The influence of today’s technology on our mind, part 1.

Hartland Fall Convocation 2018: Tech Transformation

<p>The influence of today’s technology on our mind, part 1.</p>

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Christian Berdahl

Tech Transformation Part 1

When we look at the Word of God, we find that He encourages us, each 1, to actually connect with each other and to commune with each other.

In fact, this is why a lot of people utilize social media to connect.

Let's look at Hebrews 10, verse 24 and 25.

Let us consider 1 another and to provoke unto love and to good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting 1 another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.

And what day is that that we're referring to here?

The Lord, Jesus Christ's appearing, amen?

In fact, we are literally encouraged by this scripture as we see that 1, to provoke each other to good works, to not forsake the gathering together of ourselves, to strongly, exhort means to strongly encourage, as you see the day of Jesus approaching.

Have you been looking around the world lately and seeing what's going on?

Have you been looking in the church and seeing what's going on?

In fact, my wife and I believe this to be the case.

We believe that Jesus Christ's return is imminent.

This is why we've sold all that we have, and we are on the road in that trailer out there.

I tow it behind a truck and go all over the country.

Because we want to encourage God's people to find a true walk with God, to limit or minimize the distractions of the world so we can focus on Jesus Christ who is seeking to save us.

The division we see in the world today from different races, different countries, The division we see in the world today from different races, different countries, the division we see in the church today, this is all being manifest.

And we were told for thousands of years that this would come, and frankly, my friends, I'm excited to be living in this day and age.

It's a fearful time but greater is he who is in us than he is in the world.

In today's digital world many choose to assemble themselves together using online social media communities and unfortunately many of them are satisfied by this limited connection.

Now, I want to say at the outset that we are not against the internet or social media.

So you can breathe a little breath of reassurance.

The reality is we as Christians that are dedicated and connected to Christ, we can utilize these different wonderful technologies to assist us in giving the gospel message.

Deep interpersonal communication and communion.

Okay, All of a sudden the volume went down and I feel like I have to talk a little bit louder.

Okay good, then I'll just keep going trusting everybody knows what they're doing.

They would like a little more volume in the back.

Deep interpersonal communion and communication is what we all need, even what we crave to be completely joy-filled human beings.

We all want to be connected, communicating, and communing with each other.

And we just can't find this on our screens.

We want to understand and to be understood.

Parents, Spouses, children, friends, we all want to be heard.

Neighbors and coworkers, church members, and even God himself desires us to understand him and choose to commune with him.

Effective, meaningful communication, actually it's quite complex when you think about it.

Looking into the eyes of the person you're communicating with, reading their body language, and watching their facial expressions, listening even to the intonations in their voice, and then amazingly putting it all together with what is actually being said and how it's being said, with the body language of what's being said, hoping that we can comprehend what they're trying to communicate to us.

Effective communication has always been a necessary component of strong, interpersonal relationships, amen?

And it has, in many ways, proven to be a struggle for us as a people.

Albert Mehrabian, a professor emeritus of psychology at UCLA, widely known for his publications on the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages through his studies and others, we have found these, that 7% of any message conveyed through words.

So body language is what we're looking at here, and only about 7% of what we're saying is important.

38% is through certain vocal elements, and 55% is through nonverbal elements, facial expressions, gesture, and posture.

So what this means is that 93% of communication is nonverbal.

No wonder it's so difficult to effectively communicate online.

In an attempt to put some sort of body language or context to our online communication, emojis were created.

Emojis are an attempt to help us to add some sort of expression, some sort of context to our lifeless texts.

You know, you write this out and you've got to put like 5 emojis so people really know that you're not being mean or something, right?

All of this networking has misled us into thinking that we have lots of friends complete with healthy relationships.

You see, in today's digital social media world, we've actually settled many people for screen grabs, pictures, emojis, videos, texts, as a replacement for face-to-face meaningful communion with each other.

Because all of this acquiring of friends, and I really don't like that term in social media, that these are all friends, because apparently I have tens of thousands of friends.

It's a word that's being thrown around that lessens the value of what it means to have a real friend.

Can we actually have an online community?

Unfortunately, some people have replaced true quality friendships with superficial or meaningless quantity type friendships.

The challenge is the actual medium of social media is actually 1 of the problems.

Doctor or Professor Marshall McLuhan, who coined the famous adage, the medium is the message.

His research hits right on target regarding social media.

Meaning in the long run, a medium's content matters less, not that it doesn't matter, but it matters less than the medium itself in influencing how we think and how we act.

Social media is actually, and not just social media, but any sort of online activities, is actually starting to alter the brain.

And it's starting to alter how we interact with 1 another.

A popular medium molds what we see and how we see it.

And eventually, if we use it enough, it actually changes who we are as individuals and as a society.

And this holds true for online living, including social media.

And of course, we already know, because we're going to look at it here in 2 Corinthians, We already know that by beholding, we are changed.

Now that, you're not gonna find those words in the Bible, but you'll find the principle in 2 Corinthians 3.18.

The medium itself influences how we act or think.

So, we all with open face, beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord.

In other words, we're looking to the things of Christ.

Tech Transformation Part 1

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