Summer Reading -- Redeeming Technology

Yet another book has jumped in to delay reading through St. Augustine's The City of God.  I suppose I will keep chipping away at The City of God as the weeks go by, but I just started a new book which was also a gift from IssuesEtc.  Redeeming Technology is an intriguing title, and a glance at the table of contents and just getting into the book has vaulted it to a higher priority.

It was written by a psychiatrist, Dr. Brian Smith, and a pastor, Rev. A. Trevor Sutton.  They do not go to the extreme in saying that technology is evil, but they do note that our use of technology has gone to extremes.  The consequences are not insignificant.  

Consider these paragraphs from the first chapter of the book.  

"We have witnessed the pain of technology addiction.  We know the struggles of unhealthy technology use.  For us, this is more than statistics.  For us, this is personal.

"Dr. Smith has treated children on the brink of suicide, influenced by social media that romanticize self-harm and websites detailing how to take one's life.  He has gotten truant children back into school after they had become vampires with reversed sleep-wake cycles, up all night playing electronic games and sleeping all day.  He has corrected the cognitive distortions of patients convinced that something is wrong with their bodies because of the distorted images of beauty prevalent on the internet.  As a psychiatrist, Dr. Smith has witnessed the pernicious power that technology can have over mental health.

"Pastor Sutton has provided pastoral care to individuals whose lives have been destroyed by technology.  He has visited young adults staying at inpatient psychiatric care facilities because of social media and cyberbullying.  He has counseled individuals rocked by the public shame of internet call-out culture.  He has worked with couples torn apart by pornography and extramarital text messaging.  He has helped people discern the differences between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Facebook.  As a pastor, Trevor has witnessed the pernicious power that technology can have over the soul" (pages 14-15).

Perhaps these words will be enough to encourage you to get the book and read it for yourself.  If I think about it, I can offer a review of the book when I am done.  At this very early stage, I can envision changing my use of social media and internet.  I already know that it has become addictive, but their research may be the catalyst to actually refrain and to reprioritize my time. 

And, yes, I get the irony of posting this on a blog.