Manufactured disruption: Why we keep checking our phones
We seem to always want something—anything—to happen. This has implications for the life of prayer.
It’s difficult to comment on a cultural transition when one is in the middle of it. But there’s no denying that our use of social media is transforming our lives. Critics have sounded the alarm often: we are becoming less social. We are civically disengaged (a thumbs up or retweet is deemed a sufficient contribution to a cause). We are more superficial, too easily entertained, and indiscriminate consumers and purveyors of information. We are narcissistic.
I share many of these concerns. On the other hand, I take seriously those who ask, “Is this new? When weren’t we the ‘characters’ we are now?” and similarly, “Doesn’t entanglement in the social network simply expose personal inadequacies that were always present but once known only to our closest confidants?”
It’s worth pointing out, too, that the claims of alarmed critics can be challenged. Who defines what socializing should look like? Are we going to define the world so narrowly that it can’t be inhabited digitally—any less, that is, than the pages of a book? And haven’t social media proved their utility in key moments—in the Egyptian revolution of 2011, for example, or more recently in Hong Kong to defend freedom of speech? Perhaps it’s too early to know the long-term effect of social media on our habits of being, acting, and knowing.
