My daughter is in middle school, and all her friends have phones. Recently, I started wondering if I should get her a phone so that her friends can connect with her instead of having to text her through me. I’m not sure what I’ll do just yet, but to help me process this decision I read Tony Reinke’s book 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You. I picked up Reinke’s book because, if I give my daughter a phone, I’m going to have to help her navigate her use of technology, and honestly, I felt like I needed a bit of help myself.
When it comes to technology, Reinke wants us to steer clear from two common extremes. One extreme is the “utopian optimism,” which believes that our phones are making us smarter, deeper and better. The other extreme is the “dystopian pessimism,” which believes that our phones are making us shallow and less human.
Reinke calls us to a middle ground by inviting us to thoughtfully reflect on technology’s place in our lives. We do this by knowing the purpose of our lives and then wisely using technology to that end.
As his title implies, Reinke offers 12 ways we are being changed by our phones. Here is a summary of his thoughts:
1. We are addicted to distraction.
2. We ignore flesh and blood in preference to our smartphones.
3. We crave immediate approval.
4. We are losing the ability to follow long flows of thought.
5. We feed on produced and fantasized images of life.
6. We dwell on things we never knew we wanted until they were presented to us.
7. We become lonely as we use our smartphones for semi-personal interactions.
8. We get comfortable in secret sins that are easy to hide.
9. We lose meaning as the quantity of needless information makes it difficult to access quality and needed information.
10. We fear missing out on information.
11. We become harsh, letting out our frustrations with others in very public ways.
12. We lose our place in time and get lost in a vague sea of instant-access material.
Reinke then ends his book by making a positive case for how we should thoughtfully approach the use of our phones.
Personally, I was most convicted by numbers 2, 5, and 12, but as I read Reinke’s book I could see my life being changed in all 12 ways.
I think the thing I found most helpful about Reinke’s book was that it opened my eyes to the connection between theology and technology. Never before had I been encouraged to see my phone as a tool that could help me follow Jesus in “the faint glow of a pixelated screen.” Never before had I considered that my phone was “a window to my heart” showing me what I really want.
Overall, I would highly recommend 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You. Seeing the way my life was being changed by my phone has helped me to use my phone with more critical reflection.
As I mentioned at the start of this post, I picked up Reinke’s book because I felt that I was in some uncharted waters and I needed a thoughtful guide. Reinke proved to be that guide. His book was deeply helpful. I’m still not sure when I will give my daughter her first smartphone, but here is what I do know: before I do, I am going to give her this book, and I am going to walk through it with her so that she too has a framework for how to use her phone in a way that glorifies God and is good for her.
Charlie Sandberg is a Colorado transplant from Minnesota who enjoys
writing, reading, running and spending time with his family. He is a
teaching pastor at Faith and has been a member for 13 years. He loves
helping people know and love Jesus by teaching the Bible.