We have, as a society, lost the family table. Families often do not eat at a table, but around the TV or in different spots and at various times. We have lost much of the time to hang out with friends and talk about life. Gone are the previous generation’s deeper conversations or even detailed letters, as they have been replaced with text messages and social media posts. You need to have people in your life with whom you are discussing the deeper things of faith and life. Why does this matter to the church?

A quarter of the 21st century is already gone. It has been an amazing 25 years, considering the technological leaps made during this time. I was still on dial-up internet in 2000. Now we have smartphones that aid us in almost every area of daily life. I have AirTags that help me find my keys and my wallet.  But are these advancements allowing us to be smarter? They can make us more efficient, but are they helping us build reasoning and cognitive abilities? 

Author and Podcaster Cal Newport has written about the many dangers of our modern technology. In a recent podcast, he explored this question: Are we getting smarter? He cited a study that, since World War II, the overall average IQ has generally improved every decade. However, most of the IQ markers had dropped in a recent survey. What was the cause of this drop? Cal Newport asserts that we have stopped reading and thinking and replaced them with soundbites, snippets, and taglines. This is an important consideration. We have stopped being a culture of deep reading. He is on to something here. 

Another factor is that we have stopped being a thinking society. When do we have time to think? We are bombarded with noise, images, and constant simulations. I was in the hospital waiting room last week, with a loud television blaring. Many restaurants have music playing loudly in the background. Our smartphones provide us with unending choices of entertainment and information. We put on our headphones or AirPods and tune out the world. We are also tuning out our thoughts. We are constantly bombarded with information, but have little time to process it. 

Recently, I spoke with a ministry leader, and they were lamenting that they could no longer get parents to work with their kids to learn the catechism. What had been an excellent program a decade ago, with 40-50 kids a year participating, had dried up. The reason is that parents say they do not have the time to work with their kids. I fear that this means few conversations about Christ exist in many Christian homes. 

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