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Tech Addiction by Mike Poteet
volume 23, number 47
march 25, 2018
Designed to Addict?
“God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”
Sean Parker, Facebook’s founding president, voiced this
concern recently in an interview with Axios while describ-
ing the “unintended consequences” of the social network he
helped launch over a decade ago. “It’s a social-validation
feedback loop,” he explained, designed to “consume as
much of your time and conscious attention as possible.”
Parker is just one of many former Silicon Valley insiders
calling attention to the addictive potential of smartphones
and social media. The Center for Humane Technology is led
by former Facebook investor and adviser Roger McNamee
A number of former Facebook
and former Google design ethicist Tristan Harris. On its
and Google employees recently website, the center argues that this technology is “hijacking
launched a campaign to raise our minds and society.” The organization goes on to claim
public awareness about the that since the business models of social media platforms
addictive potential of smartphones depend upon capturing our attention ever more effectively,
and social media. What does it these platforms are “not neutral products” but “part of
a system designed to addict us.” “Inadvertently,” Harris told
mean to be addicted to technology,
60 Minutes, “whether they want to or not, [tech companies]
and what are some possible are shaping the thoughts and feelings and actions of people.
solutions? How does our faith They are programming people.”
shape our use of technology and Concerns about social media and the rise of smart-
our response to tech addiction? phones aren’t new, but the charges leveled by Harris,
Parker, and others carry more weight due to their former
FaithLink is available by subscription via roles and cast our culture’s level of cyber-connection in a
e-mail (subservices@abingdonpress.com) or by harsher light. The concerns of these industry insiders force
downloading it from the Web (www.cokesbury. us to ask ourselves difficult questions: Are smartphones and
com/faithlink). Print in either color or black and
white. Copyright © 2018 by Cokesbury. Please do social media addictive? If so, what should we do about it?
not put FaithLink on your website for downloading.
REFLECT:
Follow us on
• Do you use either a smartphone or social media? If so,
Facebook and Twitter. why, and how much? If not, why not?
1volume 23, number 47 • How do you react to the Center for Humane Technology’s
march 25, 2018 claim that these technologies are “designed to addict us”?
• How do you respond to the concerns of Sean Parker,
Core Bible Passages Tristan Harris, and Roger McNamee about social
Overall, Scripture seems to view human media, considering their roles?
technology skeptically at best. Although
God placed us in the garden of Eden “to
till it and keep it” (Genesis 2:15, NRSV),
Defining Tech Addiction
humanity soon turned our God-given inge- Consider these statistics:
nuity to self-centered ends, such as the • A survey by Deloitte, a telecommunications com-
construction of the tower at Babel (11:1-9). pany, found that smartphone users in the United States
Or consider that God gave some metalwork- check their phones 47 times a day. About 100 million
ers and artisans “the divine spirit, with skill, users check their phones in the middle of the night.
ability, and knowledge for every kind of Additionally, 43 percent check their phone in the first
work” (Exodus 31:3), but then realize that five minutes after they wake up.
we’re just as likely to manufacture idols like • Gallup polling reports that 46 percent of US smart-
the golden calf as we are to use this skill for phone users agree with the statement: “I can’t imagine
godly ends (Exodus 32). my life without my smartphone.” Forty-two percent say
In Isaiah 44:9-20, the prophet lambasts losing their phone and going a day without replacing it
blacksmiths and carpenters, leading practitio- would make them somewhat or very nervous.
ners of ancient technology, who worship their • In a Common Sense Media survey, 59 percent of
own handiwork as their gods. The passage parents claimed their teenagers were addicted to their
also highlights human folly when we place too mobile devices. Fifty percent of teens agreed. When 28
much trust in and pay too much attention to percent of teens said their parents suffered tech addic-
what we’ve made. We lose perspective and tion, 27 percent of the parents agreed.
turn creative impulses that could enhance life
What do these statistics tell us? Are they really any-
into oppressive forces that diminish it.
thing more than evidence of the pervasiveness of smart-
Despite our failures and inconsistencies,
phones and social media? When teens and adults say
God’s compassion for us never stops, even
they’re “addicted,” are they speaking of true addiction
when we abuse or become addicted to things
of the kind related to tobacco, alcohol, and opioids, or
that cause us harm. God knows how power-
are they speaking colloquially? “All addictions, whether
less we sometimes are (Psalm 103:14;
Matthew 26:41). We should also remember chemical or behavioral, share certain characteristics,”
that in Jesus’ life, through his temptations, Dr. Hilarie Cash and her colleagues observe in Current
and suffering, God has also experienced our Psychiatry Reviews. These shared characteristics include
weakness (Hebrews 4:14-15) and promises “salience [the sense of being most important], compul-
to faithfully strengthen us when we face sive use (loss of control), mood modification and the
temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13). alleviation of distress, tolerance and withdrawal, and the
continuation despite negative consequences.”
