Read:
Month 1: Food — Guest Post & Link Up
Month 2: Clothes — Guest Post — Link Up
Month 3: Possessions — Guest Post — Link Up
Tell us, do you relate to what Jen shares below about how media steals time away from God?
My Communion with God suffers not for lack of desire but time. And let’s be honest: I say I don’t have time, yet I found thirty-five minutes for Facebook and an hour for my shows. I found half an hour for YouTube videos on how to fix little back girls’ hair (my Ethiopian children are on deck, and I can’t have them looking nappy). I found fifteen minutes for the radio and twenty minutes for a missed 30 Rock episode. So when I say I don’t have time, I’m a gigantic liar.
I have time. I just spend it elsewhere. – Pg 104
Watch:
7 – 4: Media, Bloom (in)courage Book Club from Bloom (in)courage on Vimeo.
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Discuss:
Are you aware of how much time you (and your family) spend daily on different media outlets? Do you feel like this is a healthy amount of time? Does this time spent affect your time with “people who are here?”
Share:
Join us on Wednesday as Jill from Reini Days shares with us on Month Four. And if you’ve also shared about this month’s topic on your blog, won’t you link up with us on Friday or share in the comments? We’d love to hear from you!
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We have been convicted about the amount of time we used to spend at the computer and at other media. We have scaled back and made more room for seeking God in His Word, in prayer and in fellowship. The enemy of our soul and our flesh is good at busying us with “good” things, but there is a level of righteousness that God seeks for us that requires dieing to shelf. Thank you.
I loooooooove watching these videos with you two! I giggled remembering. MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY. For the love. I am still finding this particular area so difficult. Some really fascinating articles have come out discussing how this addiction is literally rewiring our brains in unhealthy ways, producing in us genuine addictive traits to the detriment of family and real life. Readers, just know that I am struggling alongside you here STILL. Making a fresh commitment this morning toward restraint and intentionality. How does this chapter hit you?
I believe that the addiction is rewiring our brains! For me, quitting facebook felt worse in the beginning that giving up sweets or caffeine — and for me, that speaks volumes. What I think is interesting is that it’s pretty much an acceptable addition. When people found out I quit, there were many who pressured me into reactivating my facebook account or opening up a new one soon after. It’s the norm, even if it’s to our detriment, which is pretty sad!
This little single mom family has been forced into an instant media shutdown due to a recent move … And, this single mother is super happy to see her children reading MORE, than ever before … mind you we’ve only been watchN TV since they turned the analog off in 2008. 🙂
LOVE the quote “Be with the ones that are here!” Think I will put on a canvas and put on the kitchen wall! Y’all are great together, can’t wait for next week! 🙂
Okay, so I’ve not been reading this book or following along with the club, but this video grabbed my attention today. Thanks for the challenging discussion and thoughtful reflections. All things I need to bring before the Lord!
You’re right. We have plenty of time to spend with God. It takes less time to put wash in the machine than to take a picture of it and upload it on the web. (Though I never understood taking pictures of dirty laundry in a basket.) I don’t have a Facebook page and I refuse to get one. I don’t tweet, either. I don’t need to spend extra time in any social networking areas if other more important things get neglected.
This chapter has been on my heart even before I read the book! This was an encouragement to me to address my dependency on media. My family and I are facing some challenges the next few months, and this is the perfect time to refocus our attention on each other and our friends/family. This is also the time to set new boundaries in what is appropriate media intake each day. Thanks!
I am a total facebook addict. I’ll admit it. I pretty much sold my life to facebook — it was the first thing I checked in the morning (literally, I’d wake up, roll over and check it with one eye still closed because I was still tired). I’d go on it ALL THE TIME AT work, and I’d be on it when I had friends over, focusing on my phone instead of them. One day I deleted 100+ people, leaving me with 90-something friends, and I tried to use it less, but I finally realized it had such a grip on me that I had to get rid of it entirely. One of the friends with whom I live owns his own business and he and his wife and I have had many looong conversations about it. He hates it and she has one and hearing their perspectives was great. One night I came home from a weekly class I take at church and I just deleted it cold turkey. It wasn’t until it was gone that I realized how much I really did use it and how hard it was to get over it. It’s been about six weeks and I am so glad I did. I have all this other time to do great things like: read my bible. Read other books. Spend time with friends. Write.
I realized as I was getting sucked into facebook that it was for all of the wrong reasons. I was using it to show people how great my life was — the things I had, to ask for the attention I wanted, to have people virtually pat me on the back. It was totally unhealthy and after realizing this, and seeing how I have changed over the last month and a half, I can honestly say I don’t miss it. I haven’t given up twitter or instagram, but both of those things hold very different value for me. I was worried that I’d funnel the time I used to spend on facebook to those venues, but I haven’t, and if I realize I’m spending more time on them, I wouldn’t hesitate to say goodbye to them (one at a time — baby steps!).
