I think the fact that my Mum is on Facebook might have something to do with it. There are tons of ways to stay in touch with people, share pictures, organise events and pretty much everything Facebook does, there’s an app or something that does it slightly better. There’s nothing new really about it and slave that I am to my culture, I’m addicted to the new. So while 800 million users makes Facebook impossible to ignore (especially as it’s valued at $100 billion), it’s also no longer interesting.
It may be the fact that as I get older I’m becoming less sociable. Plenty of people would agree with that assessment. But perhaps Facebook just isn’t the best way to be sociable.
Whatever the reason, I’m bored with Facebook. Is there anyone else or is just me?
Sometime ago I began to deal with the cluttered digital world that I was inhabiting and make some changes. One of the big areas of life for me, and I guess many of you is handling email. Emails from multiple accounts would come in, dozens a day not including spam and some would sit in my inbox until they became obsolete. I was often overwhelmed by the daily intake of emails. Email, instead of being a tool of productivity was effectively killing it (or at least any positive energy I had to tackle my day).
Something had to change and moving country gave me an opportunity to begin that process. One big switch was the change from Thunderbird (which served me fine) to Gmail. This was for a few reasons. Firstly I would be without a computer for a while and this made it easier for me to get access to my emails anywhere. Secondly, it was just one less programme to install and run, everything works from within the browser. Thirdly, Google own my life already so another Google programme wasn’t really a problem.
The next change was how I organised email. I used to have a complicated directory of folders both in windows explorer and in my email programme. That was a mistake. Instead of things being easy to file and find things, it took longer. Was it in explorer or in email? Which folder was it put in? It just wasn’t working for me and the weight of the structure began to overwhelm my ability to remember where I put it.
Now, I just have three folders. Inbox, pending, bin. That’s it. From regularly having over 100 emails in my inbox, I now have no more than 30 (27 today) and usually under twenty as I try to keep on top of it. An email comes in, I respond and then I press delete. If there’s ongoing actions needed (such as in our house sale) but I’m waiting on others to do their bit then it goes into ‘pending.’ Once it’s done, it’s binned. If I need to file something I send it to Evernote. If I need to find something, well as you’d expect Gmail has an excellent search engine.
This new system hasn’t had the same load on it as I’m not as busy but I’m much happier with this, feel more in control and it’s much, much simpler to manage and that, after all, was the point.
So how do you manage email?
So I’ve worked hard at trying to be organised and stay organised but keep it low profile and easy-going. I’m also experimental and I enjoy trying things out, so here are a few tools, apps and websites that I use to get things done, a few others that haven’t worked out and some that are in trial mode right now. (more…)
However, for me it’s been an interesting reflection of the impact such events have when you’re not surrounded by 24-7 media. We don’t have a TV here and we don’t speak the language, most of the people we know here are on holiday and our main source of news is the internet which at the time of the shooting we didn’t yet have access to. In other words we were isolated from the constant flow of information and shielded from the impact.
I experienced the same thing at the time of 9/11; then I was on a beach in Zanzibar oblivious to all that was happening. By the time I reconnected the media had made the decision to stop showing the attacks. It was months before I saw what happened and so while I could understand the shocking nature of it, agree with the evil, I was distanced from it.
The media connects people who are not connected, we can experience the power of the tsunami as we watch live the wave destroy all in its path, we can watch the tears of the survivors of shootings and bombings and we are affected. But we are also numbed, because it is momentary and as the media moves on so do we. The experience is temporary and short-lived however real we may have felt it at the time.
For me the distance from the media meant that I approach reading about this with a little more discernment as I wasn’t being numbed by constant coverage and endless repetition. I read how early reports of Breivik’s Christianity is overstated and wrong and this use of religion is often inaccurate and inflames the idea of a culture war; he’s more racist and mad and isn’t even sure if he believes in God. I read how Europe is still home to dangerous radical extremism of its own and not just of the Islamic kind. I read of how our culture struggles with the concept of forgiveness and vainly hopes that humanity will get better. Distance helped with discernment.
