12 ways your phone is changing you - we are addicted to distraction

Intro

Good evening my Name is Junior, I’m so happy that you have chosen to be here, we go through many lengths to create an atmosphere where you can feel welcomed and loved but most importantly we want to see you be discipled. That means the content and setting is geared towards helping you grow and develop into the person God wants you to be.

In order for this to happen we provide the right environment, relationships, and knowledge. But this is a team effort, and a mutual motivation. As leaders we sacrifice our time, talents, and treasure to ensure that we do our best, and our expectation is for you to appreciate that by your presence, participation, and progress.

We

Why this Series?

We live in a technological age, and wisdom in it’s use is very important.

God’s design for everything is that it be used for His glory.

Our role as Leaders is to help disciple students, and that includes helping them to master their possessions and not vice versa.

Stats to keep in mind:

What’s a smartphone? A smartphone is a handheld personal computer with a mobile operating system and an integrated mobile broadband cellular network connection for voice, SMS, and Internet data communication; most if not all smartphones also support Wi-Fi. Smartphones are typically pocket-sized, as opposed to tablets, which are much larger in size. They are able to run a variety of software components, known as “apps”. Most basic apps (e.g. event calendar, camera, web browser) come pre-installed with the system, while others are available for download from places like the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Apps can receive bug fixes and gain additional functionality through software updates; similarly, operating systems are able to update. Modern smartphones have a touchscreen color display with a graphical user interface that covers the front surface and enables the user to use a virtual keyboard to type and press onscreen icons to activate "app" features. Mobile payment is now a common theme amongst most smartphones.

Today, smartphones largely fulfill most people's needs for a telephone, digital camera and video camera, GPS navigation, a media player, clock, news, calculator, web browser, handheld video game player, flashlight, compass, an address book, note-taking, digital messaging, an event calendar, etc. Typical smartphones will include one or more of the following sensors: magnetometer, proximity sensor, barometer, gyroscope, or accelerometer. Since 2010, smartphones adopted integrated virtual assistants, such as Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, BlackBerry Assistant and Samsung Bixby. Most smartphones produced from 2012 onward have high-speed mobile broadband 4G LTE capability.

Introduced: in the early 90s

So as we begin this series today, it is a certainty that technology and more specifically the Smartphone has been a great benefit to us “Our lives are surrounded by our time on our phones: our calendars, our cameras, our pictures, our work, our workouts, our reading, our writing, our credit cards, our maps, our news, our weather, our email, our shopping— all of it can be managed with state-of-the-art apps in powerful little devices we carry everywhere.”

With all of these benefits, it’s no wonder our phones get more attention than anything else in our lives. So what are the 12 ways that this piece of technology is changing our lives?

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 41). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 41). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

So what are

We will

No 1. We are addicted to distractions

Some data from this book highlights that we check our smartphones about 81,500 times each year, or once every 4.3 minutes of our waking lives, which means you will be tempted to check your phone three times before we finish this presentation.

By a show of hands; how many of you have a smartphone/Cell phone?

How many of you check your phone within the first 20 minutes in the time you wake up in the morning?

Were you more likely to check social media before or after spiritual disciplines on a typical morning?

Ofir Turel, a psychologist at California State University-Fullerton, warns that Facebook addicts, unlike compulsive drug abusers, “have the ability to control their behavior, but they don’t have the motivation to control this behavior because they don’t see the consequences to be that severe.”

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 42). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

behavioral scientists and psychologists offer statistical proof in study after study: the more addicted you become to your phone, the more prone you are to depression and anxiety, and the less able you are to concentrate at work and sleep at night.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 42). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Why are we lured to distractions?

What do you mean when you say distraction?

Anything that preoccupies our attention with this world and life. It is something that diverts our minds and hearts from what is most significant.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 47). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

They can come in the form of a new amusement, a persistent worry, or a vain aspiration. worldly worries, anxieties, and pursuits of wealth. True distractions include anything (even a good thing) that veils our spiritual eyes from the shortness of time.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 43). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Ephesians 5:15–16 ESV

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

So how are we addicted to distractions?

