“We become what we behold.”
Marshall McLuhan
Many of us sense that we are changing. Some notice that it is harder to read long form
books, that our attention spans are decreasing, and that we are losing our ability to be
comfortable with ambiguity and complex issues. We can sense that major changes are
happening to us, yet being in the middle of them makes them harder to articulate. Consider
the artists of the past who depicted their subjects reading a book. How would those artists
depict similar scenes now? Someone scrolling down a screen? What does a painting of
someone reading a book tell you about that civilization? And how does that differ from a
painting of a person scrolling a screen?
Our attention is perhaps the most important part of our lives, and this is not a new idea.
As Epictetus (50 – 135 AD) put it, ““You become what you give your attention to . . . if you
yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.” This is an ever-increasing problem in a digital culture where algorithms choose what posts, news, and images to send to us. Much of what we pay attention to is not chosen by us, and only the naive and uncritical believe that big tech has our best interests in mind.
Our selves are not constant and unchangeable. Our identity changes with life events, decisions we make, objects of our attention, things we love, and things we hate. When we pay attention to the good then we are transformed for the better (2 Corinthians 3:18). When we don’t pay attention to the good we are also transformed, but not for the better. There is no one-time decision that sets us on the right path. Time spent in an uplifting activity may be followed by time spent in mindless entertainment. We muddle through the best we can.
Paul advises us to, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” Colossians 3:2. That is increasingly hard to do in a digital culture. Digital culture acts as an amplifier for our desires. It senses what we like and feeds those likes back to us to gain more of our attention. As a result, less of our attention is directed to the ‘things above’ and more directed to the ‘earthly things.’ We may know this intellectually, but it can be easily forgotten as our screens draw us to them multiple times a day. Our faith tradition has practices that keep our attention focused on God, but the world has an unlimited supply of attractions, pleasures, entertainments, and riches, all of which focus our attention on our self and its desires. Artist Jenny Holzer famously said, “Protect me from what I want.” It is a motto to keep in mind as the world changes around us.
Marshall McLuhan
Many of us sense that we are changing. Some notice that it is harder to read long form
books, that our attention spans are decreasing, and that we are losing our ability to be
comfortable with ambiguity and complex issues. We can sense that major changes are
happening to us, yet being in the middle of them makes them harder to articulate. Consider
the artists of the past who depicted their subjects reading a book. How would those artists
depict similar scenes now? Someone scrolling down a screen? What does a painting of
someone reading a book tell you about that civilization? And how does that differ from a
painting of a person scrolling a screen?
Our attention is perhaps the most important part of our lives, and this is not a new idea.
As Epictetus (50 – 135 AD) put it, ““You become what you give your attention to . . . if you
yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.” This is an ever-increasing problem in a digital culture where algorithms choose what posts, news, and images to send to us. Much of what we pay attention to is not chosen by us, and only the naive and uncritical believe that big tech has our best interests in mind.
Our selves are not constant and unchangeable. Our identity changes with life events, decisions we make, objects of our attention, things we love, and things we hate. When we pay attention to the good then we are transformed for the better (2 Corinthians 3:18). When we don’t pay attention to the good we are also transformed, but not for the better. There is no one-time decision that sets us on the right path. Time spent in an uplifting activity may be followed by time spent in mindless entertainment. We muddle through the best we can.
Paul advises us to, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” Colossians 3:2. That is increasingly hard to do in a digital culture. Digital culture acts as an amplifier for our desires. It senses what we like and feeds those likes back to us to gain more of our attention. As a result, less of our attention is directed to the ‘things above’ and more directed to the ‘earthly things.’ We may know this intellectually, but it can be easily forgotten as our screens draw us to them multiple times a day. Our faith tradition has practices that keep our attention focused on God, but the world has an unlimited supply of attractions, pleasures, entertainments, and riches, all of which focus our attention on our self and its desires. Artist Jenny Holzer famously said, “Protect me from what I want.” It is a motto to keep in mind as the world changes around us.
