Crossroads -- Why can't churches face the smartphone crisis?

Big political news in California. The surgeon general takes a stand. Faith groups are way behind.

It appears that Emily Harrison — creator of the “Dear Christian Parent” website — is some kind of religious countercultural radical. By the way, for me “radical” is a compliment when discussing matters of digital-screen culture.

The question is what brand of faith-based radical she is, since her Substack’s “about” page offers classic nondenominational-era language: “Believer in Jesus. Wife. Mother. Writer & Speaker on kids and screen time. ScreenStrong Ambassador.”

However, early in her new post — “Hey Christians, Smartphones aren’t for Kids. Or Teenagers” — there is this important byte:

When I started working in the kids & screens field back in 2018 people would look at me like a three headed monster when I talked about limiting screen time for my young sons. 

Ah, so some of the timid folks around her think she’s a “three-headed monster.” Sounds good.

Harrison’s post was one of three pieces of news and commentary that we discussed during this week’s “Crossroads” podcast. The big question: What is the “religion ghost,” to use a classic GetReligion.org term, that we can see in the rising tide of mainstream-media ink that we are seeing about smartphones and mental-health?

Using concepts linked to a classic Marie Winn book, “The Plug-In Drug: Television, Children, and the Family” (first published in 1977), I argued that parents, pastors, teachers and counselors need to understand that new forms of communications technology are not mere “boxes” placed in homes — they are “doors” into homes.

What enters through these doors, include the cyber-portals in zillions of pockets? That’s a big moral question, one that looms over this New York Times headline: “California Joins Growing National Effort to Ban Smartphone Use in Schools.” Here is a key passage:

Many school districts in California already have restrictions on cellphone use during the school day, but enforcement can be a challenge for teachers and administrators, and policies are lenient enough that devices can still disrupt daily activities.

In Los Angeles, for instance, students are prohibited from using their phones during class but are allowed to bring them out during breaks. School board members said on Tuesday that they now wanted to ban the use of phones and social media platforms throughout the day.

In this podcast, we also discussed another important piece of commentary, a New York Times op-ed by Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, calling for warning labels — think cigarettes — on social-media platforms.

This is a must-read essay for lots of reasons, especially since this topic appears to be creating rare common ground between centrist Democrats and most Republicans. At the must-follow After Babel Substack, Jonathan Haidt and Zach Rausch note that the surgeon general opened with this strong salvo:

One of the most important lessons I learned in medical school was that in an emergency, you don’t have the luxury to wait for perfect information. You assess the available facts, you use your best judgment, and you act quickly. The mental health crisis among young people is an emergency — and social media has emerged as an important contributor. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms, and the average daily use in this age group, as of the summer of 2023, was 4.8 hours. Additionally, nearly half of adolescents say social media makes them feel worse about their bodies.

It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents. A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe.

This brings me back to Harrison’s essay. She promises to offer her readers content that is both biblical and practical.

I will end with a few lines from the “What resources are out there for Christian parents?” chunk of her piece. Frankly, I found this passage quite moving and it cut deep into my own motivations, in terms of why I started the Rational Sheep project. Harrison writes:

What I’ve seen in the past six years of my work is that there are pastors and teachers speaking and writing thoughtfully about how Christians interact with digital media, but not many of these resources are directed at parents. The books, articles and podcasts that are directed at parents tend to be about how to limit and control digital media, not about how to be set apart from culture. Even secular culture is now going against culture. Christians, we should have been in this space first.

Yes, I added the bold type. Let us attend.

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