My dad never owned a Leatherman. Or if he did, he didn’t use it much and it ended up in the bottom of a junk drawer. He often told me that Leatherman multitools, Swiss Army knives, and other tools that tried to combine the functionality of multiple tools into one ended up doing several jobs poorly instead of one job well.

As a young boy, I didn’t heed his advice. I saw other men carrying their Leatherman tools in a black nylon pouch on their hip, and so I had to have one as well. At some point, my parents or a relative gave me a Chinese knock-off Leatherman. I immediately began trying to disassemble everything in sight using its two Philips bits, three flat bits, knife, and saw. I found out quickly that trying to unscrew something using a multitool was precisely how my dad had described. My multitool could do it, but it did a poor job compared to a screwdriver that focused on doing one thing well, loosening or tightening screws.

The remarkable thing about our smartphones is they are handheld general-purpose computers. If there is an app for it, they can do it. They are now our cameras, calendars, web browsers, e-readers, dictionaries, Bibles, and MP3 players—oh, and they can sometimes even be used to call and send text messages. The ability of smartphones to perform almost any task you ask of them is why, after using one for just a few months, it almost seems impossible to return to a life without one.

Yet, there are people who had smartphones who are now getting rid of them and going back to only using phones with limited functionality. They feel a pull from their devices toward habits and affections that take them away from the people they want to be. There is a cottage industry of phone manufacturers arising to fulfill the demand of those who want a phone that is only a phone.

One of the most well known is the Light Phone. It is a small, minimalist slab of glass and metal that contains a black and white e-ink screen and is limited to a few functions such as calling, texting, navigation, alarms, and music and podcasts. The user can add or remove functionality to design a custom user experience that aligns with how he or she wants to use the device. The Light Phone is a thought-out and well-crafted pocketknife, not a Swiss Army knife with fifteen blades, five screwdrivers, a nail file, and a corkscrew.

In the mess of apps and websites we interact with every day, it’s easy to not think about how we use our phones. But, if we are to be conscious users of technology who use it instead of letting it use us, we should occasionally reflect on what we do on our devices and how we should change our behavior. I have found it helpful to categorize my device usage into three areas: communication, creation, and consumption.

Communication

These are the activities that were carried out by telephones and telegraphs as far back as the 1800s, communicating with other people. Telegraphs sent messages using Morse code, which operators would translate back into text at the destination. Telephones sent a person’s voice across a distance so the friends and loved ones could hear each other speaking.

Communication is a core part of what it means to be human and to be created in the image of God. God communicated with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden before sin entered the world. Man has carried that ability to communicate to the present day. It is not just an ability, it is a need; man was not meant to live alone. Communication allows us to touch the hearts of others, if even for just a moment. Deep and meaningful communication is a vital part of what it takes to maintain close relationships.

This does not imply that all communication is good. There are plenty of warnings in Scripture about how we must use our words. “Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.” (Ephesians 4:29) “With it (the tongue) we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:9, 10)

We must monitor our communication to be certain it is edifying, not corrupting. When you look at your communication, you can ask yourself a few questions to assess how you are communicating:

• How do I feel after communicating online? What does this reveal about my interactions with others?
• Am I encouraging and edifying others with my communication? Or corrupting and discouraging?
• Is my online communication taking away from communication with those around me in the real world?

Even good online communication can be a problem if it is hindering your communication with those in your family or your local body of believers. Be careful about communication that strengthens online relationships while excluding the brothers and sisters with whom you share a pew on Sundays.

Creation

God is the Creator. We can see the majesty of His creation on a clear night, when we look closely at a bud opening in the spring, or we marvel at the fingers and toes of a baby. As beings created in His image, we also can create. Before the Flood, descendants of Cain developed the ability to work with metals. After the Flood, the inhabitants of Babel began building a great tower. Between then and now, mankind has created writing systems, literature, poetry, plows and hoes, swords and spears, navigational instruments, art, music, electricity, rockets, and atomic weapons.

We can see a small part of God’s creative powers in the beautiful and useful things that man has created. But man can also use his creative powers to rebel against God or to kill and corrupt his fellow man. That power is lying within each of us, whether we are aware of it or not.

Our digital devices can be used to create. I am typing these words on a Bluetooth keyboard connected to my Mac, which is then connected to an external display. A large part of the reason I write for this blog is that I enjoy the process of creation—taking my unformed ideas and musings and turning them into words that others might be blessed or encouraged by. What I am creating and why I am creating it is the measure of whether I am aligning myself with God’s image as a creator.