What happened in Norway was and is a tragedy, as were the thousands of other tragedies happening all over the world on the same day in Libya, Congo, Somalia, Mexico and goodness knows where else. But perhaps we might respond better if we had less not more media, not in a less detached way but a more discerning way and that if anything is what we need from our civil leaders.
Back in March 2009 I got on my pedestal about all this talk about cities and I said things like,
“I’ve already admitted that strategically it’s hard to ignore the influence and impact of cities (however you define them) but that’s very different from creating a Biblical mandate which in effect prioritises cities over anywhere else, which is what I understand men like Tim Keller and Mark Driscoll to be advocating.”
And then along comes Trueman, albeit with a bit more wit and chutzpah, and says,
“One thing Paul and I did discuss was the current nonsense about cities being special which so dominates the popular evangelical imagination. Not that cities are not important: as areas where there are the highest concentrations of human beings, they are inevitably significant as mission fields. Rather, we were thinking of the `from a Garden to a City’ hermeneutic which jumps from scripture to giving modern urban sprawl some kind of special eschatological significance. Was there ever a thinner hermeneutical foundation upon which so much has been built? OK, there probably has been, but this is still a whopper.”
Did you hear that thump? The sound of an eminent theologian landing on a bandwagon! The rest by the way is well worth reading and even though I’m about to head off to plant a church in a city, I still think he’s right.
Here is some of what Parker said:
Talking of the explanation for fossils: “In this view, God had apparently hidden fossils in the rocks to tempt geologists to faithlessness, a ridiculous argument sadly still wheeled out by some creationists today.” (p122)
On scientific progress: “Each time someone proposes a different view on the accepted mechanisms (most of which are explanations for new observations), creationists pop up to say that this refutes evidence for evolution altogether. This is not the way to make intellectual progress.” (p133)
On responses to evolution: “As evolutionists continued to present their reliable, scientifically validated data, religious factions tried all sorts of tricks to undermine evolution. Some were dishonest and all were devious.” (p231)
On the use of the word ‘theory’: “A cunning creationist would argue that Darwin’s and Wallace’s theory is just one of many that account for life on earth, fraudulently detracting from the achievements of these great scientists and at the same time misleading the public.” (p295)
On science education: “They are perfectly entitled to believe this [a 6000 year old earth], of course – faith is faith – but in doing so they are turning their back on evolution which we know to be factual. Crank philosophy results. These ‘creationists’, or fundamentalists, become harmful to science, however, when they concoct theories that reinterpret the evidence, and then advocate the teaching of these in schools.” (p301)
On the impact of creationism: “But come on, all you advocates of the Bible’s every word: if you believe simply because your faith tells you so, then just accept that faith is your only argument. This would be far more dignified than childishly mangling the facts and concocting a dishonourable theory into which they can be stuffed. It’s no wonder that scientists will fail to take such theories seriously; and worse than that, the scientific world will begin to label religion as unintelligent and unreasonable. That’s religion in general – even the more rational approaches to faith and the divine…” (p304)
Why point all that out? I’m sure there is room to disagree with Dr Parker here but simply put if that is the view you hold you need to know what you’re up against. In the field of apologetics creationists need a game changer, indisputable scientific evidence. It’s no wonder no one wants to debate with them, not because of the quality of the science but because of the deeply held view that creationism is anti-science why give cranks the oxygen of publicity? It would be (in their view) akin to me opening up my pulpit to the residents of the asylum, why do it?
It’s now wonder that people like Karl Giberson writes things like this.
“Science is not a sinister enterprise aimed at destroying faith. It’s an honest exploration of the wonderful world that God created. We are often asked to think about what Jesus would do, if he lived among us today. Who would Jesus vote for? What car would he drive? To these questions we should add “What would Jesus believe about origins?” And the answer? Jesus would believe evolution, of course. He cares for the Truth.”
I hold very little hope for creationism as a successful apologetic without some startling breakthrough. What do you think?
