Talk 3 | Being a Digital Citizen in the Real World
The new information, digital technology, was touted as that which would deliver on our deepest dreams and desires. AT & T Global Services in Canada proclaimed in 2000, “Your world without limits … or the worldwide web. They are just the tools for you to do what you want, be what you want, get what you want from life. A world of communication tools for the only world that matters. YOURS !” Hence digital technology has been a powerful means to achieve the heart’s disordered desire to be ‘like God’. The author, Neil Postman, says a Technopoly is a society where technology is deified and causes all existing traditions, politics and religion to submit to it. It demands “the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology.” [1] Where has this led for our children and young people in the world of technology?
In his provocative book, ‘The Lost Memory of Skin’, author Russell Banks tells a story that illuminates the shadowed edges of contemporary internet culture where connected‑in and tuned‑out people are lost in the grey zone between reality and imagery, no longer able to discern the difference. Banks explores the terrible dehumanising consequences of living this way through the main character now called the Kid, a new identity given him after being released from incarceration for being a sex offender. Barely out of childhood himself, with nowhere else to go, he takes up residence under a South Florida causeway, away from civil society in a makeshift encampment with other sex offenders. Throughout the course of the story, we see how damaging his addiction to online porn has been. The book’s title refers to the way a real human existence has been supplanted by a virtual one. His only friend is his pet iguana, Iggy, and he knows more about the touch of iguana skin rather than anything actually human.
A social psychologist, John Haidt, has traced the rise in adolescent anxiety in western nations, directly linking it to the enormous impact of social media commencing around 2012, as more young people live their lives online. The youth mental health crisis seen in a highly anxious generation is a story about how adolescents in individualistic, secular nations are less tightly bound into strong communities and so more vulnerable to the harms of a new phone‑based childhood, where screentime has replaced playtime and human community. “As young people traded in their flip phones for smartphones and moved their social lives largely away from (already weakened) real‑world communities and into chaotic virtual online networks full of loosely connected disembodied users, those who made the move most fully found that their sense of self, community and meaning in life collapsed. Those who were firmly rooted in mixed‑age real world communities of family, neighbourhood and religion had some protection from this transformation … this is technologically‑induced anomie.” [2] Anomie is a social condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of a moral framework that guides individuals.
So, in the midst of the largest and most rapid change in childhood in history, what can we as Christian teachers do to protect our children and train them to be digital citizens who indwell the Biblical world? For a lack of connection to reality creates anxiety. Our independence from God, expressed as being free to live as we want in the digital world, powers this toxic anxiety in our culture.
God’s Word always reveals a “counter‑discipleship” [3] program that is more compelling than the surrounding culture. As Moses spoke to the people as they were to enter the land, he presented a picture of human flourishing that was richer and deeper than the idolatrous culture they would find in the promised land “flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy 6: 3). The parents and the extended community were to embody the way of life that was shaped by the ‘Exodus’ story. Their faith in God was to engage with every aspect of life, personal, communal and in relation to the cultivation of the land. Their community of faith, wisdom, hope and love would be better than the corrupting influence of Canaan’s idols.
God calls our schools to be immersed in the Biblical world where our stories, practices and habits reflect the worship and love of God. As students participate in a real community of relationships in our schools, shaped by God’s truth and wisdom, we will emphasise character formation, true friendship and respect for others. We will explore what it looks like to ‘love your neighbour’ online counter to the cancel culture that degrades and diminishes others online. We will engage students in teaching and learning that integrates their head, heart and hands. Students can investigate case studies to understand the relationship between digital technology and its impact on their lives and the culture in which they live. Training in the principles of good stewardship and wise and responsible use of technology are needed. Understanding the righteous dominion humans have for creation is important to promote the use of students’ gifts to work together with others to make things and solve problems to build flourishing communities according to God’s design. Let’s find new ways to paint a splendid, rich and true picture of God’s world online that will attract a new generation to the real world of God’s Kingdom.
“Technology is a tool. It is a powerful tool in the hands of the evil one, able to destroy the communities of this world and corrupt the good things that God has made. But in the hands of a loving God and in the hands of a loving community of God, technology can become a tool for the advancement of the gospel and a tool that helps us show our love for the community in which we live. Technology has the capacity to add value to life and bring people together. It is able to build up what has been torn down.” [4]
“Love the Lord your God will all your heart and with all your soul and all your strength. These commandments are to be in your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” (Deuteronomy 6: 5 – 7)
Grace and Peace
The Excellence Centre Team
[1] Neil Postman, Technopoly – the Surrender of Culture to Technology, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf Inc. 1993), 28 – 29
[2] John Haidt, Zach Rausch, Thomas Potrebny, The Youth Mental Health Crisis is International Part 4: Europe (afterbabel.com)
[3] A term coined by author Stephen McAlpine
[4] Editors, Ken Goodlet & John Collier, Teaching Well – Insights for Christian Educators in Christian Schools, (Canberra: Barton Books, 2014), 416