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 47). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 48). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 49). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

we use digital distractions to keep work away. Sometimes Facebook and other social media sites are a way for us to escape from the pressures of work (job, chores, school work). E.g. when things get too challenging we just “rock back” and chill, indulging in all of the amusements and other distractions that the media has to offer (games, videos, chatting). I am not opposed to taking a much needed break from a tiring task but sometimes i think about that person who tries to escape school research to just taking in the all the information your page and status has to offer. tells us that we were created for good works, meaning although work can be difficult, because our mind and body was built for it, we can find lots of pleasure in doing and completing work.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 43). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

we use digital distractions to keep people away. God has called us to love our neighbors, yet we turn to our phones to withdraw from our neighbors and to let everyone know we’d rather be somewhere else. E.g. if my phone is put away, I am more likely to be perceived as engaged. If my phone is not in use, but is face up on the table, I present myself as engaged for the moment, but possibly disengaged if someone more important outside the room needs me. And if my phone is in my hand, and I am responding to texts and scrolling social media, I project open dismissiveness, because “dividing attention is a typical expression of disdain. Jesus said that we must love our neighbors, 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. In this digital age, we are especially slow to “associate with the lowly” around us. Instead, we retreat into our phones— and by that show our scorn for tough situations or for boring people. In both cases, when we grab our phones, we are saying i’m of superior to you— often without knowing it

4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 44). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends

6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 44). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 44). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends

8 Love never ends

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 44). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

we use digital distractions to keep thoughts of eternity away. we find it easy to fall into the trap of digital distractions because, in the most alluring new apps, we find a welcome escape from our truest, rawest, and most honest view of ourselves. This can be seen for some of us when our phones are taken away, we feel like we’ve lost a body part. Because distractions give us easy escape from the silence and solitude; what happens in solitude? we we become acquainted with our humanness, the fact that we are only here for a moment, and the distance of God from all our desires, hopes, and pleasures. It’s easy maths if 100% of your focus is given to distractions, there’s 0 focus on God and eternal things. One author said it this way “ I can tell how much God you have by how much entertainment you need”. Staring at the ceilings of our quiet bedrooms, with only our thoughts about ourselves, reality, and God, is unbearable. “Hence it comes that men so much love noise and stir; hence it comes that the prison is so horrible a punishment; hence it comes that the pleasure of solitude is so feared” To be without the constant availability of distraction is like solitary confinement, a most terrible of punishments. That is why in those moments when we realize we have forgotten our phone, lost it, or let the battery run out, we taste the captivity of a prison cell, and it can be frightening. Tell me if you ever experience this 5 “My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.”(). “It is difficult to serve God with our heart, soul, strength and mind when we are diverted and distracted and multi-tasking everything.”

we use digital distractions to keep thoughts of eternity away.

we use digital distractions to keep thoughts of eternity away.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 44). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 45). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

5 My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.().

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 45). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, 6 when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.().

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 45). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

6 when I remember you upon my bed,

and meditate on you in the watches of the night; 7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.().

7 for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.().

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 47). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.().

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 41). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Colossians 4:2 ESV

Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Romans 13:11–14 ESV

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

While our relationships with our phones may not be lifelong covenant relationships (though carrier contracts can feel like it), I would not be the first to suggest that owning a smartphone is similar to dating a high-maintenance, attention-starved partner. 39 The smartphone is loaded with prompts, beeps, and allurements. Many of these stimuli (perhaps most of them) are not sinful, but they are pervasive. The more distracted we are digitally, the more displaced we become spiritually. Following Paul’s words to married couples, we must make it our aim to purge our lives of all unnecessary and unhelpful distractions.

Small group discussion

Discuss your 2 of the

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Do my smartphone habits expose an underlying addiction to untimely amusements?

Do my smartphone habits reveal a compulsive desire to be seen and affirmed?

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Do my smartphone habits reveal a compulsive desire to be seen and affirmed?

Do my smartphone habits reveal a compulsive desire to be seen and affirmed?

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Do my smartphone habits distract me from genuine communion with   God? 

Do my smartphone habits provide an easy escape from sobered thinking about my death, the return of Christ, and eternal realities?

Do my smartphone habits preoccupy me with the pursuit of worldly success?  

Do my smartphone habits mute the sporadic leading of God’s Spirit in my   life?  

Do my smartphone habits preoccupy me with dating and romance? 

Do my smartphone habits build up Christians and my local church?  

Do my smartphone habits center on what is necessary to me and beneficial to others?  

Do my smartphone habits disengage me from the needs of the neighbors God has placed right in front of   me?

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 52). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Prayer time

Write down then pray for each other’s requests