This week our daughter Hannah asked how we communicated via cell phone when we were dating. I reminded her that cell phones did not exist when Michelle and I dated; she then proceeded to remark about our antiquity.
I reminded Hannah that unless her mom and I were physically together or on a phone in our home/dorm talking with one another, or connecting via a note or letter, we had no form of communication. The same reality existed for any relationships prior to the new and flattened world. The ability to keep up with multitudes of people via social media has changed the world in incredible ways.
I personally love Facebook, Twitter, and social media in general. But everything with the potential for good has an equal potential for evil.
Enter Words With Friends: the newest rage in social media. I have sat on more than one occasion with young adults at a table who totally checked out on a conversation because of this, unless you could help them with a word (DEAR YOUNG ADULTS, SITTING AT A TABLE LOOKING AT YOUR PHONE EVERY TEN SECONDS IS RUDE. WORSE, IT IS INCREDIBLY SELF-CENTERED). Now, the same can be said of FB or Twitter, and I have been guilty of using these at inappropriate times myself.
I am not arguing you should quit playing WWF or leave Facebook. But I am saying we should analyze how we use these.
The irony of Words With Friends is this: you can play this game that actually involves using your mind to think about language and communication, and while playing the game you can use up time that should be spent working on a paper. I would venture a guess that more than one of my students this semester turned in a late paper simply because he played Words With Friends or posted too many Facebook comments instead of writing words for his teacher. I would also guess that in seminaries across America there are too many students who fail to do the work they say they committed to complete in a timely manner because of WWF or other time killers in the social media world. (DEAR STUDENTS: WHEN YOU REGISTER FOR A CLASS YOU ARE AT THAT MOMENT MAKING A COMMITMENT TO BE ON TIME TO CLASS, TO TURN IN ASSIGNMENTS ON TIME, ETC).
Today Seth Godin once again nailed a salient issue, this time related to my point above. You can read it in its entirety here. He describes his friend Jill’s experience:
“Twenty years ago, my friend Jill discovered Tetris. Unfortunately, she was working on her Ph.D. thesis at the time. On any given day the attention she spent on the game felt right to her. It was a choice, and she made it. It was more fun to move blocks than it was to write her thesis. Day by day this adds up… she wasted so much time that she had to stay in school and pay for another six months to finish her doctorate.”
He then commented on the impact of such activity (fill in WWF, FB, Twitter, Mac Attack or various computer games in the place of Tetris):
“More and more, we’re finding it easy to get engaged with activities that feel like work, but aren’t. I can appear just as engaged (and probably enjoy some of the same endorphins) when I beat someone in Words With Friends as I do when I’m writing the chapter for a new book [Or I would add, a paper for class]. The challenge is that the pleasure from winning a game fades fast, but writing a book contributes to readers (and to me) for years to come.”
How much more scandalous is this for those called to ministry in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to produce less than stellar work because of our utter selfishness in satisfying ourselves in the momentary joy of a Facebook comment or retweet than in producing something that perhaps only a grader will read but that in fact is a mark of our commitment to a greater vision of theological education? (DEAR STUDENTS: YOUR WORK DOES NOT HAVE TO BE SEEN BY ALL YOUR FRIENDS IN SOME VOYEURISTIC WAY FOR IT TO COUNT AS IMPORTANT. YOUR RESEARCH PAPER COMES BEFORE YOUR FACEBOOK NOTE)
Godin then offers this practical reason for the problem and the concomitant solution:
“One reason for this confusion is that we’re often using precisely the same device to do our work as we are to distract ourselves from our work. The distractions come along with the productivity. The boss (and even our honest selves) would probably freak out if we took hours of ping pong breaks while at the office, but spending the same amount of time engaged with others online is easier to rationalize. Hence this proposal:
“Simple but bold: Only use your computer for work. Real work. The work of making something.
“Have a second device, perhaps an iPad, and use it for games, web commenting, online shopping, networking… anything that doesn’t directly create valued output (no need to have an argument here about which is which, which is work and which is not… draw a line, any line, and separate the two of them. If you don’t like the results from that line, draw a new line).”
Of course here is the problem: most students can hardly afford one computer let alone a second one or an ipad. If you have both, I think his solution is spot on. But if not, try this if for only a week: When you start to use your phone/computer to play WWF, do FB, or some other form of social media, even if you (as I do) use a lot of it for ministerial purposes, log your time. You can estimate, but use the same blasted device that wastes your time to log your time. You may be amazed at how much time you waste and in some cases how much you blame your professor, boss, etc for taking up your time when you are responsible for wasting so much of it.
Let’s be honest: some of us who love Jesus struggle with our time with God daily because our Bible on our phone or computer opens us up to so many distractions. If this is you, then pick up a paper Bible and a paper journal and give God your best time before touching anything that has a power button.
I write this because I felt the searing heat of conviction when I read Godin’s post. Last night in class we talked about character, including proper management of one’s time. Let’s be honest, if you are late chronically, it is not for lack of discipline, it is because you are a prima donna and like the attention you get (more on that in another post to come). Those who are habitually late are typically those with a sad need of attention (thus the term “fashionably late”). But the same is true of wasting time on social media when we could be using that time producing something of value. Our selfishness in this instance is simply easier to hide.
Confession: I took a writing break after publishing two books in 2009. I had averaged about a book a year for around a decade and felt like it was time to take a break and give more attention to family and students. I do not regret that. But if I am gut level honest, I have also not produced some things I could or should have because I have wasted time on social media.
I will not take the typical and drastic overreaction of taking a long break from social media tools that can be extremely important in ministry (although I will never personally play Words With Friends as I would rather do things with words that actually do more than beat a friend). But I am going to monitor my time and compare how much time I spend on social media versus how much time I spend working on books, whether ebooks for free or books for publishers.
Students, look at your time. Have you turned in an assignment late that you would have completed on time if you made it a higher priority than social media or silly little computer games? If so, I highly encourage you to do something specific:
Repent.
This morning I repented before God for my waste of time and my failure to be careful in my computer usage. I vowed to be more careful in my time usage. Sorry, I likely won’t tweet less (if that annoys you). But I will give more attention to producing helpful words more and wasting time less.
Your phone, your computer, your social media connections can be a vital part of your life, your growth, and your influence. And they can be central to stunting your growth, prolonging your adolescence, and sadly, even contribute to destroying your life. The choice is yours.
