The season of Lent is approaching. This is a holy season for Christians who seek to identify with the 40-day fast that Jesus Christ kept as he prepared to be tested and later crucified. Christians often participate in a symbolic fast, giving up certain foods, such as meat or chocolate, and even certain practices to identify with Christ’s sacrifice.
Fasting from the internet or other technologies has become popular in recent years. Fasting from technology is encouraged by many religious leaders as an ideal way for individuals to reflect on their daily dependence on technology. Sometimes referred to as the “digital Sabbath,” it refers to Christian and Jewish practices where one day a week is set aside as holy.
On such a day, secular practices such as media use are stopped to help believers focus on God and their faith. This is based on the premise that the best way to engage critically with technology is to step away from it. This is a way to remember that real communication is not mediated through technology and is based on being with each other in the “real world.”
It may be helpful for some people to disconnect from social media or limit one’s internet use for a certain period of time, such as during Lent. But my research over two decades shows that some of the basic assumptions on which digital fasting is based may be problematic or misguided.
In fact, technology can be beneficial to religion. The question is: How can we engage with technology thoughtfully and actively?
Media and immoral values?
First, let’s look at how religious groups interact and make decisions about new forms of media.
In my book “Networked Theology,” my co-author Stephen Garner and I argue that some religious communities believe that the media primarily promotes immoral values and frivolous entertainment. Therefore, they insist that, just like digital fasting, interaction with media through digital devices must be controlled.
In “Networked Theology,” we explain that media abstinence is based on an assumption often called “technological determinism.” It is a theory that holds that media technology shapes how individuals in society think and behave. Technology is presented as the central factor driving society, and the character of technology is often described as selfish and dehumanizing.
This view presents the internet as a tool that creates environments that distance us from reality. For example, YouTube can be seen as promoting a culture of entertainment over wisdom, Facebook as promoting self-promotion over community-building, and Twitter as making it easier to tweet whatever comes to one’s mind rather than listening.
People are not passive users
The truth is that digital media is increasingly becoming part of daily routines. People learn, do business and communicate with technology. Technologies such as glasses that correct vision or the telephone that helps people communicate across time and space often improve our daily lives.
But the problem arises when we assume that people have only two options: to engage with technology and be inevitably seduced by it, or to refuse to use it to resist its power.
Digital fasting follows this second option. It presents individuals as slaves of technology. It is done to take a break from the powerful dominance of technology, to regroup and prepare to face the irresistible seduction of technology again.
In my opinion, such an approach overemphasizes the claim that technological devices now determine the lives of most people. It also does not take into account that technology users have the opportunity to make their own choices about how they approach technology. Thus, people can choose to use technology in ways that fulfill spiritual goals.
In “Networked Theology,” we argue that digital technology can be reshaped by users. As others have written, we agree that people need to take more responsibility for the time they spend with their devices.
Deepening engagement with technology
Therefore, rather than resisting technology during Lent, individuals can use this sacred space of reflection to actively consider how to integrate technology to support their spiritual development.
Religious groups have the ability to determine the culture that technology fosters if they take the time to prayerfully create their own “technology theology.”
I describe part of this process as “techno-selective.” What this means is reflected in the technology we choose and how and why we use it. This also means being proactive in shaping our technologies in ways that enhance our spiritual journeys and do not distract us.
Digital Lent can be about thinking about how our devices can help us do justice, practice kindness, and demonstrate humility in our world. For example, people might ask whether their posts on Facebook help create a positive or more malevolent world. Or whether the apps or cell phone etiquette they use promote peace and social change?
Practices for social justice
For the past five years, I have been working with a team of students at Texas A&M University to investigate how to develop social and mobile media that can support a variety of religious beliefs and practices. We found that there are religious practices that help people do this. Internet memes also provide unique insights into common stereotypes about religion in popular culture.
Memes can be crafted to counter such misconceptions. For example, Muslim women wearing hijabs or headscarves is seen as oppressive by many outside the religion, but wearing veils and modesty are frequently confirmed themes in memes created by Muslims.
Additionally, our research on religious mobile apps found that a growing number of apps are available to help individuals stay faithful to their religious practices on a daily basis. Apps can aid in the reading of sacred texts, aid in religious studies, help find kosher or halal products to maintain a holy lifestyle, and connect people with places of worship as well as other faiths.
Prayer and meditation apps can help users remember when to pray and be more responsible in these daily spiritual practices.
Additionally, apps designed to encourage participation in social justice causes, such as TraffickStop, Lose Weight or Donate, and CharityMiles, help raise awareness of important issues and even help users connect their daily practices, such as what they eat, with micro-donations for social justice. organizations.
Digital Lent?
Lent is a great time for religious individuals and groups to reflect and reflect not only on their own technological practices and how they shape our world, but also on ways digital resources can be integrated into their communities to support their faith.
So instead of giving up Facebook for Lent, consider doing Lent digitally.
Practicing 40 days of technoselectivity may actually have a longer-term impact on a person’s daily life, socially and spiritually. It may even deepen religious commitment.
This article is republished from The Conversation, an independent, nonprofit news organization providing facts and authoritative analysis to help you understand our complex world. Written by: Heidi A. Campbell, Texas A&M University
Read more:
Heidi A. Campbell does not work for, consult for, own shares in, or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond her academic duties.