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Speaking the Truth (about our Smartphone Addiction) In Love

What can we learn from goldfish? Tan Yee Kiat explores how our smartphones influence our use of time and our Christian witness in today’s digitised world.

Speaking the Truth (about our Smartphone Addiction) in Love image

 

A Telegraph (UK) article declared that our attention span is officially shorter than that of a goldfish. The study, published earlier this year in May, was performed by tech giant Microsoft. The irony of one of the contributors to the present situation performing such a study notwithstanding, it highlighted that the attention span of humans has fallen from 12 seconds in 2000, to eight seconds now.

Fun-fact: Goldfish can hold a thought for nine seconds.

Here are some more data, and these are more contextualised to our setting: Singaporeans spend an average of 38 minutes per session on Facebook, twice as long as Americans; two counselling centres based in Singapore – National Addictions Management Services and Touch Community Services – already have programmes for digital addiction.

Alas, this author is writing as one equally culpable of all these. The more pertinent issue for us to address as Christians is to see not just how this is affecting us in a generic way as part of society at large, but how this is affecting the more important issue of our Christian witness.

John Piper, author of Desiring God, has quipped, “One of the great uses of Facebook and Twitter will be to prove at the Last Day that a lack of prayer was not from a lack of time.”

Ouch. Perhaps a good question to ask is what does God’s Word have in store for all of this? I took a crack and suggested these: Firstly, realise that the New Testament speaks about real face-to-face fellowship in glowing terms. The only thing they have that is remotely similar to what we do, is perhaps, letter writing. In the short epistle of 2 John, this is what we see: “Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.” (2 Jn 12, ESV)

Perhaps this is one form of witness that we have to the surrounding culture. A culture whose communication is getting increasingly digitised, and whose outings are broadcast on social media, we stand against the tide by desiring real fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. No need for broadcasting what we do on the Internet, just bliss and joyfulness to see one another as a fellow sinner saved by the blood of Christ.

Secondly, in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, he uses clothing-heavy language to describe what the Colossians ought to embrace as God makes them anew. Strip off (apekduomai) the old clothing and put on (endysamenoi) the new. “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off (apekduomai) the old self with its practices and have put on (endysamenoi) the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” (Col 3:9-10, ESV)

Perhaps what Paul would be telling us, if we were the ones being written to, is this: Put down. We were not called to be chained to our phones. We are called to be images of Jesus. It is a calling far higher and far better than what we are addicted to.