Superficial Communications

I wrote this last year as my final essay. There are some typo's, like with any writing, but I think that the message is solid. I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comment section.

Turn off your iPod, do not read that email, forego the Google search, do not enter another social event into your Palm, and ignore that text you just received. Right now is the time to stop all communications and reflect on the consequences of technology toward you and your generation. C.S Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters captures the harsh reality of distractions:

My Dear Wormwood, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge in the hope that you will escape in the unusual penalties. Indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly wish to do so. In the meantime, we must make the best of the situation. You can make your patient waste his time not only in conversation with those whom he likes, but also in conversation with those whom he cares about, on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing for long periods of time. All the healthy and outgoing activities, that we want him to avoid, can be inhibited and nothing given in return so that he might say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought, nor what I liked.”

Over the past 20 years, people have morphed technology from a useful tool that organized and simplified our lives into an addicting and crippling necessity that we cannot survive without. To be addicted is to be enslaved to a habit or practice to such an extent that it causes a severe withdrawal when removed. Relationships are critical in a person’s life but superficial relationships are detrimental. Network communications prohibits teenagers from building three critical relationships: genuine friends, family bonding and intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Network communications prohibit teenagers from building genuine friendships. Within internet relationships, social capital refers to the quantity and quality of internet relationships between people. An increase in social capital means an increase in popularity. Most teenagers believe that technology is the best way to establish and maintain those friendships. For many teens, checking MySpace or Facebook is the first and last thing they do each day. Technology venues, such as Facebook and Twitter, have provided a way to ‘network’ popularity. Companies such as Disney, Time Warner, AOL and Viacom claim to "study America’s children like laboratory rats, in order to sell them billions of dollars in merchandise by tempting them, degrading them and corrupting them…[Teens] want to be cool. They are impressionable and they have the cash. They are corporate America’s $150 billion dream." (Harris) This explains why, in the "next 60 seconds, over four million text messages will be sent; 233,000 tweets on Twitter; one million emails in route nationally and 200 million people logging into Facebook globally." (Verizon)

Welcome to the Generation of the Millennia’s, those born after the year 1980. “They are plugged-in, switched on, charged up and constantly connected to a network of digital devices and multimedia, bringing the ‘world’ to their fingertips in a way no other generation has experienced.” (Harris) According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited, “the average 13-24 years old spends a cumulative 50 hours per week talking on the phone, listening to the radio, surfing the internet and watching television.” This study does not count watching movies or communicating with friends over the internet or texting. Studies continue to show that media and technology dominate our lives. Teenagers believe that they cannot live without it.

Technology has its benefits but we must remember its limitations. “Heavy use of the internet can actually isolate younger socially connected people.” (Staples) Brent Staples, a New York Times editorial writer, stated that internet communication and text messaging can retard the personal growth that comes from learning how to interact with others in the real world. By constantly communicating through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, texting and email teenagers sacrifice “social encounters that have historically prepared young people for the move into adulthood.” (Staples) By losing the real-world experiences, they are disabling themselves to leave adolescence behind and ultimately making it difficult for them to grow into mature adults. Social scientists have labeled a new category of age: Kidult.

"In the past people moved from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, but today there is a new, intermediate phase along the way. The years from 18 to 25 and even beyond have become a distinct and separate life stage, a strange, transitional never-ever land between adolescence and adulthood in which people stall for a few extra years, putting off the adult responsibility. These “kidults” still live with their parents and hop around from job-to-job and relationship-to-relationship. They lack direction, commitment, financial independence, and personal responsibility. They are boomerang kids, adult teenagers, and they are much more than a generational hiccup or a temporary fad." (Grossman) Teenagers certainly have accomplished one part of social capital. They have extensive friend lists, but they lack quality friendships.

Network communications prohibits teenagers from family bonding. Checking email, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and text messages have turned out to be more isolating than watching television. Researchers have found that the “time spent in direct contact with family drops as much as half for every hour a teenager uses the internet [this includes text messaging] to communicate.” (Staples)

Teens allow internet communications to replace face-to-face interactions with their families. A recent study from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University has shown that heavy internet communications can have strong effects on the home. ‘Well-connected’ teenagers have actually “lost friends, experienced symptoms of loneliness and depression and feel empty and emotionally frustrated.” Professor Robert Kraut, from Carnegie Mellon, commented “such people allowed low-quality relationships developed in a virtual reality to replace higher-quality relationships in the real world” like those found in one’s family.

Due to internet communications and text messaging, teenagers have succeeded in shielding their social lives from adult scrutiny. Teenagers have developed their own “language”, a dictionary of codes or abbreviations used in texting. These codes allow teens to secretly warn one another when the ‘enemy’ abounds: CD9 meaning code nine parent around; P911 meaning alert- parents coming; PIR means parent in room and lastly PSOS means parents standing over shoulder. Parents, perceived as the enemy, are virtually clueless to these meanings. Respect and reverence for parental authority has been lost in cyberspace only to be replaced by internet savvy youth, equipped with the skills to outflank adults on the web. Ironically, however, teenage America’s obsession with their cell phones, especially with popular text messaging, could be damaging their IQ’s. A recent study conducted by Kings College London shows the average reduction of 10 IQ points due to interruptions by incoming e-mails and text messages, though temporary, is more than double the four point loss caused from smoking marijuana. Doziness, lethargy and an increasing inability to focus reached “startlingly levels.”

