How to Avoid Technology Overload - Martin Wiles

For God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:20 NLT

Too much of a good thing can be harmful.

Exercise is good, but too much can damage the body. More importantly, it might damage relationships with others.

One Krispy Kreme doughnut won’t harm me, but eating a dozen a day most likely will. Where what I eat is concerned, most doctors will say, “Everything in moderation.” Eating a little along and along is better than binge eating.

Our day is not much different in the moderation area than was Paul’s. Idolatry, sporting events, drugs, alcohol, sexual immorality, gluttony. They were all available. So, Paul took the opportunity to remind first-century believers that their bodies were temples of God’s Spirit. He had bought them with the death of his Son. The least they could do was honor him with their bodies.

The current greatest “too much of a good thing” temptation is technology. An entire generation of digital natives is alive and well. Defined, they are the young people who have never known a time when the internet didn’t exist. Just as doctors once thought tobacco was good for us—and freely smoked in and out of the presence of their patients—but then discovered it was dangerous, so the same is now happening with technology.

Researchers have unveiled how much digital interaction, especially gaming, can damage our brains. The younger the brain, the higher the addiction rate and the more harmful technology is to the brain. Staring at and interacting with “screens” not only builds an addictive wall in our brain but also damages our eyes, leading to dry eye disease.

I use technology profusely and am certainly not an advocate against it. Through it, I can spread the gospel with one press of a button or touch of a screen. But I can get too much of a good thing like everything else. Moderation is necessary lest overload occurs.

Some suggestions to avoid technology overload: take a break from it every fifteen minutes, don’t give it to young children (It’s not a good babysitter), use it wisely, take it out of your bedroom at night (Analog clocks are still available), enjoy an analog activity (Board games are still sold), and go outside.

What’s one thing you can do to avoid technology’s overload?

Father, help me enjoy the good things you’ve created but not to be mastered by anything that steals my attention from you. 

Tweetable: Is technology overloading your brain? 

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