Tim and I live in an apartment in Historic Franklin, Tennessee.
If I had to guess, there are probably 300 units in our development. 600 people, give or take. When I pull in to the driveway, I pass a few buildings. When I take our puppy on walks, I pass even more. Each apartment (or townhouse) is built exactly the same.
Same windows.
Same curtains.
Same sliding glass door.
Because of the way the living room is laid out, everyone’s TVs is cornered in between a wall and the patio door.
Rectangles glow out of living room after living room after living room. Grids of LEDs and plasmas and flickering pixels illuminate every unit, including my own.*
(*under the glow of twinkle lights on the patio, of course.)
There are two people in my house. Six apple products. One TV.
Screens, screens, screens.
How long have TVs been around? Sixty years? Seventy? Smart phones. Six? Seven?
In between episodes of Friday Night Lights (yes, I’m bringing that back up again), my eyes go from the big screen in the corner to the little screen on the ottoman. They move from Coach Taylor to Candy Crush.
Our puppy whines. Even she knows a screen subtracts from the attention we give her. When I pick up my phone, she whimpers. Every. Time.
***
I had the flu, or pneumonia, or both, for three weeks this month. I am still fighting off lingering symptoms of fatigue and aches and coughing. For one of those three weeks, I was too tired or medicated to look at any screen.
My mind raced and crossed the finish line in rural America. Rural churches. Churches in the places like where I grew up in west Texas; where it’s so remote you hit SCAN on the radio and it doesn’t stop because there are no stations. Where, if you have a cell phone now, it bounces between an American and a Mexican carrier. I think of rural churches I’ve heard of in Ohio.
Or I think of my friend who pastors a small church in South Dakota. No time for Facebook. Her days are full of funerals and hospital visits.
And I wonder…
Is distraction one of Satan’s biggest tools?
Are these screens we use to relax and to communicate pulling us away from doing the hard work of reaching out, flesh to flesh, to people who haven’t even heard of the saving grace of Jesus?
I realize there are always distractions; if it’s not a screen it’s something else. But night after night these glowing grids of screens haunt me with their soft light.
***
It’s a long story with a lot of complexities, far too long to type here (maybe I’ll tell you over coffee one day?), but my dad is in one of these rural towns. It’s in between two state highways in the barren flat land of the west Texas plains. You’d pass through it on Dry Hollow Road, if that paints any picture for you.
Population? 200 or so. Murders in the last three years? Two, including the original pastor of the church where my dad presently shepherds.
20 people or so attend his church on Sundays, maybe five to ten youth and a smattering of children. People hunger: physically and spiritually. Build it and they will come? In his case, feed them and they will come.
Honestly? It’s difficult for me to see multi-million dollar building campaigns for churches in middle-class suburbia. But I get it. I sometimes go to one of these churches and almost have panic attacks because it’s so crowded. They need more space. They really do.
But then I look at my dad’s church. It needs air conditioning so people don’t have heat strokes in service in the middle of a dry Texas summer. It needs the cracked wall fixed so insects/rodents/snakes/rain/freak snow storms don’t come in.
These are all needs – I don’t want to present it otherwise.
But some needs go forgotten.
Some needs are lost each time I log in to Twitter.
My eyes get turned back on me when I find my triggers of insecurity and envy after checking Instagram.
I get so mesmerized by my screens, by not getting the things I think I deserve, by my misplaced identity that I can’t see anyone else.
I’m distracted. And I think it’s hurting me.
But more importantly, I think it’s hurting the world.
Comments
13 responses to “Are You Easily Distracted Like Me? (Quick, Check Twitter One More Time Before Reading This. I Probably Am).”
Well said Anne! I have spent some time this morning re-sets of all my social media so that my inbox and my cell phone get quiet.
Your comments speak to me about my One Word for this year – Listen.
Too much noise ! And one stressed out DSL wifi tower at home!
Thanks for saying somethings I have been thinking this morning!
Blessings
Jim
I need to do the same. Thanks for the inspiration!
Anne, this is fantastic. Very challenging. I’m speaking in a few weeks on how technology can become an idol in our lives. May I present this as a reading?
Absolutely! Honored.
Distractions are abundant in our culture. I visited my best friend a few weeks ago for a couple of days, and we went to her church on Saturday night. At my church, at any given service, there can be 1,000 people in the auditorium. I get lost, confused, and lonely at the drop of a hat because there is no connection. At my friend’s church, there were a total of 15-20 people at that Saturday night service. I met the couple sitting behind me and we talked about the Broncos. I received a handshake from the pastor, who I’d met before, and a hug from his wife who is the most darling woman imaginable. I met, for the first time in what feels like years, a single guy my own age who attends church of his own accord. There wasn’t a cell phone screen to be seen anywhere, and I loved it. You’re right, we really are missing out on a lot by our mega churches and our distractions. Connections, real connections, is what people need, which is probably why I hate Facebook so much, but don’t have the courage to delete mine for fear of losing contact with people who never actually contact me. The hazards of being an introvert who cares about other people’s feelings.
Thanks for a great post, and a bit of a reality check!
Good thoughts, Carissa. It’s truly amazing how culture and tech have shifted!
You speak such truth Anne Marie. Such a sad, hard truth. And my biggest fear is what will become of the next generation? I wasn’t raised with any of the technolody of today and I’m not even THAT old. ;)
That said, it has not stopped me from embracing it wholeheartedly. I am an Apple enthusiast and use my laptop, phone and ipad daily. How frightening that? I use them all DAILY! How much time do I waste NOT connecting but detaching? And for someone like me, a closet introvert, that is not a good thing. It is not in my nature to reach out but I HAD to before texting and emailing. I think you’re so right…it’s hurting our world and frightening that it doesn’t look like it’s going to get any better.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
I feel ya, sister! It is a tough balance for me to find.
I’m always amazed how people don’t think twice about looking at their phones in the middle of a conversation. I hate it when we’re eating dinner and someone picks up their phone to take their turn on Words With Friends. My son barely knows how to spend time with friends because of those screens. He visits his friend and they play games; one on the computer, the other on the TV. He messages back and forth, never speaking to his friends in person. And I remember the days of hours spent on the phone.
So true, so true! We have a phones-away rule at meals!
Just discovered you by connecting from my Bible App. Thrilled! Listened to & read some…Hallelujah!
Will continue.
And ps- I am from Nashville, tho living now on an island off the coast of Portland, Me.
That sounds lovely!
I have found there are many different types of distractions that come our way. When we name them and call them out, we are able to navigate them more effectively. It also allows us to minimize the extent of these distractions.