Results tagged “technology”
Teachers, Watchmen, Gatekeepers (10/14/09 - 6 Comments)
Earlier this year I was asked to prepare a talk on families and technology. I was to speak to a group of adults, mostly parents of teenagers, and address issues related to digital technology. I was pleased with the challenge and was reasonably happy with the final result. As I prepared that talk I began to think about the role of parents in the media consumption of their children. I turned to the Bible and...
Don't Take Your iPod to Church! (Part 2) (06/22/09 - 41 Comments)
I've been enjoying writing these little articles titled "Don't Take Your iPod to Church." I'll be the first to admit that I am overstating my case a little bit and even being deliberately vague at times. But through it all I'm seeing some great discussion and am being asked lots of interesting questions. It may be frustrating to everyone else, but I'm enjoying it, at the very least! Let's press on. In a previous article...
Don't Take Your iPod to Church! (Part 1.5) (06/17/09 - 50 Comments)
Last Friday I encouraged you not to take your iPod to church. Not surprisingly, this generated a bit of discussion both at the blog and across some other social media (Twitter, Facebook, and so on). It's a good discussion to have, I think. I realize that I am probably overstating my case just a little bit, but this is deliberate. I want to get people thinking about this issue. I offer special thanks to people...
Don't Take Your iPod to Church! (06/12/09 - 61 Comments)
Yesterday I described the book as The Perfect Technology. There was perhaps a little bit of hyperbole involved, but I think the point was well-taken. I was actually surprised to see how many people agreed with me. Maybe as Christians we are unusual in this regard; maybe Christians are, almost by definition, readers and, thus, people who will toss away their books only with great caution. This is good, I think, as Christians tend to...
The Soul in Cyberspace: An Interview with Douglas Groothuis (05/06/09 - 13 Comments)
In 1997, Douglas Groothuis (Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary) published The Soul in Cyberspace. It was, as far as I know, the first Christian book that critiqued and contemplated the darker side of computer-mediated communication. Twelve years is a long time when it comes to technology (and digital technology in particular) but I recently read this book nevertheless, and was surprised by just how relevant it is, even today. Though cyberspace has changed and...
A Radical Transformation (04/29/09 - 10 Comments)
A couple of weeks ago I spoke at a Families & Technology seminar in Auburn Hills, Michigan, and enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time focusing on how technology is changing the world and perhaps even changing the Christian faith. I was surprised during my research to see just how much technology has changed, well, everything! I gave two talks and thought I'd share my introduction to these seminars. In the days to come I...
Escaping Anonymity (04/25/09 - 7 Comments)
Several months ago I was asked to submit an article to Tabletalk Magazine. The editors had read an blog entry I had written dealing with the subject of accountability and asked if I'd be willing to write a condensed version and submit it for publication. I was glad to do so and the result appeared in this month's Tabletalk. You may have read a version of this article in the past but, if you care...
Technological Transformation (04/03/09 - 5 Comments)
In a couple of weeks I am going to travel to Five Points Community Church in Auburn Hills, Michigan, to lead a Families & Technology Seminar. I will be speaking to the adults while my buddy Matt McAlvey, Pastor of Connections and Communications (say what?) at Parkside Church in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, will be talking to the students. I have really enjoyed preparing for these talks, trying to understand and explain how technology has changed...
When Technology Outpaces Morality (03/06/09 - 29 Comments)
On Wednesday I posited that endless choice brings us endless discontentment. While marketers may try to assure us that a consumer with more options is a happier consumer, evidence seems to indicate that more options mostly make us increasingly miserable. Speaking personally, I can attest that this is true. I don't want to disparage choice as if being forced to choose is somehow wrong. But plain experience shows that infinite choice does not bring about...
Endless Choice, Endless Discontent (03/04/09 - 34 Comments)
A couple of summers ago we were a day away from leaving for vacation when my cell phone went missing. For a few days we looked for it passively, keeping half an eye out for it as we went about our business in the house. We tried calling it to see if we could hear the ring; I guess the battery was flat. The phone didn't show up. So for one morning we tore the...