The interesting thing is that most of the people who were my facebook ‘friends’ haven’t noticed yet. But I’ve begun to notice a few things. Firstly, I’m checking it less. A lot less. Really a lot less. I’ve been busy doing other things but even so, less.
Secondly, I’ve been deliberately slow to re-add friends. Partly, to see who has noticed and decided to make contact, but also so I can move things to a better solution by making the page the centre of my activity. I’m publishing twitter and my blog to my page but not my profile for example.
I’m not sure what a manageable level of friends on facebook is but 470 + was way too many, so I’m going to be slow not quick to add. The criteria has shifted and I’m going to have to learn how to either gracefully suggest you ‘like’ my page or read my blog instead or just simply refuse a connection.
The simple fact is that I just can’t keep up with everything and Facebook spread me too thin when I want to go deep. So I’m just appreciating the breathing space and we’ll see how we go. But right now this is a more simple digital life.
Here are some other people’s thought on Facebook that I’ve come across in the last few days:
What
An
Idiot.
Still let’s look at it positively, that solved the problem. Bit more radical than I intended though. So I now have a page for me. This is under construction having lost all my facebook account details and I can’t quite seem how to get a personal profile back so anyway – don’t take it personally if you’re no longer my facebook friend. Neither is my wife or mother.
No I hadn’t thought of it terms of a strategy but that’s pretty much what it amounts to. He decided to create a page for himself that people who wanted to ‘follow’ him on could do and then he had a facebook account for friends and family. Sensible strategy.
If, of course, you’re a CEO of an international publishing company with a turnover in the tens of millions (if not more) and more than 2000 people read your blog.
Slightly presumptuous if you lead a small/medium sized church in Shrewsbury and write a blog read by a few hundred here and there.
But I like the general idea – I’m just not sure how to do it without coming across as an arrogant, full of himself twit. Of course I could do that and no one would ‘like’ me, that would bring my monstrous ego crashing down! What do you think people?
The World Is Obsessed With Facebook from Alex Trimpe on Vimeo.
.
Facebook and it’s games generally get more of my time than they should. That’s just my general lack of will power and laziness. But that’s not my biggest issue – friendship and facebook is. Recently my one of my friends wrote this about facebook and community and wondered whether to cull her facebook friends.
The same thought has occurred to me. Somewhere along the line I’ve gathered more than 500 of them and a fair number of those I have never met in person or spoken to or have even the faintest clue about their life. I’m too busy playing games to look at their profile.
I enjoy keeping track of my friends thoughts and comings and goings, I enjoy the easy facility of leaving a playful comment, encouraging word or whatever. I enjoy the humour and occasional flashes of inspiration or heart warming tales. But there’s no way I can keep up with 500 of those days or even find them amongst all the triviality and banality that keeps coming up.
So I wonder what is Facebook for? It’s not business contacts – for that I could use LinkedIn, it’s not an online address book for that I use Plaxo, it’s not my key way of articulating thoughts and teaching (that’s here) and for short pithy links it’s often Twitter (Tim Chester has some interesting thoughts on Twitter). So Facebook is really just for keeping up with my friends and so I think for it to be more useful to me I need less not more friends.
Less is more, more friends on Facebook doesn’t make me any more loved just more connected, it doesn’t make me more known just more widely distributed, it doesn’t always make for more and sometimes makes for less.
So I’ve taken the facebook button off the blog, I’ve become more selective on friend requests and if I haven’t ever met you, spoken to you or know the first thing about you please don’t be offended if I say we’re not friends. But you’re more than welcome here and if we talk then, well, who knows.
I’m open to change on this, it’s not a settled once and for all policy but for Facebook to work for me and build community then something needs to change. What would you do?
Here’s one of his ‘milder’ (ahem) explanations:
“It is not necessary for relevance. And it is a deadly place to rest the mind. Its pervasive banality, sexual innuendo, and God-ignoring values have no ennobling effects on the preacher’s soul. It kills the spirit. It drives God away. It quenches prayer. It blanks out the Bible. It cheapens the soul. It destroys spiritual power. It defiles almost everything…It is unnecessary for most of you, and it is spiritually deadly for all of you.”
