“Do you own your technology or does it own you?"
Tim Challies book, The Next Story: Life and Faith after the digital explosion takes an in-depth look at how are lives are being affected by the changes in our digital technology--from a Christian perspective.
Our world is different than it was 50 years ago because of how our technology has changed. My great-grandfather told of how their evenings were spent in the kitchen playing music. My grandfather purchased the first color TV in his family. My Dad told of Saturday Night Movies on television – the only place to catch movies you didn’t see at the theatre. I recall going to the movie rental store for the first time after we had purchased a VCR (after a long deliberation, we decided NOT to go with Beta). Now, my kids are growing up in the streaming video world – countless choices on demand, instantly.
The Next Story takes a step back from the technology and considers what it is we are doing to ourselves, our minds bodies and souls with the plethora of technology that “controls” our lives. Technology has changed our lives – but not for the better in every case. I grew up in a house without an air conditioner for a time. It was much better to be outside in the evening instead of sitting on the couch because it was much cooler outside and more desirable to be outside. Today, with the A/C, technology has enabled your house to be as hot or cold as you want it. I have a friend who lives up North, and he said the winters up there don't bother him at all, because it is 72 degrees inside his house, no matter how much snow is outside. That one advance in technology is a blessing, but it has changed the way we live. The world is changing so fast and we can easily be caught up in the changes, without carfully considering the consequences of our actions.
Challies main thrust throughout the book is that we should not abandon technology, but we should not blindly accept all that it sells us. Every product, every advance in technology is selling us something and will in some way affect us for better or worse. The latest and greatest will not give us joy, peace, security, happiness and often times it steal it away.
This is a good book, especially for parents or teenagers who are immersed in the digital world. Facebook, Twitter and the other social media sites can be a great danger to young people. Challies demonstrates how technology can hurt our relationships rather than help them. Whether by text, e-mail or instant messaging, relationships can suffer because of a lack of intimacy. Websites give you the ability to create your online persona were the weak can act strong, the shy can be bold, the lonely can be popular. But that is not who we are, that is who we are when we sit in front of the screen.
Challies brings about a great point about information and that it is not necessarily a blessing. The ability to get your phone out and google the answer to a trivia question does not equate to having wisdom. Much of the news that is covered on 24 hours news stations relates information and news that either will not impact me at all, or if it does, there is little I can do about it. I had to stop and think about all the news sites I read, and wondered how the information I was reading on these sites impacted me. I realized that much of what I was reading and listening to was just information that could not help me in any way, nor did it really inform me of things that I didn't already know or tell me anything I could either do anything about or affect me other than irritating me.
My favorite chapter to read was chapter 3 A Digital History. Challies is a skilled story teller and I found myself in this chapter drawn into the story of our digital landscape. As I finished the chapter, I felt it was too short – in my opinion, he was be a great biographer.
And it isn’t a review if I don’t say something negative, right? ENDNOTES – NOOOO!!!! I am thankful that the endnotes were almost exclusively (with one exception) giving the name of the book or article.
The “creation mandate” bothered me. I worked as a sheet metal worker in a factory for a while, and I would take a flat sheet of metal approximately 5 foot by 8 foot and when we would get finished with it, it would be a kitchen appliance. But all along the walls of our shop were tools, screws, welders, rivets and a number of other tools and parts. We didn’t “create” anything, we made something. Only God can create. Also, even if we COULD create something,where is the COMMAND to create? If God commands men to create we are sinning if we do not. How much and how often must we create? What did Abraham create? What did Paul create?
The last point, and this is just a minor point, but the book wore me out on the recapping. In a sermon it is a mark of great preaching and communicating to tell where you are going in your message, tell the message, then recap where you have been. But with a book in my hand, I can turn the pages back and read again if I need to, I don’t need to read the same thing three times in one chapter.
I enjoyed this book, and it was a blessing to me and I recommend it to you. After reading it, I evaluated my use of technology and I trimmed down my usage of some of the technology that, unbeknownst to me, had enslaved me. Truthfully, not only do I not miss it, but am happier with it gone.
