MennoNet.com

From another thread.

ken_sylvania wrote: ↑Thu Dec 18, 2025 10:52 pm

JohnH wrote: ↑Thu Dec 18, 2025 10:17 pm My phone isn’t 60 inches and mounted in the wall.

Right, it's worse than that. It's small enough for you to carry everywhere you go.

Thoughts?

Is there an option for "both", but not "somewhere in between"?

The good and bad aspects of smart phones are both hugely important. Living wisely in the smart phone era demands a lot of discernment.

Bootstrap wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 2:32 pm Is there an option for "both", but not "somewhere in between"?

The good and bad aspects of smart phones are both hugely important. Living wisely in the smart phone era demands a lot of discernment.

Or it's just a bad idea and sometimes it's okay to say that modern "innovations" are bad, and to be avoided, instead of this nonsense that things "demand a lot of discernment" (that apparently most of Christendom is lacking in).

The comparison was apparently between TV & smart phones. Both are bad in some similar respects, and also both have their distinctive ills. The TV? - Not sure I can really think of any good points, except that for many shut-ins, it is the only avenue for Christian broadcasting, other than radio. Radio can also have its bad points. When I was in Jr High or so, I listened to secular music most of the time I was out in the shop, and fairly often when I was in my room. Some of the latter was rather unwillingly, because my older brother had a radio going quite often, and I didn't really care for his kind of music. I listened to a radio station that played Western Swing, mostly artists who got their start in the 40's. So it was a Western music station for 'old people', even as old as my parents. But I realized that that music, and Country & Western of that era can be quite depressing. So I stopped listening to the radio at all on my own. However, I couldn't avoid the music that came over the intercom in public school at times, what played in the stores, and later, what played at work. (Our Spanish teacher in HS liked to play Chicago on the headphones in the language lab, and we were supposed to pretend that we were listening to the Spanish language lessons. I had to keep my headphones on or I would expose the ruse, so I just unplugged the headphones down in the cubby hole in the top of the desk.)

Television was a negative influence in that we had no place to do homework other than the kitchen table (not far from where the TV sat in the living room), and my next older brother was so smart that he never had any homework. It wasn't an 'evil influence', just a distraction that was more interesting than homework, which made it difficult for me to get it done.

The internet (on a computer) can be a real snare, both in 'innocent' wasted time, and in drifting off into suggestive or down right evil. You all already know the good side of these technologies, so I don't really need to get into that here.

The 'smart phone' has never presented its bad side to me, because I got it for business, and seldom use it for anything else, except for personal telephone calls, and more recently, for family group messaging. (Most of the text messages that I send or receive are either business related, or these family chats, often about our 95 year old mother, her health, etc.) But to John's point (JohnH), the screen size does matter, especially for those with diminished sight. The smart phone screen is just too small to really enjoy watching anything, let alone the bad stuff that is on the internet. So a TV or computer with a good size monitor has a different level of temptation appeal to it. (On our recent trip out to Oklahoma to see my Mom again - we flew - I saw that the newer airplanes now have smart phone holders in the back of the seat, and a LOT of people were watching movies, or whatnot.)

The case can be made for avoiding any or all of these technologies, but I do tend to think that radio broadcasting was an opportunity lost for the conservative side of Mennonitism. But most things cannot be done two ways, to evaluate what the good and bad effects are that may come out of each path, so this is nothing more than an impression, or an opinion.

JohnH wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 5:18 pm

Bootstrap wrote: ↑Fri Dec 19, 2025 2:32 pm Is there an option for "both", but not "somewhere in between"?

The good and bad aspects of smart phones are both hugely important. Living wisely in the smart phone era demands a lot of discernment.

Or it's just a bad idea and sometimes it's okay to say that modern "innovations" are bad, and to be avoided, instead of this nonsense that things "demand a lot of discernment" (that apparently most of Christendom is lacking in).

That's an odd thing to post on an Internet forum, isn't it? Shouldn't the Internet also be avoided?

Bootstrap wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 11:24 am That's an odd thing to post on an Internet forum, isn't it? Shouldn't the Internet also be avoided?

The topic is smartphones, not every other piece of technology that's ever existed.

I think you can acknowledge that the smartphone, which was introduced to the masses circa 2007, has caused significant societal changes - most of them negative.

JohnH wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 12:23 pm

Bootstrap wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 11:24 am That's an odd thing to post on an Internet forum, isn't it? Shouldn't the Internet also be avoided?

The topic is smartphones, not every other piece of technology that's ever existed.

I think you can acknowledge that the smartphone, which was introduced to the masses circa 2007, has caused significant societal changes - most of them negative.

How is that different from the Internet?

I think both have introduced positive and negative changes.

Bootstrap wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 12:33 pm

JohnH wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 12:23 pm

Bootstrap wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 11:24 am That's an odd thing to post on an Internet forum, isn't it? Shouldn't the Internet also be avoided?

The topic is smartphones, not every other piece of technology that's ever existed.

I think you can acknowledge that the smartphone, which was introduced to the masses circa 2007, has caused significant societal changes - most of them negative.

How is that different from the Internet?

I think both have introduced positive and negative changes.

How is a steam engine different than a frozen Stouffer's lasagna?

JohnH wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 1:41 pm How is a steam engine different than a frozen Stouffer's lasagna?

John wins the best comeback award for Saturday.

JohnL wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 1:56 pm

JohnH wrote: ↑Sat Dec 20, 2025 1:41 pm How is a steam engine different than a frozen Stouffer's lasagna?

John wins the best comeback award for Saturday.

My intention was not to win a contest for a "comeback".