Controlled by Technology

Good morning. Appreciate all the thoughts, Buddy, behind your name choosing. I guess I'm one that doesn't think quite in that depth, but it's neat when other people are not all the same. So what Buddy was talking about is the introduction into this world, so to speak. We're all born, every one of us sitting here, and it's where we start our journey. The topic that I was or am planning on talking about is something that we'll be affected by, especially in America. The first question I have is, are you controlled by artificial intelligence? You might be thinking, what are you talking about? AI controlled? Surely not. I hope this is not the case, and I trust most sitting in this room can give a definite no. But also I know how stealthy this programming can be and how it can rope us in without us knowing it. So what I'm going to be talking about today is something I've been thinking about, something I've been working on in my life, and that is the use of electronic devices. There's a certain aspect about them that is very alluring, and I've not always withstood that. I also think they can be used for good, so I want to make sure that gets said as well. But a lot of what we're going to look at is the negative effects of it. There's some studies that have been done, and some authors, and some of my ideas too. I made this drawing here. I made this monster. If you see there's a little guy there running away. It kind of looks funny, but it really isn't. This side it says, good news, you're in control. So you're in control, that's the good news. Because this monster can't do anything without your consent. The bad news is, this monster is happy to take anything you give it. So it doesn't matter how small it is, it can be the smallest moment and he's very happy for it. Unfortunately a lot of people end up within the jaws of this creature. I'm going to call it, I don't really like to call it technology because I don't think technology in and of itself is wrong, so I don't want to paint that as a monster. But the overuse of technology becomes a monster. The addiction to technology becomes a monster. Time lost or wasted becomes a monster. That's what I'm trying to depict there. Before I get started, the University of Michigan did a study, and I found it intriguing, of effective learning. So they took their students and did this test or study, got some feedback. And they found that the average student could learn effectively for about 25 or 30 minutes. Then after that time, it goes down. And they start shoveling against the tide. I'm pretty sure all of us have had that to some degree. Where we are sitting, listening to someone explaining something, and all of a sudden our interest just goes down the hill and somehow we're just hearing words, but it's not really sinking in. This window is talking about the time that it can typically sink in very well. This effective learning window can be extended as well with practice, just like building a muscle. Typically, on average, that's what we got. This morning, I would like to stay semi-close to this effective learning window, and hopefully things will soak in. Lord willing, it will be for building up, and I'm open to corrections at the end. If I say anything that's not good. This is a big topic. It's something that I can't cover it all. There's no way. So I'll try to hit some main points. And if anybody has any questions or thinks of something that I missed, go ahead. And maybe it would be easier if it wasn't in the comments. But even if you have questions, feel free to ask them. What if I told you that there's a society that spends 20 to 40 years of their life staring at this? Does anybody know what that is? Some of you do, some of you probably don't, maybe most don't. What's that? It's the spectrum that is used when most, if not all, LCD screens. This is the color that you're actually seeing. Green, blue, and white. Red, green, and blue. Red, green, and blue make white. If they're in a color of light. So if you zoom in on your smartphone, TV, laptop, computer, tablet, whatever. More than likely, this is what you'll see. Probably a little different shapes. But those are the colors that make the spectrum for all the other colors possible on a screen. LCD specifically. They may even use it beyond that, I'm not sure. Anyways, so 20 to 40 years. Now not all of that is bad. Some people have computer jobs. Sometimes you have to research something. I just want to make that point. But still, if you think about it, that's a long time to be sitting in front of an electronic device. And sadly, this is the case. It's not absurd. A lot of American society, especially US and probably Europe and certain other places that are advanced in technology, and have it readily available, are doing that. We live in a day and age when it's more common to go to a waiting room and see people looking at a device and interacting with it. Rather than with people in the room. A time when 96% of households in US have a TV. I don't know how this percentage changes, so it might be a little off. Might be higher. Children are raised spending more time with a machine than with their parents. A time when people see reality as unbearable. When unfriending happens with a click. And depression sets in with the lack of blue thumbs up and other emojis. A day and age when the technological paradox, that's what I'll call it, is a reality. This is the reality. The more you have, the less