To answer your question, I believe the first critical mention of phone use was by a Deacon this lent during a homily on the ability to listen to God and the movements of the Spirit. To his credit, he made his homily memorable by calling smart phones "idiot boxes."
As a father of many, the oldest just having reached teenage-hood, this has been a topic of constant discussion in our household, and one which I definitely have fallen into the McLuhan camp (intuitively at first, and later connecting it with his work after encountering it on RD's blog). A decade ago I would watch how my son would react to him playing with little bubble or puzzle games on my phone, and the distress it would cause when I took it away. I noticed the behavior and response was different than that of a normal toy, in a very negative way. I hadn't developed the religious framework to properly describe what I felt (a sort of temporary "possession"), but I felt immediately I had to protect him from the Thing.
Now ~10 years later, observing with horror the effect of these devices on the children in my greater community, as well as trying to connect with the men as I sit around a table while on a sports tournament trip, who mindlessly (soullessly??) babble on about the bets they made that night and their fantasy teams' performance, I am absolutely convicted that this is not just a misused tool. Smart phones have a sort of spirit, and its fruit is that it damages ours. Our leaders need to do far more on this front if they want to protect their flocks.
I agree. I think my main point is that the good choices have mostly been taken away: Boy Scouts, home chemistry sets, shop class, woods to wander in. In my day 3A high schools were big anybody could play football if they wanted to. Now it's 7A high schools which means you almost have to be college caliber to make the team. We played sand lot baseball, shot hoops for hours at a time, capture the flag, snap the dragon. We made our own fun.
OK, all of that adds more reasons that make this a topic that religious organizations need to address and even add alternative "good things" for members and the public. Camps, seminars, small groups, recreation, etc., are all things that churches have done in the past and will need to do more of in the future.
I attend a small Baptist church in Texas (not my preference, but that’s another story). Anyway, screen culture is rarely mentioned. On the rare occasion it is mentioned, it’s usually about not arguing with others on social media.
Hey Matt. There's lots of criticisms regarding smart phones, but I didn't know about the gambling issue. I live in a college football town, so wow. My thoughts on the phone issue are not so much that the technology is evil but that it brings out the evil (or weakness) in certain people who have nothing better to do with their time. And the reason they have nothing better to do with their time would be a more interesting discussion than blaming the tech. My observations are perhaps tainted by the fact that I'm 70 years old. When I was growing up, there was nothing on TV except for afternoon cartoons, but my dad gave me free rein over his garage shop, which kept me busy for hours. When I turned 12 he bought me a chemistry set and I tore through every experiment in the book that summer. About the same time I joined the Boy Scouts and became obsessed with earning merit badges. Then came sports, surfing, girls, cars...and then having become bored in what was being taught in college I took up the guitar and started working in construction. My point being is that I think all young men have this surging, inquisitive nature and if parents or society don't put something material and real in their path they will chose the mediated, electronic world to satisfy that need. I recently attended an agricultural trade show where there were a lot of farm kids in attendance with their parents. These kids, ages 7 to 17 were all about it, asking questions about the machinery, talking knowledgeably about engines, lift capacity, etc. I've also spent decades around construction workers and diesel mechanics. And while they don't obsess over their phones, they use them, YouTube in particular when they run into a problem and go looking for solutions from others in the trades. Likewise I turn to YouTube before engaging in any construction or woodworking project just to see if anybody else has a better or more efficient way of doing what I'm about to do. So the fault is perhaps not in the stars...
Smartphone tech makes good choices possible and bad choices possible. The tech is not a heresy, but it's a door into worlds that parents, in particular, cannot control. Is this an issue to which religious leaders must respond. Will they? Thus, my post and many others to come.
The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul by Jean-Claude Larchet is a good read on this topic.
To answer your question, I believe the first critical mention of phone use was by a Deacon this lent during a homily on the ability to listen to God and the movements of the Spirit. To his credit, he made his homily memorable by calling smart phones "idiot boxes."
As a father of many, the oldest just having reached teenage-hood, this has been a topic of constant discussion in our household, and one which I definitely have fallen into the McLuhan camp (intuitively at first, and later connecting it with his work after encountering it on RD's blog). A decade ago I would watch how my son would react to him playing with little bubble or puzzle games on my phone, and the distress it would cause when I took it away. I noticed the behavior and response was different than that of a normal toy, in a very negative way. I hadn't developed the religious framework to properly describe what I felt (a sort of temporary "possession"), but I felt immediately I had to protect him from the Thing.
Now ~10 years later, observing with horror the effect of these devices on the children in my greater community, as well as trying to connect with the men as I sit around a table while on a sports tournament trip, who mindlessly (soullessly??) babble on about the bets they made that night and their fantasy teams' performance, I am absolutely convicted that this is not just a misused tool. Smart phones have a sort of spirit, and its fruit is that it damages ours. Our leaders need to do far more on this front if they want to protect their flocks.
I agree. I think my main point is that the good choices have mostly been taken away: Boy Scouts, home chemistry sets, shop class, woods to wander in. In my day 3A high schools were big anybody could play football if they wanted to. Now it's 7A high schools which means you almost have to be college caliber to make the team. We played sand lot baseball, shot hoops for hours at a time, capture the flag, snap the dragon. We made our own fun.
OK, all of that adds more reasons that make this a topic that religious organizations need to address and even add alternative "good things" for members and the public. Camps, seminars, small groups, recreation, etc., are all things that churches have done in the past and will need to do more of in the future.
I attend a small Baptist church in Texas (not my preference, but that’s another story). Anyway, screen culture is rarely mentioned. On the rare occasion it is mentioned, it’s usually about not arguing with others on social media.
Hey Matt. There's lots of criticisms regarding smart phones, but I didn't know about the gambling issue. I live in a college football town, so wow. My thoughts on the phone issue are not so much that the technology is evil but that it brings out the evil (or weakness) in certain people who have nothing better to do with their time. And the reason they have nothing better to do with their time would be a more interesting discussion than blaming the tech. My observations are perhaps tainted by the fact that I'm 70 years old. When I was growing up, there was nothing on TV except for afternoon cartoons, but my dad gave me free rein over his garage shop, which kept me busy for hours. When I turned 12 he bought me a chemistry set and I tore through every experiment in the book that summer. About the same time I joined the Boy Scouts and became obsessed with earning merit badges. Then came sports, surfing, girls, cars...and then having become bored in what was being taught in college I took up the guitar and started working in construction. My point being is that I think all young men have this surging, inquisitive nature and if parents or society don't put something material and real in their path they will chose the mediated, electronic world to satisfy that need. I recently attended an agricultural trade show where there were a lot of farm kids in attendance with their parents. These kids, ages 7 to 17 were all about it, asking questions about the machinery, talking knowledgeably about engines, lift capacity, etc. I've also spent decades around construction workers and diesel mechanics. And while they don't obsess over their phones, they use them, YouTube in particular when they run into a problem and go looking for solutions from others in the trades. Likewise I turn to YouTube before engaging in any construction or woodworking project just to see if anybody else has a better or more efficient way of doing what I'm about to do. So the fault is perhaps not in the stars...
Smartphone tech makes good choices possible and bad choices possible. The tech is not a heresy, but it's a door into worlds that parents, in particular, cannot control. Is this an issue to which religious leaders must respond. Will they? Thus, my post and many others to come.