REFLECT: In recent years, some psychiatric researchers have
• How can technology enhance our con- proposed diagnostic criteria specific to smartphone use,
nection to God and to one another? How criteria that mirror the contours of other addictions.
can it become an idol? For instance, in 2016, Dr. Yu-Hsuan Lin and colleagues
• What does it mean for us that Jesus also proposed including symptoms such as
experienced the temptations and suffer- • “Recurrent failure to resist the impulse to use the
ings that we experience as humans? smartphone”
Copyright © 2018 by Cokesbury. Permission given to copy • “Smartphone use for a period longer than intended”
for use in a group setting. Please do not put FaithLink on
your website for downloading. 2volume 23, number 47 • “Smartphone use in a physically hazardous situa-
march 25, 2018 tion ([such as] while driving, or crossing the street), or
having other negative impacts on daily life”
Debate over • “Smartphone use resulting in impairment of social
Tech Addiction relationships, school achievement, or job performance.”
Andrew Przybylski, a psychologist at Not all experts believe smartphone addiction is a real
the Oxford Internet Institute, told Wired that disorder, and some question whether attempts to establish
the concerns of many about tech addiction it as one trivializes the very concept of addiction. In a
amount to moral panic and that these con- 2015 article on Slate, medical writer Melissa Jayne Kinsey
cerns aren’t supported by evidence. Utilizing argues, “Turning ordinary behavior and emotions into diag-
his own research about video game addiction, noses flattens the bell curve of human experience, quashing
Przybylski argues that unspecific criteria and the quirks and idiosyncrasies that lie at the fringes.”
low-quality research pathologize what may
be normal behavior. “Don’t get me wrong,” REFLECT:
he said. “I’m concerned about the effects of • Do you think tech addiction is a real problem? Why or
technology. That’s why I spend so much of why not?
my time trying to do the science well.” • What criteria, if any, would you suggest are indicators
Marc Potenza, a Yale professor of psy- of tech addiction?
chiatry, wrote in The New York Times that
there’s “debate over whether one can be Smartphone and Social Media
addicted to the Internet itself, or if the
Internet serves as a vehicle for engaging in
Neuroscience
addictive behavior.” As debate continues about the reality of tech addiction,
Others say tech addiction is real but rare. so does research into our attraction to this technology.
“Although people may be using their smart- In one study, researchers at UCLA scanned teen-
phones a lot, it’s generally life-enhancing,” agers’ brains while the youth looked at photographs,
said Dr. Mark Griffiths in a 2015 Digital including ones they had submitted, on what they
Trends article “Is Smartphone Addiction believed was a new social media network. Researchers
Real? We Ask the Experts.” However, the assigned “likes” to the pictures. “When the teens saw
Nottingham Trent University professor of their own photos with a large number of likes,” said Dr.
Gambling Studies added the caveat that Lauren Sherman, “we saw activity across a wide variety
“there will always be a small minority . . . of regions in the brain,” including reward centers that are
that do it to excess and it causes them prob- also stimulated by eating chocolate or winning money.
lems. . . . When it comes to smartphones, While adolescents’ brains may have more sensitive
the genuine incidence of addiction is small.” reward circuitry, this study could also suggest why peo-
ple of all ages eagerly, even compulsively, check their
REFLECT: phones for social media updates: We associate the action
• How do you react to each of these with a pleasure response. David Greenfield, a professor
experts’ comments? Do your own initial of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut, told NPR
thoughts line up with one of them or with that our brains likely release pleasure-inducing dopamine
the more serious concerns of Sean Parker, when we hear social media notifications: “That ping is
Roger McNamee, and Tristan Harris? telling us there is some type of reward there, waiting for
• How addictive do you think technology us.” Further, “smartphone notifications have turned us
can be? Do you have any personal all into Pavlov’s dogs,” he said. Sean Parker believes this
experience with tech addiction? chemistry accounts for much of Facebook’s popularity.
He told Axios that the network delivers “a little dopamine
Copyright © 2018 by Cokesbury. Permission given to copy hit every once in a while.”
for use in a group setting. Please do not put FaithLink on
your website for downloading. 3volume 23, number 47 Could using smartphones and social media do more
march 25, 2018 than simply trigger these responses? Could it alter the
chemistry of the brain itself? A recent study in South
Yondr Korea, featured in a December 2017 CNN article,
The San Francisco-based company Yondr revealed chemical imbalances in the brains of 19 adoles-
fills an unexpected role for a company in Sil- cents who were diagnosed as Internet- and smartphone-
icon Valley. Instead of emphasizing the ways addicted. The brains of these teens had higher than normal
that we use technology, Yondr helps prevent levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid
people from using their smartphones. (GABA) in their emotional control centers. Too much
Founded by Graham Dugoni in 2014, GABA can lead to a lack of control and attention.
