{"id":36489,"date":"2022-07-01T12:35:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-01T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ways-your-smartphone-is-changing-you\/"},"modified":"2022-07-01T12:35:00","modified_gmt":"2022-07-01T12:35:00","slug":"ways-your-smartphone-is-changing-you","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ways-your-smartphone-is-changing-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Ways Your Smartphone Is Changing You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Tony Reinke&rsquo;s book, <em>12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You<\/em>, makes explicit what many of us feel bubbling under the surface: Quietly, subtly, our phones are changing us. He catalogues the quiet catastrophe he believes our phones are causing. For instance:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>We&rsquo;re distracted.<\/strong> We check our smartphone 85,000 times a year, or once every 4.3 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We&rsquo;re a hazard to others.<\/strong> Texting and driving make us 23 times more likely to get in a car accident.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We crave approval.<\/strong> Each social media moment is another scene in our &ldquo;incessant autobiography.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p><strong>We idolize celebrity.<\/strong> Our attention drifts from the eternal toward the latest headlines and gossip.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We become lonely.<\/strong> Technology is drawing us apart, by design. We feel the sting of loneliness in the middle of online connectedness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We get lost in the digital noise.<\/strong> The average daily social media and email output is larger than the Library of Congress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We lose track of time.<\/strong> The wonder of people, plants, and nature&mdash;even God himself&mdash;gets lost in the whirl of &ldquo;urgent&rdquo; notifications<\/p>\n<p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[405,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[433],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3433,3453,3535,3657,3726,3808,3997,4272,4383,4444,4615,4708,4754,5012,5043,5080,5086,5129,5160,5216,5304],"tax_ctp_topics":[396,400],"class_list":["post-36489","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-approval","tax_ctp_tags-attention","tax_ctp_tags-busyness","tax_ctp_tags-concentration","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-focus","tax_ctp_tags-internet","tax_ctp_tags-loneliness","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-peace","tax_ctp_tags-priorities","tax_ctp_tags-quiet-time","tax_ctp_tags-social-media","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-discipline","tax_ctp_tags-stewardship-of-time","tax_ctp_tags-stress","tax_ctp_tags-technology","tax_ctp_tags-time-management","tax_ctp_tags-unrest","tax_ctp_tags-worry"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ways Your Smartphone Is Changing You - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/ways-your-smartphone-is-changing-you\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ways Your Smartphone Is Changing You - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tony Reinke&rsquo;s book, 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, makes explicit what many of us feel bubbling under the surface: Quietly, subtly, our phones are changing us. He catalogues the quiet catastrophe he believes our phones are causing. For instance: We&rsquo;re distracted. 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