God Doesn't Keep a Facebook Page: Multi-tasking & Inattentiveness
Al Mohler writes a great piece, "The Challenge of Attention in the Digital Age," in which he observes that our attention is so diluted in this digital age that we may be missing the truly important and resulting in intellectual neglect. He writes,
Join the revolution and refuse the seductions of the mind-numbing allure of all things digital -- at least long enough to think a great thought, hear a great lecture, enjoy a quality conversation (with a real, live face-to-face human being), listen to a great sermon, visit a museum, read a good book, or take in a beautiful sunset.
People who cannot maintain mental attention cannot know the intimacy of prayer, and God does not maintain a Facebook page. Our ability to focus attention is not just about the mind, for it is also a reflection of the soul. Our Christian discipleship demands that we give attention to our attention.
I recommend you read the whole thing.
As I write this, I have iTunes on (music has been playing continuously all day), I stumbled upon the article taking a quick break from John Frame on Apologetics, the NBA Finals are on a small screen in the corner of my second monitor, I just received a text message on my cell phone, a notification letting me know that 3 new emails are in my inbox, I have 5 tabs open on Firefox including Google Reader and Facebook, and Libronix is open on the 2nd monitor to offer quick reference for verses and books referenced in my apologetics texts.
I often feel what Al Mohler is talking about. The very technology that allows me to quickly gather information on many topics and facilitates my studies so that I spend more time reading and thinking and less time flipping through books, can be the very thing that keeps me from thinking deeply about anything. In order to combat this, I have found that at night before I go to bed, I must open Libronix on the screen, close all my other windows on the computer, and even sometimes disable my wireless adapter in order to offer me uninterupted time reading God's word, meditating, and praying.
Back to my multi-tasked studies...I should probably close some windows.