lean into this roadblock and create an opportunity. Its not going to go away so why not lean in, collectively put our minds together and create a simple framework with resources to help the world know how to navigate it. I like how you asked how we could build something through the lens of our faith. Part of my doctorate will respond to this technology age and build something for 7 generations to come. Let’s talk about this in Capetown! over a glass of wine. Judith