Yondr manufactures small bags designed, as The South Korean study involved only a small
Alice Gregory writes in Wired, “to eliminate sample and wasn’t published in a peer-reviewed jour-
smartphone use in places where the people nal, but Dr. Caglar Yildirim, a SUNY professor of
in charge don’t want it.” People in public human-computer interaction who wasn’t involved in
settings like schools, hospitals, courtrooms, the study, told CNN its findings align with established
churches, and concerts put their silenced research. “We know that medium to heavy multitaskers,
smartphones inside the pouch. The pouches who engage in multiple forms of media simultaneously,
are then locked and can only be unlocked by tend to demonstrate smaller gray matter area in . . . the
a Yondr-supplied device. area of the brain responsible for top-down attention con-
According to The Washington Post, the trol. . . . If you are too dependent on your smartphone,
company has seen “hundreds of thousands you are basically damaging your ability to be attentive.”
of the neoprene pouches . . . used across REFLECT:
North America, Europe and Australia,” since • What surprises you most about the possible effects of
its initial rollout, including over 600 US social media and smartphones in the brain? Why?
schools. “I don’t think people realize how •H ave you ever experienced the dopamine hit refer-
radically different it is to be a human being enced by David Greenfield and Sean Parker? How does
with a phone in your pocket,” says Dugoni. your personal experience align with the information
“All we’re saying is, step into a phone-free you see laid out in these studies?
zone; see what that’s like for a while.”
Some people worry about unintended
negative consequences. What happens, for Seeking Solutions, Sacred Time
instance, when people can’t record and share The Center for Humane Technology is calling on
footage of public wrongdoing? The Newseum certain tech companies to redesign their devices and
Institute’s Gene Policinski tells Wired that interfaces in ways that minimize screen time, discourage
smartphone-disabling technology is likely distractions, protect personal relationships, and generally
going to be “litigated over and over again.” “benefit our lives and society.” However, until tech com-
panies decide to go along with these recommendations
REFLECT:
for less compelling social media platforms and mobile
• What are your experiences of mandatory
devices, solutions will have to come from elsewhere.
phone-free zones?
We as consumers can take steps to limit our smart-
• What are some of the potential positives
phone use. We can turn off notifications, for example,
and potential negatives you can imagine
or set alarms to monitor our phone time. One popular
from limiting access to smartphones?
movement has included users setting their phones’
• How should society balance the potential
screens to grayscale, because less color makes the dis-
positives and negatives of solutions like
play less engaging and therefore less tempting.
Yondr?
Some smartphone users are even lifting a page
Copyright © 2018 by Cokesbury. Permission given to copy from the Bible. They declare one day a week a “Tech
for use in a group setting. Please do not put FaithLink on
your website for downloading. 4volume 23, number 47 Shabbat” during which they will not use their smart-
march 25, 2018 phones. Every Friday night, for example, filmmaker
Tiffany Shlain and her family shut off all their devices
United Methodist for 24 hours. “It’s something we look forward to each
Perspective week,” Shlain told NPR Morning Edition in February.
“You’re making your time sacred again—reclaiming it.”
The Social Principles don’t directly
Shlain’s family isn’t religious, but Christians can still
address smartphones or social media, but they
learn from them about how to respond to tech addiction.
do affirm The United Methodist Church’s
recognition that technologies, including The church and other faith communities can model ways
“technical” and “scientific” ones, are “legiti- of reclaiming time—all those precious hours, minutes,
mate uses of God’s natural world when such and seconds spent looking at screens—as God’s sacred
use enhances human life and enables all of gift, not to be squandered or profaned. Although we live
God’s children to develop their God-given in hope for God’s future, we can also support all people
creative potential.” A faithful assessment as they make the psalm-singer’s prayer for the present
of smartphones and social media must pay their own: “Teach us to number our days so we can have
close attention to how these technologies a wise heart” (Psalm 90:12). We’re called to fully trust
make life fuller and richer for those who use the Spirit’s guidance as we seek to use technology, per-
them, and whether their use encourages users haps even smartphones and social media, to reinforce, but
to flourish in godly ways. not replace, relationships with one another that enable us
According to United Methodist Com- to live life in its fullness, as God intends (John 10:10).
munications research conducted in 2015, UM
pastors and church leaders “match or exceed REFLECT:
the average technology adoption rates” in • What solutions would you recommend for tech
the United States. Ninety-one percent of pas- addiction?
tors and 79 percent of church leaders have • How does (or how could) your church use technology
smartphones, and 57 percent of pastors say to encourage wise use of time and fullness of life?
“they actually feel lost without” them.
