It’s not hard to figure out what to do with our phones. But what is hard to figure out is what our phones are doing to us.
Today’s speakers have written a lot about this topic. The first speaker is Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU and author of, The Anxious Generation, which has topped the New York Times bestseller list for 27 weeks in a row. In dialogue with Jon is Andy Crouch, a partner for theology and culture at Praxis Labs and author of the book, The Life We’re Looking For.
In this conversation, Jon and Andy discuss the effects of technology on our personal and spiritual lives and whether flourishing is possible without our phones. Their discussion is moderated by Wendy Suzuki, the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, professor of neural science at NYU, and author of the book Good Anxiety.
Heart, soul, mind, strength — we are a beautiful, mysterious combination of these.
A phone-based self is probably an anxious self.
You might consider apprenticing yourself to someone who really lived in an exemplary way. ... For me, that someone — who, interestingly, did not even use the primal technologies available to him — is Jesus of Nazareth.
Do we think our modern world, our technological world, and our smartphones are designed to help us grow in heart, soul, mind and strength — let alone love? I just don't think that's what they're designed for. Which might be why it's so hard to be a person in this world.
We don't figure out who we are [by ourselves]. It comes out of interactions with real people in our environments and, ideally, people who love us and who are there year after year.
We acquire technology individually and, to some extent, collectively when it's sold to us as this magical development that is going to unlock the cheat codes of the universe. I think what we're after when we're after magic is instant, effortless, and, therefore, impersonal power.
If you let the phone take your life, it will take all of your life. You will have no attention, and you won't amount to anything.
What's lurking behind all this beautiful, magical technology we have is the dream to have my will. And, when I sacrifice, I relinquish. I say, "I'm not going to live that way." And I actually think that does have to be part of our lives in some way.
While our rates of anxiety and depression as adults aren't up very much, our ability to focus is way down.
Religious traditions are the greatest repository of ancient wisdom.
What does ancient wisdom say about a flourishing life? Be slower to judge and quicker to forgive. What does a phone-based life tell you? Judge now. Quick. No sympathy. No mercy. No humanity.
Even though I'm a Jewish atheist, I see a spiritual crisis all around us now.
Play is humbling.
Sacrifice of all kinds is the ultimate renunciation of magic.
I studied morality, and I came to believe we evolved to be religious. ... We evolved to hold things sacred. It's one of our amazing abilities. It allows us to come together. So I became an atheist who actually has a lot of respect for religion.
There's a cost to being interrupted.
The beautiful thing about Sabbath is you discover your dependencies — and you are also freed from them in the same act.
