FEATURE
Entertaining Zo HOW DIGITAL DISTRACTIONS ARE ROBBING MARRIAGES
“W
e live in a very loquacious, noisy, distracted culture,” says philosopher Douglas Groothuis, who has been tracking the digital world’s influence on Christians for more than twenty years since writing his 1997 book, The Soul in Cyberspace. “It is difficult to serve God with our heart, soul, strength and mind when we are diverted and distracted and multitasking everything.”1 Historian Bruce Hindmarsh adds, “Our spiritual condition today is one of spiritual ADD.”2 A distraction can come in many forms: a new amusement, a persistent worry, or a vain aspiration. It is something that diverts our minds and hearts from what is most significant; anything “which monopolizes the heart’s concerns.”3 The heart works best when it is not dominated by cares and demands. To put it another way, our battle against the encumbering distractions of this world — especially the unnecessary distractions of our phones — is a heart war we can wage only if our affections are locked firmly on the glory of Christ. The answer to our hyperkinetic digital world of diversions is the soul-calming sedative of Christ’s splendor, beheld with the mind and enjoyed by the soul. The beauty of Christ calms us and roots our deepest longings in eternal hopes that are far beyond what our smartphones can ever hope to deliver.4 So should we turn back the clock and return to the simplicity of the “distraction-free” predigital age? No — there may have been a pre-digital age, but there has never existed a life without distractions.
24 SEVEN JULY / AUGUST 2018
Whether you have a smartphone, a dumb phone, or no phone, you cannot escape a life that divides your attention. However, the Bible makes clear that those distractions fall on a spectrum. We face sanctified distractions and unsanctified distractions. We face soul-filling distractions and soul-deadening distractions. We face necessary interruptions and worldly interruptions. We face unavoidable distractions of godly marriage and avoidable distractions of consumer culture. Here’s the warning: as Christians, if we fail to manage life’s distractions wisely, we will lose our urgency and — in the sobering words of one smartphone-addicted mom of young children — we may “forget how to walk with the Lord.”5 Distraction management is a critical skill for spiritual health, and no less in the digital age. However, if we merely exorcise one digital distraction from our lives without replacing it with a newer and healthier habit, seven more digital distractions will take its place.6 Over time, we may lose our hearts by the erosive power of unchecked amusements.
UNDISTRACTED ON PURPOSE While our relationships with our phones may not be lifelong covenant relationships (though carrier contracts can feel like it), I would not be the first to suggest that owning a smartphone is similar to dating a high-maintenance, attention-starved partner.7 The smartphone is loaded with prompts, beeps, and allurements. Many of these stimuli (perhaps most of them) are not sinful, but they are pervasive.
