The antidote to the downsides of tech
Hello dear readers,
Thee Quaker Project, the organization that produces the Daily Quaker Message, has a tagline: “Quaker media for the 21st century.” We’re always thinking about how to bring Quakerism into the digital age, and when I’m not editing the Daily Quaker, I’m managing Thee Quaker’s social media. So I’m invested in the idea that technology can be a conduit for meaningful spiritual experiences, and from conversations I’ve had with people who engage with our projects, I know that it often is. But like many people, my relationship with technology isn’t simple. I resent the time I waste scrolling and notice myself reflexively reaching for my phone when I’m anxious or bored. My screen is filling up the spaces that used to be empty.
So what to do? We read messages from Friends this month who would have us take a fast from technology to clear our heads or even give up electricity. It was suggested that Quakers take a lesson from the Amish and give each new technology a trial period, then discern whether to adopt it or not, depending on its effect on our core values.
But the message that spoke to me most came from Mary Ann Kelty, who made it clear that a “cool, well-balanced, pure, healthy mind” doesn’t come naturally to anybody (when she wrote that, the telephone had not yet been invented!). This means it’s up to each of us to build our capacity for silence, to ground our bodies in the presence of God, and to put down roots in our community, a word that showed up again and again as an antidote to the fractured attention and isolation we can so often feel online. Then, like the early Quakers, we can move forward, continuing to seek and explore.
Tomorrow the Daily Quaker Message will begin a summer break, though you’ll still receive a message every Sunday during this “off-season.” We value your feedback, and I encourage you to take our reader survey to give us ideas for how to make this ministry more valuable to you and to share information that helps with our grant applications. We will return to daily messages on August 31.
With wishes for a restful summer,
Maeve Sutherland
Editor of the Daily Quaker Message
Reader Responses
How do you create positive boundaries for yourself around screens?
When have you “opted out” of a new technology that you felt detracted from your life? What was the outcome?
I am happy with the ways in which I use my phone. I listen to podcasts, books, and music. I access apps for work and my meetinghouse, including emails. I message and call loved ones. I do not use any social media or watch YouTube/TikTok. I previously owned a yoga studio and felt I had to use social media to promote. I was, likely, correct in that assumption. But after selling my business during the pandemic, I reflected on whether social media was serving me personally in any way and decided it was not. I prefer to have conversations with people in my life rather than having them watch from afar.
Eva P., Princess Anne, MD USA
I'm new to the Quaker way of life, however one calling that I followed was that I recently switched to a flip phone. I'm 20 years old, so I get some strange looks, but many people have admitted that they wish they had the will to do the same. It was a scary leap to cast aside the technological crutch of an immediate escape whenever life brought up negative emotions, boredom, or a desire for procrastination, however I have not regretted it at any point. My attention span is significantly better, I'm more emotionally regulated, and I spend more of my time living rather than slipping into the unconscious state of phone use that had become such a normal and automatic way to spend hours and hours of my life. This isn't a one size fits all fix, of course, but I highly recommend that every person take a step to decrease their use of technology, especially those designed to be addictive. They're more harmful than most people realize or want to admit.
Alaina M., Columbia, Missouri, USA
I'm actually a historian of the Luddites and live in the very lanes they took action in, in 1812 (Huddersfield, UK). I work with other like-minded souls and Quakers who have seen the damage instant adoption of everything 'new' can result in. Like the Luddites (who are still gravely misunderstood), we appreciate technology that helps ordinary folks and that don't harm others or the environment, generate greed or lead to 'death of the spirit'. We each have certain days we don't use tech to communicate on (and have overlap days) and we resist 'on screen' communications only. We make every effort to meet in person and to discuss how we can keep on 'putting down' and 'being aware' and encouraging others to engage in small acts of resistance.
Cris L., Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK
A Friend end once said anything that interferes with you and the spirit discontinue. But if it helps then use it as needed.
Edy N., Princeton, NJ, USA
As the immanence of my disappearing becomes closer; my role is generativity; omitting the constant change of technology. Being comfortable with I don't know and what is only mine to do.
Slower, kinder, few commercials is my mantra.
Barbara V., Northfield, Minnesota, USA
This Week’s Messages
Putting tech on probation
The phone itself isn’t wrong
I’m going on a technology fast
Longing for a simpler way of life
When the Luddites got together
God’s truth isn’t locked out of our smartphones
