I was at a Celebrate Recovery training in 2013 and the founder this Christ-centered program made this joke: “We were going to start a support group for screen addiction, but we couldn’t find anyone with 15 minutes of sobriety!” Our dependence on screens and their demands for attention has only grown in the 9 years since.
You might think Mongolia would struggle less with screens and internet dependence. But I would wager more people are on Facebook and other social medias here than in the US.
Our International Mongolian Basketball Academy uses sports to influence kids and coaches for Christ. While kids and coaches are on the floor, both hands and eyes need to be on the ball. So they can’t be on a screen. I believe part of the benefits of exercise to our bodies, is the break our brains get from tech. The healthiest I feel all week is after our two-hour trainings.
On Children’s Day, after an IMBA game against Fellowship of Christian Athletes, we were waiting for our food at Burger King. You might not think that’s too healthy. Almost every person out of 14 at our table was looking at a screen. Two of the kids were playing some video game and holding their phone 6 inches from their face. The food was about to come, so they were told to put them away. But they did not. Someone then accused them of being addicted. There were no denials, but laughter that someone had said something true.
In today’s world, screens seem now in more copious supply than human attention. Part of what our kids at the IMBA get for their monthly fee of about 30$ is human attention from a caring responsible adult along with likeminded peers, who put away their screens for at least 4 waking hours per day. May we all remember to add to our days time we devote to seek God’s face and the faces of real people in real time.
The Holy Spirit is released in those that obey Him. Let’s continue to see Him work by prioritizing Him and paying attention to real people around us over mindless distractions or addictions.
Note that this post was written and read most likely on a screen ;D
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