2017: A Year of Digital Detox

Digital technology is killing us.

It’s killing our souls and our bodies.

It’s killing our marriages, families, and friendships,

It’s killing our listening skills and speaking abilities.

It’s killing face-to-face communication and inter-family relationships.

It’s killing our minds, especially our ability to focus and concentrate.

It’s killing communion with God as it usurps communication with him first thing in the morning and last thing at night.

It’s killing our peace with its never-ending blizzard of notifications, beeps, and buzzes.

It’s killing our mealtimes through constant interruptions and distractions.

It’s killing God’s voice throughout the day as we fill every traffic stop and toilet stop with social media check-ins.

It’s killing our morality as the tsunami of porn drowns multitudes of young and old, male and female.

It’s killing our health, especially through its shortening, shallowing, and interrupting of sleep.

It’s killing our beauty-intake as we walk through the spectacular with our heads buried in the black hole of our devices.

It’s killing our education as social media distracts and diverts students in classrooms, lecture-halls, and libraries.

It’s killing our finances as productive work-time is stolen from our employers to be frittered away on triviality.

It’s killing the service of others as we selfie ourselves into self-obsession.

It’s killing our identities as we cultivate and project so many social media personas that we’ve forgotten who we really are.

It’s killing privacy as every moment is now digitized not for family archives but for instant upload to the world for likes and hearts by complete strangers.

Digital technology has punctured every part of our being and is slowly psssssssing the life out of us.

That’s why I’m asking you to join me in making 2017 a year of detoxification, a process often used to systematically and safely withdraw people from addicting substances.

I’m utterly convinced that vast numbers of Christians are dangerously addicted to digital technology. It has way too big a place in our lives and it’s not just damaging us; it’s destroying us.

Those who can get this under control are going to be uniquely placed to excel – relationally, vocationally, educationally, and financially. There is no surer way to a massive “competitive advantage.”

But control (or lack of it) of our devices is also the biggest determinant of our spiritual health, growth, and usefulness. If we want to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, we must grow in digital self-discipline.

That’s why, in 2017, I’m going to devote many blog posts to digital detoxification. The ultimate aim will be the revival and renewal of our bodies, our minds, and our hearts; our marriages, families, and friendships; our mental and physical health; our productivity, finances, and education; our communication skills and service of others; and above all, ABOVE ALL, our relationship with God.

This is a multi-dimensional problem with multi-dimensional solutions. It’s going to require some eye-gouging and some hand-amputation (Matt. 5:29). It will involve much putting off and much putting on (Eph. 4:22-24). But life on the other side of this will be so worth it that on December 31, 2017, we’ll look back on January 1, 2017 with shock and horror, asking one another, “What. Was I. Doing?”