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Podcast Ep. 33: Is Your Smartphone Changing You?

by Marci Ferrell
Christian Living Encouragement Podcast Reader Favorites Time Management

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Is Your Smartphone Changing You? Do we master our smartphones or do they master us? @mferrell

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about our cell phone use and discuss whether we master our cell phones or do they master us. This podcast was on my mind because of two recent posts at Tim Challies blog on the use of our phones. I recently read the book, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke and it was a challenging read.

I’m going to share with you some of what I took from that book to get us started, some thoughts on Tim Challies posting about him going back to a “dumb phone” and as we close today some questions for us to ponder from a quiz Tim Challies posted online called Are You Addicted to Your Phone? At the close, I share some ways I desire to make changes with the use of my phone in my life. 

Do we master our smartphones or do they master us?Click to Tweet

“We check our smartphones about 81,500 times each year, or once every 4.3 minutes of our waking lives.”

~ Tony Reinke

I'm working on a series on marriage for the podcast in the future, and I hope to get my husband on the podcast with me so we can do a few together. I’d love you all to “meet” him. I love listening to him and learning from him. The Lord has given him much wisdom and truly being around him makes me want to be more like Jesus, so I’m thankful to get to have him share here with you all. 

“We check our smartphones about 81,500 times each year, or once every 4.3 minutes of our waking lives.”Click to Tweet

Show Notes:

“The smartphone is causing a social reversal: the desire to be alone in public and never alone in seclusion”  ~ Tony Reinke, 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two takeaway questions that helped me and gave me much to ponder from the book are: “What is the undistracted life?” and “What is the undistracted life for?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“For some time I had been battling a growing conviction that my phone had taken an outsized place in my life. This manifested itself in a number of ways, but none more concerning than how it had come to fill up nearly every single one of life’s little cracks. In almost any spare moment of standing, waiting, or pausing, I’d unthinkingly grab it and start tapping, typing, and swiping. In almost any context of boredom, I’d find that it had somehow materialized in my hand, almost as if by magic. It’s like I just couldn’t help myself. It’s like I just didn’t want to. This little glowing rectangle had become my near-constant companion. I had to start asking myself: Do I own this phone, or does it own me? Who here is the servant and who’s the master?  I love my phone when I own it; I hate my phone when it owns me. And I just haven’t figured out yet how to be the one who remains in charge.” ~ Tim Challies, I Want to Buy Your Cheapest Phone

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You the last chapter gives us some practical ways to ponder how we can live Smartphone smart. He has us ask ourselves three questions to be self-critical  of our smartphone use:

1. Ends: Do my smartphone behaviors move me toward God or away from Him?

2. Influence: Do my smartphone behaviors edify me and others, or do they build nothing of lasting value?

3. Servitude: Do my smartphone behaviors expose my freedom in Christ or my bondage to technique?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here are some limits I’d like to implement in my smartphone use:

1. Turning off all notifications except my phone and text messages.

2. Cleaning out and deleting unused apps or time-wasting ones.

3. Setting the do not disturb so I won’t have any disturbances after a certain time of the evening and until a certain time in the morning. For me this is probably going to be from 9pm to 7:30am. This will give me time to get through my morning devotional time without having any notifications coming in – even text messages. 

4. Not feeling the need to respond immediately to texts or emails. I want to – especially emails respond to them twice daily. I want to get better at not responding to texts when I’m in the presence of someone – even my husband because that can be an easy relationship to neglect. In the morning after my morning routine is finished and I’m at work in the office and again around 4pm in the afternoon so my evening is free from email.

5. We already keep the phone away from the dinner table.

6. I want to get better at turning my phone off when I’m out with others so I’m not even distracted by a notification. I may not look at it but it is distracting when it comes in nevertheless so that’s an area I need to get more consistent on. I keep my phone off at church. My husband usually leaves his in the car. I keep mine on me to check the calendar if after service we’re trying to schedule a time to get together with someone. 

7. I want to start scheduling regular detox days. I’m not consistent with a Sunday Sabbath detox but would like to start. I want to set one morning a week to not be on social media at all. I'd like to do bi-annual week-long Sabbaths away from social media. I need to schedule blogging around it so I have a week off from posting on those weeks. I do us a post scheduler so my “presence” can still be online but I don’t physically have to be online. 

