Device & Virtue

Thinking of giving up technology for Lent? We have 10 ideas for how to do it. Plus, you know, maybe why you shouldn’t.

Fasting from social media has been a popular choice the past couple years. Internet habits are out of control. People feel out of sorts. Maybe you feel the same way.

Chris and Adam offer up 10 ways to develop a better tech-life balance. Ten alternatives to going cold turkey while still finding a healthier diet with our devices.

Giving up social media isn’t just about our relationship with technology though. It’s also about our relationship to others. What do we do when giving up social media means cutting off connections to people?

Whether you're thinking about Lent, or ready to log off for good, we’ll help you think about the vices and virtues of giving up.

LINKS

Grayscale: Wanna try it?

If Lent is new to you, Aaron Damiani offers a good primer on the long-standing Christian tradition in his book, The Good of Giving Up. Check it out here.

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How did we get from the Arab Spring to Cambridge Analytica in less than 5 years? Waves of pro-democracy protesters in the Middle East have given way to waves of nationalism around the globe. In less than a decade, the Internet went from harbinger of democracy to herald of demagogues.

What happened? And ARE WE … DOOMED??

Technology and social media are undoubtedly changing how elections and government run today. Will democracy survive them?

And how do Christians survive—each other?

Adam and Chris tip-toe through the minefield of political vitriol—risking life, limb, and Facebook friends—in hopes of getting a handle on the chaos we call democracy today. Listen and decide whether we succeeded.

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We had some audio problems with this episode so we apologize for the buzz and echo in some places! It’s still understandable, so we decided to still put it out there for you. Enjoy! - Chris

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Ignore the hyped-up headlines and impossible advice blogs, and hear how two moms are trying their best to walk with their kids in a world surrounded by screens.

Adam and Chris invite two special guests to share about their own experiences raising Gen Z kids. Two moms who show us that, even in the age of Instagram families, parenting isn’t about perfection.

Hear how two different moms handle screen time in two different, but doable, ways. And find some ideas that might fit your family.

Two different moms. Two different methods. No wrong ways. Because sometimes . . . good enough is good enough.

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The New Year is upon us, and the only reason we know that is thanks to the Egyptians. And the Catholic Church! Clocks, calendars, and timekeeping tech on our final episode of 2019.

Wait a second: What does being a “good Christian” have to do with clocks and calendars? The connections surprised us too…

From sunsets to seconds, we’ve been tracking time for all of human history. To the point that we forget that calendars and clocks are technologies too. And like any technology, timekeeping has its vices and its virtues.

So this year, you can take that cup of kindness yet, and think of auld lang syne.

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How does Google Maps decide what route you should take? How does Spotify determine what kind of music you might like? And if I wanted to get a job at those companies, how would they choose one application out of a thousand resumes?

Decide. Determine. Choose. That’s what algorithms do.

Everything from song recommendations to health insurance rates to prison sentencing, companies and governments are using algorithms more than ever. But news reports seem to come out every other week exposing how biased algorithms are. So can we really trust them?

Adam and Chris explore what has made algorithms so popular, so useful, and so biased. But rather than getting rid of them, we can learn some surprising things from them—surprising things about ourselves. And if we do, we just might be able to

LINKS

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From autism to advertising, technology is reading people’s emotions like never before. Some say emotional intelligence is being outsourced. Others predict emotion tech is on the cusp of a multi-billion dollar payday. So . . . how do YOU feel about that?

No worries, the technology already knows.

Just like FitBit changed how we relate to our bodies, emotion tech will change how we relate to our feelings. Could it train us to be more empathetic and understanding? Or numb us to real human connection?

After meeting MIT Media Lab Professor Rosalind Picard—a leading researcher in “Emotion AI” and a Christian—Adam and Chris look at both the risks and possibilities of this bleeding-edge technology.

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What if we told you that at the Last Supper, Jesus taught us something about text messaging? Sounds far-fetched, right? But the connections will have you rethinking what “IRL” really means.

Adam & Chris dive into our daily experiences of texting—especially that moment when your friend stops listening because a new text lights up their phone. Yeah, you know that moment.

Key Questions

Should we text when we are with other people?

What does it mean to be present? Or absent?

Which emoji is your favorite?

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Special Conference Episode! Chris & Adam join a conference for pastors on technology called Teche: A Christian View of Technology, put on by the Center for Pastor Theologians. This is our same-day hot-takes—recorded live on location! Stuff like: What’s the difference between a musical instrument and a Roomba? How is the Eucharist like technology? How the church could be more like a forest path

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What do you think? Are selfies narcissistic? Yes, right? But we’re starting season 3 off right and taking one of our own.

Selfies have become part of normal life. We see them. We take them. We see other people taking them too. And while they may be normal, do they show us anything real?

Chris and Adam dive into identity, authenticity, and the image of God to look for answers, with a few embarrassing stories along the way.

LINKS

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What do you think Siri looks like? Is she someone you would tell your secrets to? She’s not a person—but she’s getting more personal than ever—could she change our real relationships?

In this episode Chris & Adam chat up the voice part of “voice assistants.” More talking and less typing—what happens when as we shift our interaction with technology to the very personal medium of voice?

LINKS & QUOTES

“Oral verbalization, unlike writing, is thus natural. The word comes to each of us first orally in our mother tongue. It’s association with mother and early nature and nurture is why speech is so closely involved with our personal identity and with cultural identity. (22)…

No real word can be present all at once as the letters in a written word are. The real word, the spoken word, is always an event….

Oral utterance thus encourages a sense of continuity with life, a sense of participation, because it itself is participatory.”

— Walter Ong, Interfaces of the Word: Studies in the Evolution of Consciousness and Cultures

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