4 Tips on Staying In Control of Your Tech
1. Make Time To Turn Your Technology Off
We all need to be intentional about finding time to turn things off. My wife and I have started trying to have a tech sabbath every thursday which is one of my days off. This means we don’t watch TV, don’t get on the computer and we turn off our iPhones. At first we failed miserably but we are starting to figure it out. We still don’t do it perfectly but we are committed to taking control of our time together.
You know what we have found? We have time to go for walks together and enjoy the sunshine, which doesn’t hang out much in NW Indiana, so we need to make the most of it while it is here. We have also had time to read together, have deeper conversations and connect about things that we are too busy to get to throughout the rest of the week. Make time this week to try turning it all off. The first time you do, you will fail, but keep doing it because it gets easier.
2. When Your Technology Is On, Have an Exit Strategy
Intentionally schedule time to watch television or be on facebook. Decide up front how much time you are going to spend consuming media. When you give yourself practical limits, you prioritize the most important things.
This is where a DVR can be so helpful because it puts you in control of what you watch and when you watch it. The danger is to record everything, so guard against that, but if you are selective about only recording things you have planned time to watch, it can be a great tool.
Also, you can set access limits on your computer that only lets you log on during certain hours or for limited amount of time. This is not just a great tool for teaching your children how to interact responsibly with technology it is a great tool for all of us. Doing so will keep us from falling into that computer coma we know so well.
3. Filter Everything
Justin Taylor, in this interview, talks about three areas of technology. The redemptive, the destructive and the murky middle ground which is mostly trivial. It takes a lot of energy to stay away from the destructive world of the web so if we can use technology to help block it out, then we can spend that energy navigating the murky middle or even better living in the redemptive world.
On your TV, that might mean setting up some parental restrictions. Newer televisions and most all cable providers offer restriction settings based on ratings of shows and movies. On your computer or your mobile device , that might look like a program such as Covenant Eyes. They offer software for nearly every device that accesses the internet. This is a software that is installed on every computer in our church offices. Many of the staff I work with have it on our home computers as well. The basic principle here is that where you go on the internet is monitored and anything of questionable content or higher gets sent to an accountability partner that you choose. That person can look at the review and discern whether or not something needs to be addressed.
The software can serve as a monitor without any restrictions or it can serve as a filter to block that destructive for you. Either way, it takes the secrecy away from our time online but if you don’t have a partner who is going to speak up when you fall, it isn’t going to work so the biggest key to making it work is to pick a partner who will hold you accountable.
4. Read a verse before you read a tweet. (Or status update, or email, or text message, or newspaper, etc…)
This one is pretty self explanatory but it has become a great practice for me. I use my iPhone as my alarm so it’s the first thing I pick up in the morning. Take a look at the home screen on my phone. Yes that’s me sitting on the ground. I have intentionally put my bible in a more accessible place than my social media apps, email, sports/news apps.
This helps me to go there first thing in the morning to read a chapter or two. When I am filled up with Truth first, I can better filter the stuff I am going to read later and I am also going to consume less junk because I am more full of truth. Whereas if I filled up with Junk first, I don’t have room for truth. There is no hunger for truth because I am satisfied with the junk.
What are you doing to take control of your technology?