You should read the whole thing including the comments
Firstly, I began unsubscribing from countless sites I no longer visit and discovered that some sites are excellent in making it relatively easy, clear and simple to deactivate, delete or unsubscribe. Others, frustratingly did not. On more than a few there was no button, no page, no instruction – trapped. Sort of. As I’ve deactivated a few old email addresses I just updated my settings with an old email address that no longer works. That felt like a reasonable quid pro quo.
My action point from this is that I shall endeavour not to sign up to sites that don’t have an easy opt-out. I want to try new things and that means signing up but if it doesn’t work for me then I want to easily unsubscribe.
Secondly, the vast numbers of useless sites I’ve logged into means that I’ve not been very discerning or thoughtful about things I’ve tried. A more thoughtful and researched approach might be more time consuming but would be more fruitful and less of a consumerist approach. Off-line I pause before buying, sometimes for months. On-line I’ve bought into the idea of instant gratification and that’s not great.
As I’ve been doing this I’ve been thinking how I use social media and I’m going to make some changes to how I use Facebook and Twitter (I’ll put those in a separate post) and stream-line the programmes the online services and programmes I use. I’ll probably cull my bookmarks at some point too.
What’s the point in all of this? I’m too distracted by the internet. It’s a good servant and a terrible master and so in my life needs a kick into place. I enjoy trying new things and experimenting with new tools but that too needs some balancing and readjusting. Simplicity and clarity are beautiful things almost everywhere (second-hand bookshops aside) and I want to apply some of that to the bloated monster that I fear my on-line life is becoming.
I’ve noticed that as someone with reasonably high levels of curiosity I’ve signed up to loads of different things. I’ve probably dozens and dozens of accounts, my email address(es) liberally scattered over the interweb. This leads to clogging of my inbox and an increase in spam and junk mails but also a laziness and a digital cluttering. If my computer was a room it would be a cross between a study, a workshop and the cupboard under the stairs.
At last count I had 5 email addresses still active (I’ve no idea why), accounts to all sorts of sites and services I don’t use and may never use again. Moving in 2011 gives me an opportunity to simplify my physical possessions as we get rid of things we don’t use, won’t use and have forgotten why we ever got it in the first place. I’ve decided a similar approach to my digital life probably wouldn’t hurt either.
One of my goals for 2011 is to be more disciplined and focused (and limited) in my use of the internet, for it to be more of a tool than a distraction and a more disciplined approach to signing (or not signing) up to things and a decluttering of these accounts would be a good step in the right direction.
What do you think and any advice on how you’ve maintained a good approach to using the internet?
But now it’s been a whole year and it’s a chance to reflect on life without a TV. What have we gained and what, if anything, have we lost?
It’s harder to think about what we may have lost because on the whole I think it’s been an excellent decision for us. Initially there were evenings where the lack of easy access to entertainment felt like a loss but that was part of the problem and the point.
We’re not nearly as involved in the ‘cultural conversation’ any longer even though that conversation isn’t always very cultural. I have no idea who is even on Strictly Come Dancing and I’m oblivious to X-Factor. Frankly I’m OK with that. I don’t know who Wagner is, I don’t really want to know and I think my life is probably better off from not knowing. I plan on keeping it that way. But we’re not involved in that and because for so many people their conversation revolves around what they watch instead of what they’ve read or done then we’re not as connected to that.
On the plus side I’ve read 50% more books this year than the year before. I doubt that’s a co-incidence. I’ve accomplished more, I’ve felt like I’ve wasted time less and I’m not as tired. Partly because with the TV went console games which I initially missed a bit but the benefit to my spiritual life far outstripped not being able to play Call of Duty.
I still think we default too quickly to closing the door and opting for the screen as entertainment, to watching a DVD or film – the other options are all more effort. But you get out what you put in, right?
