As important as it is for Christians to fast physically, many also may need a digital fast, said Darren Whitehead, Ph.D., senior pastor of Church of the City in Nashville. His new book, ”The Digital Fast: 40 Days to Detox Your Mind and Reclaim What Matters Most,” addresses the need to apply principles of fasting to digital consumption.
“The reason that I wanted to do a digital fast is that for some of the similar ways that we use food,” Whitehead told CBN News. “We generally can go to food when we are feeling anxious, when we are afraid of something, when we have some surge of feeling ashamed about something.”
Whitehead believes technology often is treated in the same manner, particularly as a form of escapism.
“Something has happened in society in these last 15 years or so where, instead of going to food, we’re going to phone,” he said. “And when you feel an unpleasant feeling, when you feel anxious, when you feel afraid, when you feel ashamed, you can just unlock your phone, maybe not even consciously being aware that you’re doing this.”
READ: What is digital amnesia?
Reducing digital time is a small step in the right direction, says Jacqueline Sperling, PhD, a psychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. She says the nature of social media means you never know what you’ll be served up so people remain addicted to it.
“When the outcome is unpredictable, the behavior is more likely to repeat. Think of a slot machine: if game players knew they never were going to get money by playing the game, then they never would play,” Sperling says.
“The idea of a potential future reward keeps the machines in use. The same goes for social media sites. One does not know how many likes a picture will get, who will ‘like’ the picture, and when the picture will receive likes. The unknown outcome and the possibility of a desired outcome can keep users engaged with the sites.”
That can affect all aspects of our lives.
Although this might seem harmless, Whitehead said these sorts of actions can affect individuals as well as relationships. This is particularly true when it comes to the allocation of time. “What am I missing as I observe my children because I’ve got my head buried in triviality instead of these precious childhood years that are so fleeting?” he asked.
He also warns that an obsession with technology also can affect relationships with God. “If all the discretionary moments of our lives have been chased out, then we are not able to still ourselves and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit to be paying attention to what God wants us to pay attention to,” he said.
Finally, smartphones are “having an enormous impact, particularly on teenage girls, and it is decimating their self-esteem, it is stealing their attention, it is stunting their social growth,” he said.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice