Here are the promised resources for learning more on this subject:

• The Techwise Family, Andy Crouch
• Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport
• Glow Kids, Nicholas Kardaras
• The Shallows, Nicholas Carr
• The Four, Scott Galloway
• 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You, Tony Reinke

The Gospel brings us back to hope – so we don’t stare at tech and go “Oh man, it’s gonna be bad, better run away.” Instead we say “wow, this is gonna be bad, we’d better stay close.”

This film includes interviews with lots of people who have a deep understanding of what’s going on in the world of tech development. Here are just a few:

-Tristan Harris, former Google ethicist and co-founder of the Center for Humane Tech.

-Shoshana Zuboff, PhD, Harvard Business School, Author: Age of Surveillance Capitalism

-Jeff Seibert (former Twitter exec)

-Roger McNamees, FB venture capitalist

-Jonathan Haidt, PhD, NYU Stern School of Business, author: The Rightoues Mind: Why Good People Are Divided on Politics and Religion

-Aza Raskin – inventor of the infinite scroll

-Cathy O’Neil, PhD, Data Scientist, Author: Weapons of Math Destruction

-Sandy Parakilas, former FB / Uber management

-Guillaume Chaslot, (former youtube engineer, IntuitiveAI CEO, AlgoTransparency, FOUNDER)

This video is well worth a watch. The information is pertinent and powerful. It’s worth a chance to reflect. Three major take-aways that make me believe everyone should watch it, are:

1. This tech conversation is complicated – in the first minutes they ask “What is the problem” and every person stumbles over their words. It’s not that there isn’t a problem, it’s simply a one-word answer, or one sentence, feels cheap.
2. It will not resolve itself – there is literally no incentive for trillion-dollar companies to simply give up on their trade.
3. There is hope – lots of it. But without action that hope will be squandered

I’d add one more we have for this conversation – we know from whom we get our hope. It is the definition of unloving to be indifferent to the helpless and the needy. Our kids, our grandkids, our friends and family, even our enemies, are being eaten alive by tech that is simply smarter than they are. It’s costing us all as a country, sure, but more importantly it’s impacting the hearts and minds of people who need to know their purpose and be shown the great love God has for them.