But I’m delighted to not have adverts in my home and in front of my kids. Our front room is set up to talk to people not watch a screen and there’s more space. I feel more in control of what we watch, when we watch and how much we watch – which is odd because I could have switched the TV off but mostly I didn’t.
Will we get a TV again one day? Maybe, who knows but what I do know is that right now life is better without and you won’t see an advert saying that this Christmas.
“Microsoft is acknowledging in their advertising that we depend upon our phones and that these phones call us to depend upon them. The slave has become the master; we’ve become tools of our tools.”
and
“On the one hand we have become dependent upon our mobile phones. After all, they bring us great benefits. We are not ready to give them up. But on the other hand, we must honestly face the truth that these devices are prone to draw us away from the important things in life…including the people who are closest to us.”
Finally,
“The only solution I know of is to be very disciplined in our use of such technology, to be willing to carve times in which the phone is set aside so we can focus on what truly matters most.”
Read the whole thing
I admit I often tend to end up doing more listening to the world than the Word but I’m working on it. Anyway, what does it tell you about the world when you come across something like this.
Swipely is a new social network (like we need another one) or perhaps more accurately something we can add into Facebook. Here’s the gist,
‘Essentially, with the swipe or a card or a simple mention, you can share with your network (or the world) what you just bought with your piece of plastic. After sharing it with the swipe of a card, you can talk about it, rate it, discuss the overall buying experience with anyone.’ - The Social Capitalist
Now maybe this is just me, but I’ve almost never talked about a buying experience – it’s never really been an experience at all. Our level of conversation is reduced to our purchases, the level of our relationships is reduced to where we shopped and what we bought. Not what we read or what we thought but what we bought. Don’t do it.
This one is for my friend Tim Simmonds who likes to bang on about music and worship in the church.
“Clement of Alexandria is the earliest Christian writer to discuss what kind of music is appropriate for Christian use. He directs that it should not be the kind associated with erotic dance music; the melodies should avoid chromatic intervals and should be austere.”
There you have it Tim, no Lady GaGa.
There were some interesting asides too such as,
“The poorer the households, the more television is watched. As such, it is extremely difficult for them to separate the effects of deprivation from television.”
And also the obvious but critically important,
“Of course, the thing that really makes the difference for a baby is interaction with a caregiver and there is nothing we can invent as a people substitute.”
If you want to think more about this, have a watch of the video play (also on the right hand side of this blog’s home page) or at Conspiracy of Freedom. Just a few minutes long but really thought provoking on the care and thought we give to our children.
As pants the hart for cooling streams/ When heated in the chase;/ S0 longs my soul, O God for thee/And thy refreshing grace
For thee, my God, the living God,/ My thirsty soul doth pine;/ O when shall I behold thy face,/ Thou Majesty divine?
My thirsty soul doth pine. Really? I’m not sure that’s always how I’d describe my soul. Sometimes Pre-occupied, tired and distracted suit it better. Sometimes self-sufficient, prideful or lazy would be better matches.
Perhaps the worst of all tragedies is to die of thirst but never realise that readily available water would save you. My soul dies for lack of water, for lack of the presence of God. Yet sometimes I don’t realise this is happening. Which is why regular time with God is so crucial and a battle that I must engage in.
Lord save me, wake me up to the state of my soul and then quench my thirst with your streams of living water.
“Yet as it is, television most often caters to our own worst instincts, driving us to base our identity in what we’re able to purchase, hijacking our hopes with the emptiest of slogans and scenarios, and wasting our sympathies on tales that are devastatingly shallow and sentimental. It can even be argued that our relationship with television has crippled our ability to recognize, within ourselves, the need for a better way. We’re numbed to our own deterioration. Actor/entertainment personality, Ben Stein has prophesied that by the year 2030, it will all be pornography. (Dark, p43)”
Read the whole thing
This 3 minute video gives the motivation
This one gives you the song
Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
From my unhealthy lust of material things
I built myself a happy home
In my palace on my own
My castle falling in the sand
Pull me out, please grab my hand
I just forgot where I came from
Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
From my unhealthy lust of material things
I rob myself of innocence
With the poison of indifference
I buy my stuff at any cost
A couple of clicks and I pay the price
Coz what I gain is someone else’s loss
Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
From my unhealthy lust of material things
Save me save me
From the kingdom of comfort where I am king
To this kingdom of heaven where you are king
So the World Cup has just finished and of the total 64 possible I watched just 3 (two England matches and the final). Four years ago I watched more than that live in the stadiums let alone on TV and you know what, I don’t think I’ve missed anything. I watched the highlights on iPlayer and saw all the goals and read the reports, so my football interests were satisfied.
