Technology's Impact on Anabaptist Society, and More Specifically, Youth

[shadrach]

I am a teenager. I don't have a smartphone, so I haven't tested out my convictions fully. But I would say that the less a person communicates by text and even recorded messages, and replaces that with voice in real time, the better, and best to the face. I think it's a matter of how valuable the discussion is. The more value the discussion has, the more effort you'll be willing to put into it. As to how much of the time youth should be having serious and beneficial conversations, and what those sound like is a different topic. But I wouldn't be afraid to say that this excess of look-at-this-picture and this-is-what-I'm-doing-right-now is a drag to a upward focused relationship, and one of the reasons we don't use public social media such as Twitter.

[Josh]

In my opinion, social media is creating more barriers than it is tearing down. Fortunately, young people, particularly Gen. Z, are not really adopting social media. My own generation is basically a writeoff.

That does not correlate with my experience at all. Almost all of my children are millennials. They certainly use technology but they are very outgoing socially as well. And Gen z is so used to texting and instant messaging that they have an average attention span of about six minutes. I get irritated when I hear people talk about writing off an entire generation.

Teens these days are using social media less, and Facebook is losing millions of subscribers under 25. It may not feel like there is a trend happening yet, particularly with Gen. Z (and particularly plain youth) seemingly addicted to WhatsApp, texting, and their phones.

But a change is definitely occurring.

[YorkandAdams]

I agree with what has been said on the topic so far. It is easy to become engrossed in social media, so much so that we neglect the friendships we have in "real life".

I have had the opportunity to interact with youth all the way up and down the conservative ladder, and I am amazed at how the phone (specifically the smartphone) always changes the dynamics of the conversation. For example, when I spend time with youth who don't have cell phones, it often feels like the person is actually listening to me and what I have to say. Compare this to a setting where smartphones are freely out in the open, and it feels like my conversation is having to vie for the other person's attention. I have to, in effect, "out-entertain" the person's smartphone.

I have also found that within groups without smartphones, the conversations about how one has been doing seems to be more genuine. They honestly don't know what you have been up to compared to those who have constant updates from social media. After bible school this year, I was amazed to have people call me randomly on a Saturday night and catch up for an hour. I enjoy that a lot more than simply gaining a 'follower" on Instagram.

As for me, I try to limit social media in general and try to not use it when I am around others. I have found "living in the moment" to be a lot more fulfilling and rewarding then messaging the same group of people several times a day.

Why do I still have social media? The main reason that I keep social media is to keep track of some of the people who I have met on my journey. Granted, I try to limit the number of platforms that I am on and how much of my time I spend on them. I am still trying to figure out that "balance" of how much is too much, and as a result, I will occasionally become too engrossed myself. I believe that is where the spirit of discernment comes into play.

[DrWojo]

Perhaps my comments/observations on the effects of technology might seem related to our culture in general and not specific to Mennonites or Youth, however I have been passionate about it for quite some time. While technology and its dissemination of knowledge has flourished exponentially over my generation (as Daniel prophesied it would), I see more red flags the longer technology develops.

Technology is impacting: (1). The written word, (2). Storage and retrieval of information,
(3). The element of human interaction, especially important (to me) when it comes to obtaining education, (4). Subsequent replacement of jobs and employment, (5). Call me a conspiracy freak, but I see it all playing out to the potential rewriting of our culture’s history as we knew it- when you replace hard copies with information stored on some ‘cloud’ in cyberspace- the security of that information is no longer in your hands and the information potentially can be manipulated or merchandised, (6). I also believe the instant access made possible by technology has stolen patience from us.

(1). How many have observed the decline of cursive writing among the youth? While it may depend on where you live or whether you need people’s signatures on a regular basis, I see this more and more. I believe that technology is in part responsible for this- when young people can type proficiently but can’t even sign their name or take notes in cursive, in my opinion it shows a lack of value placed on the written word.

(2). I obtained my education from Hardbound textbooks and started practice with paper patient files (I still prefer and use both). Over time there has been an increasing trend to get folks to switch to digital. Not only do you own hard copies of books and records (and don’t have to pay a monthly storage or rental fee) - the said information exists where you put it. I’ll continue this thought in point #5

Let me ask MN readers- how comfortable are you with seeing Bible Apps on phones replacing the use of the traditionally leather-bound Bibles?

(3) I’m gonna say over the past 20 years or so, the human element of doing business has been increasing replaced by machines. It used to be if you needed fuel, you would have a human contact when you paid your bill. Today in many areas people select how they want their subs made from a touch operated computer screen. The biggest point I’m trying to make here is by technology robbing human interaction from us on a regular basis, it has also stolen from us as many opportunities to witness. More on this in #4.

(4). Over the past year in our area of Oklahoma, I remember one of my patients had a grandson in his early 20’s who I’ll describe as an irresponsible hardcore computer gamer. She would lament to me how he would not change his clothes or leave his room for days, he was so obsessed with his computer games. Well, she was overjoyed when he got a job at Walmart. His job was to unpackage and set up the self-checkout machines (computers) which also took away his short lived employment experience. I try my best to avoid these self checkouts as often as I can, however, whenever I do use them I usually ask the person in charge to come over and show me where I can select the option to get my ‘Walmart employee discount’ since I’m running the checkout, but most people don’t even get the point.

The replacement of technology in education, again, in my opinion, has only cheapened and contributed to the dumbing down of America. I’ll limit myself to two examples- I have 2 patients who are ‘online professors’ in 2 different schools miles apart. Both of these people have informed me they must use the online curriculum provided by their school, and are not even allowed to choose their own exam questions from the test question bank.
Example #2: I know a middle school student and a high school student from different schools whose online math curriculum allows the use of calculators and cannot even do the simplest computations in their head!

(5) When I purchased my first and second personal laptops, they came with sufficient hard drive and software programs such as word and adobe and didn’t require an internet connection. While I’ve had access to internet that long ago, I’ve learned if you find valuable information the only sure way to keep it is to save it to your hard drive. I’m dreading the future day when all computers will be cloud based!

(6) In many families the use of digital devices (smartphones and tablets) has taken away a normal interaction with other family members at mealtime.
Also, the way you can get instant answers and access to information, I believe, has subconsciously affected even our Spiritual experience. I wonder sometimes if it has caused a lack of persistence even in prayer life.