I love to read. Many books inform my thinking; occasionally one transforms my thinking. Tim Challies' latest book, The Next Story, is in the 2nd category. I'm not done with it yet, and won't be for a while as it deserves a second reading. Here's a sample:
There are always spiritual realities linked to our use of technology. We know that there is often a link between our use of technology and idolatry, that our idols are often good things that want to become ultimate things in our lives. Communication with others is just this sort of thing, a very good thing that can so easily become an ultimate thing--an idol in our hearts.
How can we tell if something has become an idol in our lives? One possible sign of idolatry is when we devote an inordinate amount of time and attention to something, when we feel less than complete without it. It may be something that we look at right before we go to sleep and the first thing we give our attention to when we wake up. It may be the kind of thing that keeps us awake, even in the middle of the night.
A 2010 study by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research sampled the habits of 1,605 young adults. The researchers found that one-third of women between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four check Facebook when they first wake up, before they even head to the bathroom; 21% check it in the middle of the night; 39% of them declare that they are addicted to Facebook.
- Tim Challies: The Next Story (2010), 70.
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