Retreat! (02/18/09 - 20 Comments)
This weekend I spoke at a youth retreat in Northern Michigan. I won't get more specific than that because, well, I can't. I followed some vans full of teenagers from Flint and stopped where they stopped, about an hour and a half north. We settled in at this rather nice little Christian camp in what appeared to be 175 acres situated right in the middle of nowhere. It was an ideal spot for a...
The Christian Lover II: Dispatches from the Digital Age (02/09/09 - 12 Comments)
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed The Christian Lover by Michael Haykin, a collection of historical love letters sent from one Christian lover to another. Despite feeling like a bit of a voyeur, spying on private communications, I enjoyed reading these letters, and highly recommended the book. But it got me thinking about my relationship with my wife and whether she and I will leave behind any such tangible evidence of our love for...
My iPology (01/30/09 - 68 Comments)
Some light-hearted fare for a Friday... Among friends, family and perhaps even readers of this site, I have achieved the reputation of being something of an Apple-hater; that is, a hater of all things Mac. MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Pro's--I have often spoken out against all of them. They are overpriced, underpowered, toys for yuppies or for people with thick-rimmed glasses and soul patches--people who just take themselves far too seriously. They're computers for followers, not...
Book Review - Virtual Integrity (12/23/08 - 6 Comments)
The internet is a minefield--there is no doubt about it. For every blessing it brings (and there are many) there seem to be innumerable dangers. For every relationship forged and strengthened, there is another damaged or destroyed. For every minute of time saved through some great technological advance, there are hours wasted in distraction and procrastination. For every good use, there are uncounted evil uses. Such is the fate of technology in the hands of...
Things Vaguely Comprehended (12/21/08 - 10 Comments)
Earlier this year John Naish, a British journalist, released a book titled Enough (which does not seem to be widely available in the United States). He subtitled the book, "Breaking free from the world of more." He uses the book to encourage people to stop when they have enough--enough stuff, enough food, enough work, enough information. There were parts of the book I thought were much better than others; one part I thoroughly enjoyed was...
A Great Servant; An Evil Master (12/01/08 - 19 Comments)
It's a question you've probably asked. Why is it that when you are looking for a house, driving slowly down a darkened street straining to see the numbers on the fronts of the homes or on the mailboxes at the end of the driveways, you automatically turn down the car radio? Why do you need silence when focusing, concentrating? You do so, I suppose, because you instinctively know that music and voices are a distraction....
What's Oprah Ever Done For You? (10/25/08 - 14 Comments)
Apparently Oprah loves Amazon's Kindle reading device. She loves it so much that she featured it on her show. Amazon responded by whipping up a coupon code which will remove $50 from the price of the Kindle should you decide to order one (something they, for some reason, chose not to do when I reviewed it). I'm not sure how long this promotion lasts, but I can't imagine it will be more than a day...
Friday Miscellania (09/26/08 - 23 Comments)
It's Friday and that's a good day to ramble. So I thought I'd take the opportunity to share just a couple of items of "miscellania." Personal Updates I've had a couple of people ask for updates as to what I'm up to these days. So here goes. My fall travel schedule is very light, for which I'm grateful. In a couple of weeks I'll be heading to Chicago to blog the True Woman conference. Yes,...
Who Is In Control? (07/28/08 - 30 Comments)
Have you ever noticed how, when a person is looking for a house, driving slowly down a darkened street straining to see the numbers on the fronts of the homes or on the mailboxes at the end of the driveways, he automatically turns down the car radio? He does so because he instinctively knows that music or voices can be a distraction. A person cannot focus as well on the task at-hand when there is...
Data Smog and the Christian Life (07/16/08 - 25 Comments)
We are at a strange and unique stage of human history. The combination of the Internet, electronic storage media, the rapid rate of technological progress and the fast-pace of our society, has given us unparalleled access to unparalleled amounts of information. Never in history have people had access to so much information. Consider just a few examples: Google currently indexes billions upon billions of web pages and adds hundreds of thousands more every day (I...