Owned Pt 2

Illustration - Going to the Mall and trying to avoid eyecontact with the kiosk people.

once you make eye contact, a conversation will follow, they want your time and attention so that they can make a sale.

Malls are a Metaphor for our Phones.

Many different vnedors are trying to make eye contact with you. They want your time and attention so that they can make a sale.

Because our attention is so valuable to digital corporations, a new science has emerged called

Captology

*might be able to find a good explanatory short on this.

-computers as persuasive technology

-ex: Your internet experience today is based on your browsing history yesterday.

-did you like something on amazon, now its in your facebook.

-ask for other examples.

We are going to focus in on the art of reading

What’s better, Paper or Pixels?

Experiment A

2 groups (paper & pixel). Use exact same amount of time. test comprehension.

Result - very similar comprehension.

Experiment B

2 groups (paper & pixel). Use however much time each person needs.

Results - Paper group had superior comprehension.

Paper group took longer to read, comprehend, etc.

REASON: Digital readers naturally read too quickly.

The problem isn’t that it is a digital format. The problem is that we are trained to SKIM & SKIP.

Skim & Skip

We do this because there is so much information coming at us. We skim and skip to try to:

slow down and see what is important.

The problem is that most of us have difficult seperating what is eternally valuable from what is transient.

Skim & Prioritize

It would be a better use of your time to skim and prioritize. To see what was worth your time, and block out the rest.

Deep thinking

Skim and skipping does not lend itself well to deep thinking. When you are just scrolling through posts, or articles or whatever, you aren’t really putting effort into understanding, and learning.

Deep thinking is valuable, but not promoted through Captology. Its tough to be a deep thinker when we are in a digital loud environment, with all sorts of notifications and distractions pulling at us.

Reading the Bible with Deep Thinking

IF you are reading your Bible using skim and skip, you will not get it. Reading the Bible takes deep thinking. Here are 3 reasons why we must read our Bible’s carefully.

The Aim of the Bible is Discipleship

to form and reform our thinking.

so there is no benefit to skipping to the end. It is a life long process, and hurry will not help.

God, the author of the Bible, warns us that parts of it are difficult to understand.

2 Peter 3:16 HCSB

16 He speaks about these things in all his letters in which there are some matters that are hard to understand. The untaught and unstable twist them to their own destruction, as they also do with the rest of the Scriptures.

Therefore we need to read slowly, carefully and thoughtfully. It does take work to understand the Bible.

The Bible is not a straightforward instruction manual.

If you have a lego kit, the instructions are very straight forward. It is step by step, etc.

The Bible uses different forms of literature, from different periods of time, in different cultures that were around 2000 - 4000 years ago. Its not straightforward.

The teaching styles take work. If we skim and skip, we have very little chance of the Bible speaking apropriatly to us.

When you read your Bible, take your time.

Its worth it. Its not meant to be read in a rush. Its not so that you can check off that you read it. Its an amazing book, it contains the word of God. Slow down and enjoy.

Chapter 5...

“We Feed on the Produced”

Image Taken from Boston Globe - The Crowd in Boston watching Johnny Depp arrive for movie screening.

What do you see in this picture

Who is “present”

How many smartphones are in the air, How many eyes are on the phones?

We live in a time where people go to a concert, and then watch the concert through the camera on their phone.

All of Creation points us to God

If you look at the sun, you can see it as a ball of flaming gas. It is more than that though, it points us to God who has created everything, including the Sun, in an amazing system.

Media is the Middle Man between Creation and the Consumer

ex: Drone footage of the Grand Canyon

As we watch this, its amazing, because we are seeing God’s creation even though we are in a whole different country from the Grand Canyone.

Media is the Middle Man. It helps us to marvel at what God has made.

But it does so in a way that is very different from being their yourself.

Media is able to crop, edit, and advertise so that we see things in the way that the producer wants us to see it. so that we might feel certain things, or want to purchase and consume more of something.

In this case, their is the logo for “Drone Snap” in the corner.

Everytime that you see an image on your phone, there was a creator for that image, and their is a hope in that creators heart for you.

Use wisdom when you look at your phone or TV, etc. What is the creator of that image trying to teach you?

Everytime that you take a picture and post it, what are you hoping that others will learn?

Phones with social media turn us into actors. We begin to create our own content, hopeing that others will aprove, be influenced, etc.

12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You 5 We Feed on the Produced

In Donna Freitas’s extensive study of the social-media habits of college students, one sharp female student told her: “People used to do things and then post them, and the approval you gained from whatever you were putting out there was a byproduct of the actual activity. Now the anticipated approval is what’s driving the behavior or the activity, so there’s just sort of been this reversal.”18 Phones with social connections transform us—and our friends and children—into actors. That’s huge.

What can we do?

Remember that real life is better than your phone.

Put your device down, be present in the moment, and see what is going on in the world around you.

Consider yourself a producer.

When you send a text, post a photo, or share someone else’s opinion, you are producing content that could influence others.

Choose to influence others for Good, and for God’s Glory, and not to put a spotlight on yourself.

STORY TIME

Narcissus

There is the story of Narcissus - the most beautiful man in Greece.

he was thirsty, so he stopped for a drink at a lake.

looked down and saw, the most beautiufl man in Greece.

he was fascinated by his own image. He kept on coming back to the lake to see it.

Eventually all he cared about was looking at himself, and he stopped doing everything else, (like eating, etc.)

Soon, he fell into the lake and died, because he couldn’t look away from himself.

Does “Smartphone Addiction” really mean that we just like looking at ourselves?

CHecking feeds, likes, comments, etc, to see what everything thinks about you.

Making sure that you come off a certain way with a certain online image.

What image are you trying to copy?

Online, and right now. You look like a certain image.

the clothes that you are wearing, the style, the brands, the hair.

If you keep it consistent, after a while people begin to ascicate how you look with who you are.

There is nothing wrong with looking a certain way, and doing that on purpose.

Have you ever thought about why you dress a certain way?

How we look can be influenced by what we “like”

What we spend our time admiring, is often how we want to look.

Did you know that fashion retrail stores have already put their orders in for next summer? Do you know how they already know what to buy? Its because they are the ones who are going to tell us what is in style, and then they will be carrying those styles.

Many of us “like” being in style, and so we just buy whatever they say is in style.

We are mirrors.

We reflect our environment, we reflect our passions.

EX: Some people really like the Calgary Flames, and you know it because their clothes are reflecting that passion.

Our ultimate purpose is to reflect God.

We become what we “like”.

Instead of falling in love withourselves, and our own images. We are far healthier when we enjoy God, and reflect his love, and truth and his being in the World. After all, we are made in the image of God.

Genesis 1:26 HCSB

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

Left to our own passions, we sin, and we reflect brokeness.

But God wants for us to be healthy, to thrive in life, and to look like Him.

This begins when we trust God with our entire lives, including our identity and what others think about us.

Romans 12:1–2 CSB

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Zach Williams Story

QUESTIONS

How is your phone like a Mall Kiosk?

How can you use your Bible reading time well?

Does wanting to look good on your phone make you a narcissist?

We become what we “like”. How are you reflecting the things in your life that you like. (Example, wearing clothing that reflects your likes, or fashion, etc.)

How can we reflect God in our lives?