Am I creating to make a name for myself, like those at Babel, or to bring honor and glory to God? Am I creating articles and essays that point people toward the ultimate Creator? Or am I leading people away from God by spreading false teaching?

When Adam and Eve fell into sin, they left behind a broken and fallen world. Today, when a worried mom googles the worrying symptoms her newborn baby is displaying or a farmer snaps a picture of a new pest in his field, they are merging their creative and problem-solving powers with those of the engineers who designed the chip inside the mom’s iPhone and the workers maintaining the cell tower the farmer’s phone is connected to. Together, we can use our devices and technology to push back against the brokenness and sin in the world to raise healthy children and feed hungry people.

God has made each of us into creators and problem solvers. What are you doing with your abilities when you pick up your phone, laptop, pen, paintbrush, hammer, or wrench?

Consumption

For thousands of years, information was scarce. Not many people could read or write, and even if they could, there was little to read. The few books that existed were copied by hand, and they were worth much more than most people could afford. Then Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in the 1440s. Suddenly, the number of books that were being published and printed rapidly increased and became more affordable. Before, it was possible to read most, if not all, the books that were published each year, but now, it was impossible.

The age of the Internet has brought an information explosion not seen since the invention of the printing press. As an example, in 2022 about 500 hours of content were uploaded to YouTube every minute. That comes to 720,000 hours of content uploaded every 24-hour day. It’s no wonder we are struggling to adapt.

I’ve found that consuming content from the Internet is like trying to sip from a firehose—you can stick your head and in and get a few swallows, but you struggle not to get sucked into the torrent and can only drink a small portion of what rushes past. The saved articles in my reading app grow several times faster than I can read them. My email newsletters, for which I signed up with the best of intentions, begin stacking up like papers in an overflowing inbox. I occasionally add a new podcast feed I heard about to my podcast app. This has turned what was 5-10 carefully curated podcasts into a jumbled list of nearly 90 feeds, most of which I haven’t listened to in months or years. Yet, I still hesitate to unsubscribe to any of them because that means I might miss out on something I wished I would have listened to.

E.F. Schumacher, a German-British economist, once said, “The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.” The Internet can be categorized in the same way. It allows us to access more information more quickly than anyone in previous decades. But this flood of information brings with it an anxiety and restlessness that I don’t remember feeling before I had access to the Internet.

Our phones are consumption machines. Through a single glowing rectangle we can access information about how to best sand and stain cabinets, read about methods for improving your Bible study, look at updates from our friends and family on Facebook, watch videos, or consume pornography.

I would argue that only one of the things I listed is actual sin, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the list should be indulged in to the full extent of our appetites. Research about Bible study methods can end up taking the place of actual Bible study, prayer, and personal transformation. Watching frivolous videos can steal time you should be spending with God or attending to those for whom you are responsible to serve and lead.

Giving ourselves over to undisciplined consumption does more than just waste our time, it changes our hearts. When we indulge our temptations for distraction, entertainment, and titillation, we strengthen those desires instead of satiating them. Then we feel a desire to go back to further satisfy those urges.

We must be on guard that we don’t allow ourselves to be pulled into habits of unrestricted consumption like a chip of driftwood being sucked into a whirlpool. Instead, we must be aware of our tendencies and weaknesses and discipline ourselves in our usage of the Internet. Perhaps our brother or sister can look at the occasional news article and not struggle to waste time, but we do. We should be willing to deny ourselves, even though we know that looking at the news is not sin.

The firehose of content on the Internet requires discernment and restraint. If intentional effort doesn’t work, then it might require almost complete disengagement from the Internet for some. I admire those who have made the conscious choice to limit their personal devices to only a few core functions. They are designing their online experience to serve their personal values instead of giving themselves over to tech companies who are trying their best to keep you on your phone as long as possible. (See my previous article titled The Slot Machines in Our Pockets for more information about this topic.)

Regularly spending a few minutes reflecting on your Internet usage can reveal important truths about what you love and the condition of your heart. Here are a few questions to help start the process.

• What are you using your devices for? Are you communicating, creating, or consuming?
• Are you communicating to glorify God and encourage others, or to glorify yourself and tear others down?
• What are you creating, and why are you creating it?
• What are you consuming, and how is it affecting your desires?

The issues facing us as we navigate the Information Age in the coming years will not abate. However, it is my prayer that as we learn our weaknesses we can implement strategies to guard our hearts and help us draw nearer to Christ so our desires are focused on Him, not on our flesh.