Brave words here. Thank you for the honesty. It’s a gift and an encouragement!
I’ll have to add my “amen” to all the former (and current) Facebook addicts. I’ve gotten a lot better and don’t log on every five minutes just to see what’s happened. (“What if I missed something? What if something’s going on, and I don’t know? IS SOMEONE SOMEWHERE HAVING MORE FUN THAN ME?”) I still do check it way too often. Baby steps indeed.
When I think about Facebook, I always think of the Sara Groves song “Obsolete,” which I love love love. She wrote it partially about Facebook. Here’s a link to a live version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsUADDzcUHI
Ahhhh, you don’t even know how much I relate to your comments on facebook (not to single it out as the only form of media that’s harming us, but it seems to be the most prevalent!)! Facebook/media in general for me because this constant competition to be better and to have more fun than everyone else… and I’m already competitive enough and struggle with perfection, so no only was I pretty much addicted to that dang thing, but it brought out the “must-be-better-than-them-and-live-life-better” side of me.
Love that song and Sara’s voice! I’m going to check out more of her stuff. 🙂
I love this chapter. So often we are busy, and then realize our busyness is because of the technology. I’d love to do a tech fast, but would also be scared to miss something! Ha! I do limit my time on the computer and what blogs I follow. I think that has helped me rein in this so I don’t get addicted to it. There is just so much good stuff out there, but not if it is stealing your time away from you.
Nicole
The stark realization hit me, in my car, with no radio to distract my mind… I have drowned out God’s voice in my life and didn’t even realize it. I never dreamed listening to a radio could actually distract me. Listening to songs ABOUT God but not actually listening to Him, hmmmm, It was alot to take in for me. I was humbled instantly with the simple question, “God what do you want to say to me in this silence?” and His reply was “Ive been waiting on you to ask”.
Facebook was something I always thought I couldn’t give up totally. I mean, I NEED to know what the teenagers in our youth group are doing!! But it was so much easier than I thought. I really don’t miss it all that much. I think that my issue was similar to the comments of another earlier, I needed for people to see what I was doing more than I needed to see what they were doing. I needed people’s comments and “likes” as reassurance for my life. When you drown out the noise and listen in the silence, its amazing what your heart brings forth.
This chapter has hit me more than all the rest. This is a HUGE struggle for me and my family. I’m thinking of taking December off-at least from social media and blogging. GREAT chapter. And we’re trying to do a fast once a week with the whole family. It’s hard, but we’re improving. I love the media-free zone idea:) “Be with the ones who are here.” Powerful!
I personally had to delete my facebook account. One night, my 6 year old daughter walked over to my desk with a towel wrapped around her. She had just climbed out of the tub and was asking me for clean underwear. I was too busy checking my facebook, specifically how much weight my 4th grade boyfriend had gained. -Sad, but true. It was at that moment that I realized my priorities were seriously out of whack! Now, here I am two years later, I have no facebook account, however I have a new addiction, “Pinterest.” Hastily deleting my facebook account was not the answer. I needed some accountability. Now, each member of our family is allowed one hour of “fun screen” time. (Since we homeschool, that is not considered “fun screen” time. ) We have Covenant Eyes on all of our computers, iphones, ipads and our children’s ipods. Not only does it help to guard us from pornography, but it also helps guard our time. May God help each one of us to guard what has been entrusted to us!
We don’t have a TV in the house, which was to do with not being able to afford a licence for a while, but then we realised that we just didn’t miss it.
However, we have 2 laptops and do spend a lot of time watching shows online and checking emails.
I wasn’t able to pay my internet bill last month and it was crazy how unhooked I felt without the internet. I read A LOT anyway so while I wasn’t picking up a book for the first time in months but I did find I was reading a heck of a lot more. Bible Study came first, no distractions.
Texting however, I need my texting. I don’t carry my phone around every second of the day but I like to feel in contact with my friends and family. Strangely, it makes me feel “safer” when I have it close by.
This was a great chapter, and came at a perfect time as Sarah Markley was also doing a couple of posts on media — I thought about this topic a lot, and even wrote a post on my blog “Taking Back the Memories” (talking about how much we share on the internet)… I’ll also be posting another one “Drowning in Technology” which will be up next week.
I want to find more ways to disconnect technologically, and connect personally – as I find it so much more difficult to connect with people in person (I’m not very outgoing), but can easily strike up conversations or share over the internet (hence this post!)
P.S. I really like the idea about the bowl and sign to “be with the ones who are here” 🙂