Technology to Destroy or Develop?

"The average smartphone owner spends more than two hours each day using the device. During that time, smartphone owners spend an average of 25 minutes using their phone to browse the web, 17 minutes on social networking, 13 minutes playing games and 16 minutes listening to music. [telegraph.co.uk]"

"The average adult will spend over 5 hours per day online, on nonvoice mobile activities or with other digital media this year, eMarketer estimates, compared to 4 hours and 31 minutes watching television. Daily TV time will actually be down slightly this year, while digital media consumption will be up 15.8%.

The most significant growth area is on mobile. Adults will spend an average of 2 hours and 21 minutes per day on nonvoice mobile activities. [emarketer.com]"

In the above statistics, almost 8 hours a day is used on Internet/phones ALONE. 

While the use of Internet has greatly increased the convenience of organization, timely meetings, quick access to everything, and immediate news, media also has its downfalls.

While at work, sometimes I will see teens come in after school for a snack with each other. But thats all they do. They don't talk with each other, OH wait, except to tell each other how many "likes" they got on Instagram for a "selfie." Every pair of hands holds a rectangular shaped iPhone with gigabytes and gigabytes of information on it. Feeding good, and very very bad things into their minds. I see the art of communicating by talking in person slowly being decreased to almost nothing as the iPhones take over their minds and conversations. Pictures of other people, tweets, statuses, posts, grams, vines, and everything screen-oriented takes over. It made me really sad to see that no one was talking to each other. 

And with technology only growing, where will we go next? 

Can you imagine if in those 8 hours of consumption per day, we started investing a quarter of that time to the Lord? Thats 2 hours a day saved JUST for Jesus. Not for twitter, or the last pins, but Jesus. And that's still with 6 hours of internet usage left! What would happen if the church started fasting media to become so aligned with what God had for them?

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of technology. Although it has it's cons, it also has its pros. My family owns many apple products including iPhones, iPods, iPads, and MacBooks. I think technology is a wonderful source of historical information, current events, and news. It holds so much music, videos and pictures. It can help edit photos and get your name out to the world. But an underlying theme occurs here:

It begs for our attention. Whether for good or for bad.

Everywhere we turn, media grabs at us wanting to take us with it. Reality is: we can't escape. 

So what does this mean for Christians and the Church?

I really think that Media can be used for great things within the body. Reaching new members, updating weekly church information, inviting new people to new activities. 

I think it is wrong to NOT accept that technology is taking and already has taken the next generation for its own. And as a church, if we want to reach the next generation, part of it has to be through media/internet usage. I love how Calvary uses that to their advantage. 

With changing times, the body MUST continue to change the ways that we reach out to un-reached people. But don't let it destroy you. 

If God really is the most important part of our lives, what would we give up to be with Him? Is it Facebook for a month to grow and learn and dive deeper? Or is it cutting that 8 hours a day to 2 so that we can be in prayer more often. Don't let the distractions of the world destroy you. Use them to your/our advantage, but don't let them destroy you.

Does technology help develop you? Or does it Destroy you?