Technology is an amazing tool, but do you control your phone?

Even just twenty years ago, I think we would be amazed at the powerful computer, telephone, MP3 player, and more that’s become the all-in-one smart phone.

What an incredible tool our smart phones are! However, it can become all too easy for our smart phones to be the things that control us and dominate our attention.

Part of following the Jesus way is having the capacity for paying attention to God in the everyday moments of our life. Think about the exhortation in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to pray without ceasing, for example. It’s hard to turn our attention to God unceasingly if we’re constantly paying attention to a shiny, noisy, vibrating, little brick in our hands with apps designed to captivate our attention.

Maybe you feel like I’m being alarmist?

Let me explain.

The average smart phone user touches, taps, or swipes their phone 2,617 times per day. There are 1,440 minutes in one day. If we do a little bit of math, that means that the average smart phone user touches their phone 1.8 times a minute, and I didn’t account for the time you spend sleeping in that math. That’s a lot time spent on our smart phones!

Some studies even suggest that the mere presence of our smart phones lower our problem-solving abilities and intelligence.

So are you in control of your phone, or is your phone in control of you? If it’s reducing your ability to reason, be creative, and connect with other humans who you can see, it’s most certainly having an impact your relationship with God, who you can’t see. Dallas Willard, an amazing Christian thinker, says that everyone is being spiritually formed all the time, but the question is whether we’re being spiritually formed into Christlikeness or into a different kind of spiritual being. It’s not a question of if technology is changing you, but how is your it changing you?

So, if you’d like to make more mental space in your life for being formed into Christlikeness, let me suggest a few habits and practices that might help you control your phone instead of being controlled by them.

1. Set limits for yourselves within social media apps, which lend themselves to mindless scrolling.
2. Turn your phone to grayscale. This article will tell you how. If your phone is in grayscale, it’s inherently less appealing to look at, and you won’t spend as much time on it.
3. Put your phone to bed before you go to bed, and in a room that’s not your bedroom. Charge your phone in a room that you don’t sleep in, and put it on that charger 30 minutes to an hour before you go to bed.
4. Start your morning off with Scripture before you even touch your phone. Instead of starting your day by scrolling newsfeeds or discover pages, start your morning off with a physical Bible.

These basic habits will help you regain control over what is a great tool, and will make more space in your life for connecting with God and with other people.