But I wasn’t caught up in the hype, I didn’t see a single advert, I wasn’t consumed by something that lasted a mere month. I think it helped with a bit of perspective which TV can skew so easily, the world is shaped by what we see, by what we react to on the TV as much as anything else. I don’t miss the TV and I’m glad that at the age of two my son still isn’t really aware of the existence of a TV.
To be honest I still live too much of my life in front of a screen but it’s down to just one screen now. I’m not wasting time on consoles (if you’re a parent you can scare yourself by reading this article and seeing the pictures! pdf) and we don’t have a TV any longer.
The battle is now with the laptop, to controlling the urge to check emails just before going to bed (how pointless is that?) or read the news headlines constantly. I’m resorting to strong measures (I’m using this programme) to help me focus and shift my energies into more worthwhile and enjoyable things.
Screens are everywhere now, life is mediated through a screen, and I’m becoming aware that for myself this technology is a great servant and a terrible master. I prefer real freedom and real life rather than the sort I see on TV.
I’ve been thinking for some time about how I use the computer and the internet, it’s probably one of the biggest daily challenges I face. Not simply in avoiding temptation but in not using it as a cover for idleness or avoiding the important work I need to do. Not only that but in discipling and leading youth and helping parents, the issues thrown up by mobile phones, social networks and general internet access issues are important ones.
So as always I sought out some books on the subject and came on this one in the bargain section our shop. Daniel Lohrmann has spent his career in IT security and is something of an expert in that field. It’s encouraging to see Christians be salt and light and seek to exert a godly influence in these fields. Virtual Integrity is his attempt to bring together his career and his faith.
It was a hit and miss read for me but with probably a few more hits than misses. I appreciated the way he dealt with broader issues than blocking pornography and ‘integrity theft’ is a bigger danger to Christians than ‘identity theft’ and one with a different kind of solution. The internet is not just a breeding ground for sins of the flesh but for gossip, greed, lying, deceit and so on.
His knowledge of the technology and the ways in which e-marketers seek to draw you in and to ‘tempt the click,’ gives you a sense of insider knowledge and his encouragement for Christians to seek to ‘surf their values’ is both wise and helpful counsel. His vision of a value-centred internet experience was thought-provoking and eminently sensible and achievable. These are all ‘hits’.
For me the book loses its way a bit as it morphs into a basic guide to installing anti-virus protection and parental controls. This was basic, ‘how to turn on your computer stuff’ aimed at the technologically illiterate. Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for that – everyone needs to learn somehow but I wasn’t convinced this was that place. Due to the speed of change the links may soon be redundant and this will date this book badly. Those passages led to a fair bit of skimming and the book lost pace and force for me as a result.
On the whole though, Lohrmann raises the issue of integrity well and makes it abundantly clear that God sees what you post on Facebook! Don’t do online what you would be ashamed to do offline, is a good rule of thumb but it goes beyond that to adopting positive values that transform the web and not simply keep us away from the vileness that is so abundant.
Worth reading as an introduction both to safe internet usage and the issue of online integrity.
I haven’t missed it. Hardly at all, we’ve watched some films on computers and a couple of progammes online, but most of the time just not thought about it (not even enough to blog about it). (more…)
Any more?
I believe Jesus when he said 'life does not consist in the abundance of our possessions'. I believe he offers something better. This blog is mostly about that search.
I'm also a husband, a father, church planter, keen runner, reader, and motorcyclist. These and a few other things make guest appearances from time to time.
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