Network communications prohibits teenagers from building intimacy with Jesus Christ. Teenagers multitask. A study performed by Kaiser Family Foundation discovered that an average teenager packs 44-hours of activity into a 24-hour day. A recent Harrison Group study reports that teens spend more than 72 hours per week using electronic media, including the Internet, cell phones, television, music and video games. Teenagers have the ability to interact with more than one medium at a time, causing many experts to argue that the number of actual hours spent on media consumption is much higher.

Of course, multitasking can often be useful and is a truly unique ability that God has given to man; however, Christians must remember their calling. In 1 Corinthians, Paul commands Christians “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In 1 Thessalonians Paul says that we are to “pray without ceasing.” Modern teenagers spend over 10 hours a day communicating through various electronic media in their substitute world of cyberspace. Teenagers are so preoccupied with constantly communicating in their virtual world that they do not have time remaining in a day to truly communicate with God. The constant communication Christian teens should engage in is with Jesus Christ. As David wrote in Psalm:“In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation…My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long…At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.”

Modern day media can be useful devices for spreading the ‘good news’ of the gospel. great men-of-God use the internet. John Piper ‘tweets’ to the glory of God. Piper writes:

Now what about Twitter? I find Twitter to be a kind of taunt: “Okay, truth-lover, see what you can do with 140 characters! You say your mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things! Well, this is one of those ‘all things.’ Can you magnify Christ with this thimble-full of letters?” To which I respond:

The sovereign Lord of the earth and sky

Puts camels through a needle’s eye.

And if his wisdom see it mete,

He will put worlds inside a tweet.

So I am not inclined to tweet that at 10AM the cat pulled the curtains down. But it might remind me that the Lion of Judah will roll up the heavens like a garment, and blow out the sun like a candle, because he just turned the light on. That tweet might distract someone from pornography and make them look up.

Teens could have a radical impact on the world if they converted the 72 hours per week on the various media to sharing the impact that God has on their daily lives; telling the world that He is real and active and returning for His people.

Teenagers’ addiction to the superficial world of cyberspace reflects a desperate need to increase their social capital by constantly being connected. Think about it: this generation of teenagers is the “first to have high-speed (wireless) Internet access. They are the first generation to widely use cell phones. They have learned to 'juggle the myriad doodads' of text messaging, search engines, PDA’s, blogs (including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter), Wi-Fi and cell phones (that try to do all the above).” (Harris) Most significantly, they have been promised bigger and better; they have been told that they ‘have not seen anything yet.’ Some people argue that teens learn responsibility by multitasking. Numerous studies show divided attention decreases productivity. One job well done is better than several jobs poorly done. Teenagers say that keeping connected increases popularity and makes them look “cool”. This argument appeals to emotion rather than evidence. One true friend is greater than hundreds of superficial friends. C.S. Lewis summarizes the effects of Christian’s distractions from the Lord in his book Screwtape Letters:

You will say that these are very small sins: Doubtless, like all other young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light into the nothing.

There is a tremendous need for teenagers to take a step back and reassess their generation’s necessity for technology and constant communication. Time is wasting. Network communications prohibits teenagers from building genuine friendship, family bonding, and an intimacy with Jesus Christ.

-C

Bibliography

Grossman, Lev. “Grow Up? Not So Fast” Times Magazine http://tinyurl.com/5vuea3, January 16, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Merchants of Cool: Teens, Culture, and MTV” http://tinyurl.com/ya2b6tn, March 31, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Busy Signals: Cell-ing Our Souls to Death” http://tinyurl.com/yavwepy, June 28, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Busy Signals: Our Wired Generation” http://tinyurl.com/y9buwgf, March 21, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “True Love Meets Multitasking” http://tinyurl.com/yau8u5u, August 3, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Multitasking: Mental Obesity” http://tinyurl.com/yby4zpm, July 26, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Multitasking: Brining it All Together” http://tinyurl.com/yd6uxhf. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Laptops Vs. Learning” http://tinyurl.com/yb2pr4c, August 26, 2007. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “The Myth of Adolescence Part 1” http://tinyurl.com/yahpaf4, August 19, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “The Myth of Adolescence Part 2” http://tinyurl.com/ye8w3ox, August 21, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “My iPod is My Best Friend” http://tinyurl.com/ycxqq6b, Septemeber 3, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Kidults Part Two: Peter Pans That Shave” http://tinyurl.com/ydqzagu, September 8, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Piper, John. “Why and How I Am Tweeting” Desiring God Blog. http://tinyurl.com/o2cauu, June 3, 2009. (Accessed October, 2009)

Pleshette, Ann and Laura Lacy. “Cracking the Teen Texting Code” http://tinyurl.com/ybgf2s9,
June 12, 2007. (Accessed April, 2009)

Staples, Brent. “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up in Cyberspace” New York Times, May 29, 2004. (Accessed April, 2009)

“Text Messaging Abbreviations.” http://tinyurl.com/5o61. (Accessed April, 2009)