David Clark

Driving while intexticated…

In 2007, Brandi Terry, a 17-year-old from Utah, was on her way to visit her grandfather when she drove through a red light and crashed. In a radio interview¹ she recalled what happened: “I woke up to a bright light—I could barely open my eyes—and paramedics. This man was saying ‘Brandi, Brandi,’ and I just started crying. I didn’t know what had happened.” Terry had shattered her right ankle and broken her upper right arm in half. She couldn’t walk for six months. When police checked her phone they discovered that she had sent a text within seconds of the accident. Even after recovery, she went on to say of her habit of texting while driving: “I tried really, really hard not to. Then it got to the point where I would do it only once every 5 minutes. I don’t know—it’s just so addicting, I just can’t put it down.” So why did she do it?

In a March 2008 BBC report, Professor Cary Cooper, who advises the British government on stress in the workplace, suggested that “e-mail is one of the most pernicious stressors of our time.”² He went on to say that every year Britons take 14 million sick days due to stress and that e-mail is a major source of employee anxiety: “24/7, we are interfaced by the mobile phone, by Blackberry, by e-mails, by a whole range of technologies, so that we are almost on call all the time.”

Wherever we look, we find people addicted to checking messages on their mobile phones. How often have we seen a row of teenagers sitting together, all glued to their phones, with ear buds firmly in place, and wondered if they were in fact communicating with each other—by text!

Teenagers are not the only ones guilty of such behavior, as anyone who has been on a flight can testify. As soon as the plane lands, out come the phones, Blackberries, or iPhones to check up on that message that might just have been missed!

Or take the recent case of a man being interviewed for a teacher’s position checking his phone in the middle of the interview as soon as he received a text message. He did not get the job!

It’s all about me

So why do we do it? Why are so many addicted to these new media, defined by the Webster’s Dictionary as “to surrender oneself to something obsessively or habitually”?

Is it not a sinful part of selfish human nature that makes us want to think that we are indispensable? So much so that we become addicted to email, text, Twitter, or any number of new communications. It is the opposite of what we read in Philippians 2:3: “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”

Do you tweet?

Another new technology that has people baffled is Twitter. Started in 2006, it has experienced a monthly growth of 1,382%! Twitter is a service that enables its users to send and read messages of up to 140 characters known as tweets. Anyone can then subscribe to receive these tweets. Some of the biggest showbiz stars and politicians have massive followings. Three and a half million people follow every tweet that Britney Spears sends, while two and a half million need to know about Barack Obama’s every move. Perhaps it makes people feel “closer” to their favorite star or politician?

Emails can get you fired…

Much care should always be taken when sending emails. Not only are they admissible as evidence in court, but they can easily be misinterpreted. A chief executive of an American health care company, Cerner Corporation, wrote an email that turned out to be disastrous for the company as well as the morale of company employees. In the email, employees were accused of being lazy and managers were also threatened with being fired. It seemed the employee parking lot was not full at 8 a.m. and was nearly empty by 5 p.m. each day. After the email showed up on a Yahoo Financial Message Board investors began questioning the leadership of the company. The result was a plunge of 22% in the share price of the company’s stock on Wall Street.

Or consider the case of Vicki Walker, an accountant from Auckland, New Zealand, who was fired for sending emails to work colleagues which “caused disharmony in the workplace.” The company she worked for, ProCare Health, claimed that her emails advising colleagues how to fill out staff claim forms were confrontational due to the use of a sentence written all in capital letters and highlighted in blue, with the time and date highlighted in red. For these crimes against humanity, Walker was fired from the position she had held at the company for two years.

There is good also

Yet, there is still much that can be said in favor of these new media. Consider, for example, the missionary organization that has been able to cut costs significantly by replacing letters with emails. Instantly, they can let people know of prayer needs, a difficult situation, or a matter for rejoicing. Organizations such as the Christian Institute and others are even using Twitter to keep subscribers informed of significant developments.

Or think of parents, separated from their married children and grandchildren, who can now see them and talk to them over free Internet video services such as Skype. These days, the world is a much smaller place!

It was Twitter, for example, that was at the heart of the recent protests in Iran because it was both very easy for the average citizen to use and very hard for any central authority to control. Similarly, text messages can be of great value in times of emergencies.

All this is changing the way that we interact with each other. It is undoubtedly contributing to a higher level of stress, with people now available all of the time. The boss gives employees a Blackberry and expects to be able to call on their services any time of night and day!

But the change is here to stay, as the postal service will attest, with 10% yearly drops in the physical mail that we send.

Biblical principles

When considering our 24/7 society, there remain the key biblical principles of self-control, selflessness, and service. The book of James explains it most clearly when it states that “where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (James 3:16–17).

In contrast to what is going on around us, we are not to be addicted to email, text, Twitter, or any new form of communications. These are tools to be used for good; they are not to control us.

We should also apply the principle of James 1:19 and “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.” In other words, we need to think about how we communicate with people. We need, for example, to consider how a person might read (or misinterpret) an email. Our responses should be considered, measured, and focused on building up. We should consider “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise” and “think on these things” (Phil. 4:8).

Practical Advice

With spam accounting for over 90% of all email traffic, it is important to take simple steps, such as installing a spam filter (though many email providers already have these), and using up-to-date anti-virus software. However, beyond these things, Christian principles such as self-control or humility are critical.

Some Christian couples have found that sharing an email account can be helpful. Other people suggest that not responding to emails or text messages immediately is a good way of avoiding their addictive effects. Particularly helpful is the idea of not responding to a message that has upset us on the same day it was received. Simply putting our response in the “drafts” folder and re-reading it the following day before sending it can avoid many dangers.

I conclude with an interesting true story that can be applied to all forms of new communications. Two friends were together outside, chopping up logs. The phone in the house rang several times, and eventually one friend asked the other if he was going to answer it. The homeowner simply said: “No. The phone is a convenience, and at this moment, it is inconvenient!”

The next article will look at the social networks such as Facebook and Linkedin and others. We will also look at Instant Messaging (IM), concluding with practical, helpful, and positive advice.
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1. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113132868
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7281707.stm
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David Clark lives in England where he has served on the Boards of Evangelical Press and Evangelical Times. He has worked with information technology for over thirty years. This article is reprinted from the British newspaper Evangelical Times, Jan. 2010. The author would appreciate receiving questions on this series of articles from readers via email to ParentsAndTheInternet@googlemail.com. These will assist him in writing future articles and where possible, posted contributions and emails will be answered anonymously in the final articles of this series.

Published by The Banner of Sovereign Grace Truth, used with permission.