Scripture & Resources:

2 Corinthians 3:18

12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You by Tony Reinke

Are You Addicted to Your Phone? (Take a Quiz to Find Out) – @Challies

I Want to Buy Your Cheapest Phone – @Challies

12 Steps to Living Smartphone Smart – @Tony Reinke at Lifeway

Don't Waste Your Mornings – @Thankful Homemaker

Podcast Ep. 6: What Does Self-Discipline Look Like in Our Homes

More Resources from Tony Reinke:

12 Tips for Parenting in the Digital Age – @Desiring God

Why We Should Escape Social Media (And Why We Don't) – @Desiring God

Know When to Walk Away (A Twelve-Step Digital Detox) – @Desiring God

Going Deep on Our Smartphone and Social Media Habits – @Desiring God

Listen & Download the Podcast:

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Related posts:

  1. Podcast Ep 49: The Benefits of Abiding in Christ
  2. Top 10 Articles & Podcasts of 2018
  3. EP 10: Setting Spiritual Priorities for the New Year
  4. Podcast Ep. 30: Cultivating Self-Control in Our Lives


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Welcome to Thankful Homemaker

So thankful you’ve stopped by for a visit. Please grab a cup of coffee or tea and sit a bit. I hope to remind you that contentment in our role as homemakers begins with finding our satisfaction in Christ.

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Marci Ferrell
"The spiritual disciplines are ways by which we ca "The spiritual disciplines are ways by which we can spiritually place ourselves in the path of God’s grace and seek Him." ⁣
~ Donald Whitney⁣
⁣
Link to listen to all the episodes in the Spiritual Disciplines Series at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image).
The means of grace or spiritual disciplines are wa The means of grace or spiritual disciplines are ways the Holy Spirit conforms us more and more into the image of Christ.⁣
⁣
Link to listen to Introduction to the Spiritual Disciplines at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image).
This is the secret of being content: to learn and This is the secret of being content: to learn and accept that we live daily by God’s unmerited favor given through Christ, and that we can respond to any and every situation by His divine enablement through the Holy Spirit.⁣
~ Jerry Bridges⁣
⁣
Listen in to EP 46: Our Need for Contentment at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)
“So what does contentment mean? It is an inner s “So what does contentment mean? It is an inner sense of rest or peace that comes from being right with God and knowing that He is in control of all that happens to us.”⁣
~ Steven J. Cole⁣
⁣
The quote is taken from EP 46: Our Need for Contentment - link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker to listen to the episode (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image)⁣
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#contentment #peace #rest #christian #christianity #thankfulhomemaker #bedeeplyrooted #womenintheword #wellwateredwomen #womenoftheword #christianblogger  #christians #treasurechrist #joyinchrist #inchristalone #wordbeforeworld  #deeplyrooted
Contentment in our walk as believers is learned, j Contentment in our walk as believers is learned, just as Paul learned it, so do we as we walk this walk with the Lord. It does not come naturally to us. We know deep down the secret to contentment is to keep our eyes on the Lord in every situation. ⁣
⁣
Come listen in to Our Need for Contentment at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image).
"Rather than mourning over sin, the world redefine "Rather than mourning over sin, the world redefines it, or worse, celebrates it."⁣
~ John MacArthur
There is no heart God cannot conquer.⁣ There is There is no heart God cannot conquer.⁣
There is no life He cannot change.⁣
There is no past He cannot forgive.⁣
~ Steve Lawson
What does it look like to live a fruitful life in What does it look like to live a fruitful life in the empty nest years?  What do I do now? What does my day-to-day life look like? Am I needed anymore? These are questions that raced through my mind as the empty nest season approached and was quickly upon me.⁣
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Come listen in to Fruitful Living in the Empty Nest Years at the link in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image).
"A Christian home should be a place of peace, and "A Christian home should be a place of peace, and there can be no peace where there is no self-denial."⁣
~ Elisabeth Elliot⁣
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Quote is taken from EP 102: Blessed are the Peacemakers - link to listen is in my profile @thankfulhomemaker (click on the link under the blue arrows and then this image).
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