12 Ways your phone is changing you- #9 We lose Meaning

Intro

Good evening, welcome to Harvest Students. If you’re new here my name is Junior, I am the Assist Pastor of discipleship here at hbc, and i am excited that you have chosen to be here. If you don’t have a bible one will be provided for you. Just raise your hands and one of our Leaders will get one to you.

We get to another our phones are changing us! We Lose Meaning.

I’m sure you’ve come across someone in a conversation and they may share some good stuff with you, but then they get more and more detailed, bringing graphic imagery to your mind. You may say in your mind or out loud: “Information Overload”!

Did you know that:

The average output of email and social-media text is estimated at 3.6 trillion words, or about thirty-six million books— typed out every day! In comparison, the Library of Congress (The 2nd largest library in the world) holds thirty-five million books.

In the introduction to his landmark book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman contrasted two very different cultural warnings, those of George Orwell’s 1984 and of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Orwell argued that books would disappear by censorship; Huxley thought books would be marginalized by data torrent. Postman summarizes the contrast well. “Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much information that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared that the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.” 2 Huxley seems to have won.

Pope Francis dropped his own warning about info overload in an encyclical on global pollution, warning that “when media and the digital world become omnipresent, their influence can stop people from learning how to live wisely, to think deeply, and to love generously. In this context, the great sages of the past run the risk of going unheard amid the noise and distractions of an information overload.” He argued that digital distractions must be held in check because true wisdom is the result of deep reading, self-examination, and “dialogue and generous encounter between persons.” Merely amassing data, he warned, “leads to overload and confusion, a sort of mental pollution.”

if info overload in the digital age is a problem, it strikes me as a secondary problem, one that I find somewhat limiting and unsatisfying as a full explanation, as if it doesn’t reach the heart of the true problem.

Why a secondary problem?

declining literacy rates became a notable problem before Facebook was invented.

the bigger challenge for us in the digital age is not the mental pollution of information overload, but the nutritional deficiency of the content that has been engineered, like modern snacks, to trigger our appetites.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 146). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

our phones make it possible to share and consume a steady diet of information that is pointless beyond making us feel connected to others.

our phones make it possible to share and consume a steady diet of information that is pointless beyond making us feel connected to others.

So our problem is deeper than information overload; it is gleaning significance from all the information we receive.

Ecclesiastes 12:12 ESV

My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

There is no end states the simple fact that the work of the wise man is an endless one.

The statement should not be taken as having a negative meaning. Struggling to understand the human situation, trying to form advice into short teachable sayings that will help people to cope with life—it is this task that is unending. This is so because people change, situations change, and because every wise person must struggle with the never-ending task. It “involves endless hard work.” The warning to the young student is obvious; “If you want to become a sage, be prepared for a life-long struggle to grow in understanding, and to devote yourself to the writing and editing of sayings for others’ instruction.”

We lose meaning by:

1. We get drawn in to unhealthy habits, not wanting unlimited information, but wanting to stay relevant and entertained.

our ungoverned appetite for connectedness with the immediacy and insistent urgency of the ‘great communicative drama’ of our society.” Our phones draw us into unhealthy habits not because we want unlimited information, but because we want to stay relevant and entertained. We want to be humored and liked. These social realities dwarf my concern over info overload.

we suffer from neomania, an addiction to anything new within the last five minutes.

2. we suffer from neomania, an addiction to anything new within the last five minutes.

“What is striking about the speedy and wide-ranging communications of modern news is how on edge we are about them, as though we were constantly afraid that the world would mutate behind our backs if we were not au courant [current] with a thousand disassociated new pieces of information.

In order to combat this misuse of information, or drowning in it, or lose meaning to all that we are and all that we do:

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 148). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

1. We must identify and cherish wisdom.

Before warning his son about the endless making of books and the weariness of much study, he wrote:

Ecclesiastes 12:11–12 ESV

The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings; they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

eccles 12:11-12

We must judge the value to all information we take in. We shouldn’t just take in digital content simply to keep up, to be informed, or to connect. Instead, we plug our ears to rubbish so that we can identify meaning and embrace truth, goodness, and beauty.

they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these”

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 150). Crossway. Kindle Edition. they are given by one Shepherd. My son, beware of anything beyond these”

We now live in the golden age of quality and edifying online content, made available free of charge. But do we slow down and absorb these sites with the value they represent, or do we lose the value of these sites in the our haste to browse (let me see what’s going on)?

We can’t fully gain wisdom if all we do is glance over information. It takes deep thought! Penetrating questions that can never be properly answered if you have a short attention span.

2. We must strive for fearful obedience over frivolous information.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

More important than information access, more valuable than social-media prominence, is Godward obedience.

3. We must embrace our freedom in Christ to accept or reject information.

By grace, we are free to close our news sources, close our life-hacking apps, and power down our phones in order to simply feast in the presence of friends and enjoy our spouses and families in the mystery, majesty, and “thickness” of human existence.

Let’s read .

If is a glorious hymn to celebrate the innovation of man (vv.   1– 11), it is also a warning song about the limits of the wisdom we can find by our devices (vv.   12– 28). When it comes to searching out the meaning of our existence in this world, all of our technology cannot take us deep enough or high enough. True wisdom is beyond the reach of our pickaxes and techniques. We can climb down into the dusty, dark shafts that go deep into the earth, but wisdom is not there. We can go under the sea, but wisdom is not there, either. All the rich gold brought into the light will not disclose wisdom. We can be tech-savvy fools.

we must learn to treasure what is most valuable in the universe— God. When we turn to God, we find that the most precious wisdom and knowledge is not hidden under a mountain or embedded in the newest device, but found in Jesus Christ. 15 He defines the purpose and meaning of all life. He orients what is truly important and valuable for us in the digital age, and in every   age.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 152). Crossway. Kindle Edition.

Reinke, Tony. 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You (p. 145). Crossway. Kindle Edition.