Some UM congregations are experi-
menting with ways to bring these technolo- Helpful Links
gies into worship. “We want [people] to use
• Visit the Center for Humane Technology at
their phones,” Brian Germano, then pastor
http://humanetech.com/.
at East Cobb United Methodist Church in
• Get tips from the CNBC article “These Simple
Marietta, Georgia, told Interpreter magazine
Steps Will Help You Stop Checking Your Phone So
in 2015. “We’ll say, ‘If you’re here with your
smartphone, please tweet or post on Face- Much” at https://tinyurl.com/yao6n6s6.
book that you are in church.’ . . . Methodists
were some of the first to do evening worship
services using the new technology of the
Mike Poteet is an ordained minister in the
incandescent gas lamp. When used properly,
Presbyterian Church (USA) and a member of the
(technology) can enhance our message.”
Presbytery of Philadelphia.
REFLECT:
• How do you think the Social Principles’ FaithLink: Connecting Faith and Life is a weekly, topical study and an official resource
for The United Methodist Church approved by Discipleship Ministries and published weekly
criteria for evaluating technology apply by Cokesbury, The United Methodist Publishing House, 2222 Rosa L. Parks Blvd., P.O. Box
280988, Nashville, TN 37228-0988. Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise
to smartphones and social media? indicated, are from the Common English Bible, copyrighted © 2011 Common English Bible,
and are used by permission. Permission is granted to photocopy this resource for use
• Does your congregation use these tech- in FaithLink study groups. All Web addresses were correct and operational at the time of
nologies in worship? How so, or why not? publication.
Fax comments to FaithLink, 615-749-6512, or send e-mail to faithlinkgroup@umpublish-
Copyright © 2018 by Cokesbury. Permission given to copy ing.org. For fax problems, fax FREE to 800-445-8189. For e-mail problems, send e-mail to
Cokes_Serv@umpublishing.org. To order, call 800-672-1789, or visit our website at www.
for use in a group setting. Please do not put FaithLink on cokesbury.com/faithlink.
your website for downloading. 5Leader Helps volume 23, number 47
march 25, 2018
• Keep your group members and group time in mind as you
choose activities for this session.
• If your group is accustomed to using smartphones during
Teaching
meetings, consider inviting members to turn off their phones Alternatives
and leave them on a table for the duration of this session. • Challenge participants to
Encourage them to pay attention to their thoughts and feelings design their ideal smartphone
about not having their phones during the session and to talk or other smart mobile device.
about these feeling with the group. Conversely, if your group What beneficial features would it
doesn’t normally use smartphones during meetings, encourage include? How would it discourage
them to try doing so during this session to find information compulsive use or addiction? Have
that will complement discussion. Ask them whether they think group members write about and/or
using smartphones enhances or detracts from the session.
draw their responses.
• Have several Bibles on hand and a markerboard and markers
for writing lists or responses to reflection questions. • Watch a brief news report from
CBS This Morning about the
• Open the session with the following prayer or one of your own:
Center for Humane Technology’s
Sovereign God, you claim us, your people, as whole people— “Truth About Tech” campaign at
body and soul, heart and strength and mind. During these http://tiny.cc/uh2qry. You can find
moments, strengthen us to set aside our many distractions and other reports and videos about it by
become, by your Spirit, fully present with one another and searching “Truth About Tech” on
before you. Teach us what you would have us learn about how the Internet.
to live with today’s technologies in ways that help us grow as
faithful followers of your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
• Remind the group that people have different perspectives and
to honor these differences by treating one another with respect
as you explore this topic together.
• Before beginning to read the main essay, ask participants to talk
briefly about whether their experiences with smartphones and
Next Week in
social media have been positive, negative, or mixed, and why.
• Read or review highlights of each section of the main essay
and the sidebars. Use the questions in the REFLECT sections
to stimulate discussion.
Easter
• Have participants read and reflect on these Scriptures in
teams: Genesis 11:1-9; Isaiah 44:9-20; Hebrews 4:14-15. Ask
and April Fools
each team to talk about how these Scriptures relate to the topic For the first time since 1956,
of addiction to technology and to report on their insights to Easter Sunday this year falls on
the whole group. April Fools’ Day. What insight
• For a final reflection, ask: What is our church doing, or what can we gain by celebrating these
could we be doing, to encourage healthy relationships with these two days together? How can our
technologies and to support those who struggle with them? faith be enhanced by this joint
celebration?
• Close the session with the following prayer or one of your own:
Jesus our Teacher, we thank you for this time of learning and
companionship. We pray you would help us use the insights Copyright © 2018 by Cokesbury. Permission
you have given to live in the fullness of life that you promise, given to copy for use in a group setting. Please
and that you would use us to share that life with others. Amen. do not put FaithLink on your website for
downloading. 6You can also read
