Info-Techno Sabbath: Unplugging the God of Information Technology
by Ted Slater on 09/27/2007 at 5:01 PM
In what may be the Boundless article with the longest title ever, Evangelical Outpost blogger Joe Carter has brought a vivid and convicting light to the corrosive effects of "information technology" overload.
My world is a bleary byteful swirl of e-mail, participating in online forums, reading and writing blogs, deleting a mountain of spam, checking my e-mail, answering my cell phone, investigating a particular IP address, reading the online news, checking my RSS feeds, editing some Mentor Series audio files, reading and writing e-mail, evaluating Google Analytics stats, helping Motte moderate The Line, editing and publishing Boundless articles, configuring my DNS settings, uploading videos to YouTube, adding a friend on ShoutLife and MySpace and FaceBook and Virb, ripping a CD or DVD, downloading the latest podcast to my iPod, checking our Technorati status, and reading my e-mail.
This world is all too familiar to Joe Carter, as shown in the first paragraphs of "Info-Techno Sabbath: Unplugging the God of Information Technology":
During the week I get so busy that I never find the time to be alone with God. So I've decided to dedicate this Sunday afternoon to prayer, solitude and study.
But before I get started I should check my e-mail so that I won't have any unwanted distractions. Thirty-two new messages? My inbox was already overflowing so I should probably reply to at least a few of these right now. Six e-mails — no, wait, I really need to answer that one too — OK, seven e-mails down. Ah, I just got some invitations from Facebook. Those are easy to clear out so let me click through to accept those and I'm, hmm, I didn't realize I had more notifications. Looks like Stacy finally launched a blog; I'll just click through really quickly to check it out. A lot of posts on here already, some great stuff. I really should add her blog to my RSS reader before I forget. I don't know how I ever read blogs before Google Reader came along and, what, "More than 100+ items?" Didn't I just check this yesterday? I know this is prayer time, but I should really whittle these down a bit before it gets worse.
Here I was about to focus on prayer and Bible study and what do I find? My favorite theology-blogger has an excellent post on spiritual disciples. I have to share that with my own blog readers. That's a topic that's really on my heart today — and since I'll be praying and studying in just a few more minutes anyway — I'll go ahead and crank out a quick post. And ... send. There that should be ... hmm, looks like some comments are hung up in my spam filter again. Ah, it's always that same guy — and, oh man, there he goes again misrepresenting what I wrote. Well, I can't let that go unchallenged. Fortunately it will only take a few more minutes to write a rebuttal.
OK, now its time to finally buckle down and practice some solitude. Let me check the time on my Blackberry — no way, it's been four hours? — and who are these voicemails from? I better check them in case my boss is calling, which would be really rude of her since this is Sunday, and I told everyone that I now devote Sunday to church and prayer and Bible Study and — no, it wasn't her, it was my buddy asking if I got his e-mail. All right, that's it. I really need to spend some quality time with the Lord.
But before I get started I should check my e-mail....
Joe goes on to explain how he's instituted a "Sabbath" from such mind-cluttering technologies. This day of rest has given him a break from the "firehose of information," the result being that he's more able to hear "a still small voice sharing the information that truly matters."
I need this Sabbath of which Joe speaks.
1. Katherine said the following at 6:50 PM on Sep 27:
I also resonate with the story!! His thought process in that paragraph you quoted is almost identical to what I do every day (including right now)! I have a question for Joe - what are some things that you do on the Sabbath instead of IT stuff?
2. Joe Carter said the following at 8:55 PM on Sep 27:
Katherine,
That's a great question. Usually I try to substitute some form of info-tech for a spiritual discipline. For example, instead of reading my RSS feeds I read longer passages from the Bible. Instead of talking on my cell phone I have some time for silence to listen to God speak. I try to replace some for of tool of human communication for the tools that God uses to communicate with me.
3. Jo said the following at 3:27 AM on Sep 28:
Oh man, that's so me. I think I need a sabbath where I didn't even turn on my computer. As soon as I do, it's check email, check Faceboook, check work email, check Boundless, then by the time I've done all that and replied to everything I want to, I have to start again from the beginning. It wastes so much time and I always wish I had more self-control to limit it.
I'd write more but I'm thinking I should probably go and do something useful now, having been sat here for goodness knows how long...
4. Rachel said the following at 9:18 AM on Sep 28:
Good article. :) For Lent this year I gave up all of the Internet but email and it was quite noticeable how much free time that gave me.
The other side of the coin is to spend *more* time praying. Though it often seems like a boring, empty exercise while I'm doing it, when I look back I notice the great difference it makes in how much closer I feel to God, and how much more willing to sacrifice for Him.
5. ernesto said the following at 5:41 PM on Sep 28:
Wow He just Described me
where shall I go, as of today i cease to be Cessacionist, mmmmmmm, don't think so :)
We are sick of the same technology addiction, i need to learn how to balance all of those, but so far your article ahs been very useful and enlightening