you're satisfied. The less you're satisfied, the more you want. It's like this vicious cycle that doesn't end if you start getting roped into it. I would like to look at a few studies that were done. I don't have the time and resources to do some of this stuff, so I'll use someone else's work. This is from DJ Wardisky. I guess that's how you say his name. An article from a software development company called Brainspire. These articles that I'm reading are not from people that are against technology. Most of them are either from Washington Post, maybe, or some other... This is an actual software development company, and this is what they have to say about it. What I'm saying is it's not a biased report, in my opinion, because it comes from people that are actually promoting it to a certain level, too. Quote, technology has both eliminated a gap and created one. Virtual distance is a phenomenon where people are physically together, but detached from each other due to being completely absorbed with their technological device. Such as a laptop, smartphone, tablet, mobile device. This translates to couples, parents and children, and all types of other human interactions being relegated to the background, while people are busy connecting with others in digital space via their technological device. It's the end of intimacy. It is not uncommon for people to prefer texting instead of actually meeting, or at the very least calling and thus hearing another human voice. It is not uncommon for people to walk around or even sit with others, head bowed to their digital device without saying a word or even noticing anything about anyone else. Human interactions and relations have largely decreased, while intimacy and human-to-human interaction have been replaced with human-to-machine interactions. It is not uncommon for couples to spend less and less time actually talking with each other, and more and more time glued to their mobile device or TV sets. Teachers and students, the advent of tablets, apps and computer devices, have seen schools using mobile devices and internet gateways for assignments and learning. Parents and children, often tablets raise children more than the parents do, while their parents' inability to directly engage with their children often result in disconnected children who have not developed the correct social skills to engage with others in a healthy manner. I'm not going to read everything that I copied here. If you want to go read the full articles, you can do that, if you're interested. I would like to add to this list also, people lose their ability to remember things as well. Like, at least it works for me. Now some people may not have a good memory to start with, so something that recalls information might be a good thing. But there's other people that have good memories, or could have good memories, and they are dampened because of the use of technology. Like, you might want to know how many ounces are in a quart, for example. And because your brain knows that it can just type it in on Google, it subconsciously phases that, I don't know if it's a muscle or how that works, it phases electrical connection out. So the next time you need to know if it's a week or two later, you just Google it. No problem. But if it would have been a hundred, two hundred years ago, if you got some information and you forgot it, that would be it. Old people were more, what's the word? No. Older people were more of a blessing years ago because their knowledge was, they had something to impart to the younger generation. Nowadays, we can collect a lot of stuff from Google, and that has its bad sides too. Relationships are brought to ruin because there is no quick fix. Like the digital world has programmed people. There is no backspace in the real world. In reality, good things take time and effort. You know, I discovered this in a small way. When I'm writing something out by hand, I have to actually think about what I'm writing. Instead of on the computer, I can just hit backspace if something is wrong. Anyways, that's not in reality. You can do that too. There was a study, this is a short story on NPR. Some time ago, a couple of psychologists were having lunch together at a cafe in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Mass. That makes it sound more official, at least, if it's worded that way. I decided. They did what millions of us do, as we chat with other people. They put down their smartphones on the table next to them. They noticed something. This is one of the psychologists. We almost felt like the gravitational pull towards our phones, even though they weren't ringing. We felt this pull. Our phones were sort of calling out to us, even though they were silent. So this got Ward, that's one of the guys, and another researcher, Martin Bowes, thinking. If their brains were occupied, at least a little, by feeling the phones were calling out to them, what effect might it have on their mental abilities? So with the co-author, Kristen Duke, and Eilat Nizi, they conducted a series of experiments. They had volunteers come in, take cognitive tests. But there was a catch. Some volunteers were told to leave their phones in another room. Some were told to leave their phones in a bag or pocket. And others were told to leave their phones on the desk next to them as they took the test. Now, all the phones were on silent. Big difference emerged between the volunteers as they took the test, especially