It looks like we are a generation ‘unified by space but divided by devices’. Biju George urges us to give our gadgets some rest and rest in the Lord
A WhatsApp message that we saw very recently read as follows:
When TV came. I forgot how to read.
When the car came, I forgot how to walk.
When I got the mobile in my hand, I forgot how to write letters.
When computer came to my house, I forgot spellings
Always running around, I forgot how to stop.
When I got WhatsApp, I forgot how to talk.
And lastly with all the gadgets around I forgot how to relate
Addiction to gadgets is one of the ills that is plaguing our society today. The phenomenon is all pervasive that it has affected the young and old, men and women, teenagers and adults. How are we to respond to the phenomenon of gadget addiction? Gadgets, no doubt have revolutionized our lives and lifestyles. For instance, the cell phone is a gadget which has the convenience of a number of functionalities rolled into one – it is a phone, a camera, a computer, a calculator, a recorder, player, a torch light and even a mirror! Fifteen years back we would have needed a suitcase to carry all these stuff together! While recognizing the conveniences of the gadgets, the phrase ‘unified by space but divided by devices’ is a sad commentary of our society’s predicament today.
A Biblical-Trinitarian response to the issue of gadget addiction can begin with the concepts of what God originally intended (what ought to be) and what we have made of it today (what is). In other words, the backdrop for our response would be a clear recognition of what the original is and its counterfeit. It is interesting to note that only what is having value and what is original can be counterfeited. To illustrate, all of us are familiar with counterfeit currency notes. In our country not a single counterfeit seventy rupee note is available for the simple reason that original does not exist.
We note several points here in this regard:
- Anything that has intrinsic value tends to get counterfeited.
- When the value increases the proclivity to counterfeit also increases
- Counterfeit is a parasite on the original- counterfeits cannot exist without the original
- The original can exist without the counterfeit.
- Every counterfeit resembles the original is some way or the other.
At this juncture we ask the basic question. What is the original of which gadget addiction is the counterfeit? Addiction by definition is a distorted relationship to a substance or a gadget and even to a person! Gadget addiction is a counterfeit of warm inter-personal relationships for which all human beings long for. We long for ‘connectivity’ but the gadgets ironically introduce ‘disconnect’ although we are connected to the nearest mobile tower with full signal! As one teenager quipped, “I have 5000 FB friends with hundreds of likes every day but not a single individual whom I can call when I am in real need!” We are digitally well connected but relationally disconnected.
The God of the Bible is a Trinitarian God, an all-personal all-relational God who created human beings in His image with three basic capacities of intellect, emotion and will. The capacity to worship the creator is inherent in the image and the relationship was meant to be an inter-personal relationship which is ‘I-Thou’. This relationship is also designed to issue out in meaningful inter-personal relationship with each other as human beings resulting in the warmth of fellowship, friendship and community, a relationship that is subservient to our relationship with God. Gadgets enter the scene and rupture the relationships at two levels:
- My relationship with the relational God: I-Thou (Worship as God intended)
- My relationship with one another: I-You (Fellowship as God intended)
The gadget addiction being a counterfeit replaces ‘I-Thou’/’I-You’ original into a ‘I-It’, as the gadget is a material impersonal object. In God’s creation we see a hierarchy spread at least to three levels:
- Mere existence: Creation of inanimate-impersonal objects (pure matter)
- Mere Existence + Life:
(a) Creation of plants (living things)
(b) Creation of animals (living beings)
- Existence + Life + Understanding: Creation of human beings and male-female (In Image and likeness of the triune as matter-spirit combination)
Addiction to a gadget reduces our relationship to an inanimate object, which is the worst form of idolatry – worse than worshipping a living being like an animal! By elevating the impersonal above the personal, gadget addiction devalues the victim. It takes one away from true worship and puts one onto a slippery slope of idolatry. By stepping one level below life to the inanimate world, addiction ruptures meaningful and fulfilling inter-personal relationships resulting in emptiness.
The road to recovery from addiction involves recognising that we are created in God’s image for relationships- with God in worship and with each other in fellowship. While judicious usage of gadgets makes life convenient, we need to resist the temptation to elevate it to a master’s position! We are created for worship. We are created for relationships. Addiction to a material object devalues our worth, replaces worship with idolatry and replaces real relationships with the virtual. The gadgets should be our slaves as we build fulfilling relationships. That relationship is modelled on the perichoretic relationship in the community of the trinity. Our lives have immense value by virtue of us being created in the Imago Dei, the image and likeness of God.
Does God expect us to be addicted to him? To answer this question it is instructive to read Psalm 131. The three verses of this psalm of confidence are reproduced below:
1My heart is not proud, Lord,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
2But I have calmed and quieted myself,
I am like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child I am content.
3Israel, put your hope in the Lord
both now and forevermore.
Here the psalmist is talking about contentment in relationship with the Lord. He uses the analogy of a weaned child to illustrate that contentment. The difference between a suckling child and weaned child is that the dependency levels are different. An infant is in addicted dependence to its mother while the weaned child although dependent, enjoys a free dependence.
The psalm ends with trust and confidence expressed in the Lord. The movement from Gadget to God will therefore involve moving from absolute addiction to a material object to a free dependence to a triune God who is waiting with open arms to give us fulfilling relationships- abundant life indeed! So give your gadgets some rest and rest in the Lord like a weaned child!
Biju George
Biju is the General Manager with the Design Department of the Mazagon Dock Ltd., a Defence Public sector undertaking India’s premier warship and submarine building yard.
Ps: I am indebted to LT Jeyachandran for some of the ideas in the article.