Technology

A reflection from Mother Margaret:

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a sermon about the importance of sabbath time. While I was writing, I thought about how I use my own time. Sabbath is hard, and for me at least, technology doesn’t help.

My phone tracks how much time I spend on it. Yours probably does too. If you’re a smart phone user and you’re feeling very brave, take a look at your usage statistics. Over the past few weeks, on my worst day, my time on my phone added up to almost thirteen hours. My best days are about five hours. Some of that time is well spent: reading the news, answering email, keeping track of my to do list, using a daily prayer app. But a lot of the time isn’t so well spent—just mindless scrolling. I don’t read nearly as many books as I used to. I don’t spend much time just sitting and staring out of the window. If I’m waiting in line, I pull out my phone without much thought.

I’m now challenging myself to pay more attention to how and when I use technology, and I’m looking for opportunities for true sabbath time.