when it came to understanding and solving novel problems. What we found is that people did better on the test the further their phones were from them. So those who had their phones in another room did significantly better than those who had their phones on the desk right in front of them. And then those who had their phones in their pockets or handbags were sort of in the middle. I thought that was neat, how that study was conducted. Now, here's an older study. I don't know what it would look like in 2021, but I think this was in 2014. This is James A. Robert, another article that I took a quote from. He's a professor in marketing from the Baylor University, if you want to look it up. And according to a recent survey, recent as in 2014, so I don't know what it's like now, a typical American checks their phone once every six and a half minutes or approximately 150 times a day. Other researchers found that number to be as high as 300 times a day. First, I wanted to delve a bit further into the extent of the smartphone's grip on our attention. So in 2014, I conducted a research with several co-authors on the amount of time young people spend on their phones. We found that college students spend an average of eight hours and 48 minutes on their smartphones each day, a figure that I still find mind-boggling. 79% of us reach for our phones within 15 minutes of waking. 68% sleep with them. 67% check their smartphones even though, even when they're not ringing or vibrating. And 46% state that they can't live without their smartphones. He goes on to say, maybe it's like a pacifier and also a status symbol. Our results allowed us to better understand the role of certain traits playing in the development of smartphone addiction. First, we discovered that low attention span and high impulsivity were related to smartphone addiction. If you have trouble concentrating on what's in front of you and staying on task, you're more likely to impulsively use your smartphone. In their study, they also found that the average attention span of a human, this is in 2015, is 8.25 seconds. And a normal goldfish's attention span is 9 seconds. And it's almost one-fourth lower than it was 15 years ago. I guess there were other studies conducted. So 15 years before that, in the year of 2000, I guess the average attention span was around 12 seconds. When it comes to personality traits, three were found to influence your likelihood of being addicted to your cellular device. The first was emotional instability. Moody or temperamental people are more likely to be addicted to their smartphones than their more stable counterparts. It appears that those people may look for a combination of solace and distraction in their smartphones. And as with many substance addictions, compulsively checking notifications or scrolling through news feeds may be an attempt at mood repair. A high-tech pacifier, if you will. Anyways, he goes on to speak. I don't want to make it too boring, but let's see. Another thing is people, there's this attraction to being felt, or to feel like you're connected. That's another thing. People want to be connected, so this is a strong drive for a smartphone addiction. I guess the last point they make is another thing that they saw was a status quo. Someone's smartphone kind of tells about who they are. Come with the latest version of iPhone. Stick it out of your back pocket or whatever so people can see it. It's kind of like that fancy watch people have on or whatever. It's part of their being. The Washington Post. It's a quote from the Washington Post. More than twice as many young people watch videos every day as did four years ago. On average, time spent watching videos, mostly on YouTube, has roughly doubled to an hour a day. There was a non-profit organization called Sense Media, Common Sense Media, that tracks young people's tech habits and they found that overall screen time among young people hasn't changed much since 2015. On average, an American 8-12 year old spends about 4 hours and 44 minutes on the screen media each day. And teens average 7 hours and 22 minutes. Not including time spent using screens for schools or homework. Now you might start understanding why this thing is a big monster. This is taking and draining a lot of people's lives away. This sort of addiction and overuse. The New York Post. I found a few... I don't know if the surveys were conducted on different times. It just shows how a survey is probably more true if it comes out to different numbers and if every survey lined up exactly the same. This one survey says that Americans, this is the New York Post, Americans spend nearly half of their waking hours looking at a screen. Now this could also be for work. I think this is all included. And they did a math. They figured out that that would be 7,956 days of someone's life that they spent looking at a screen. And they say it's only growing. Another interesting thing they found is that people that are young, like between 18 and 35, tend to check their phone first thing in the morning when compared with those age 55 and older. The older generation is not quite being drawn into this thing as much as the younger generation. They did give a summary here of where the screen time goes. 91% to the TV, 74% to the smartphone, 63% to the laptop and they keep going down. Desktop, computer, tablet, video game, console. And at the last it's a Kindle and e-reader, 27%. Oh wait a minute, MP3 players, 26%. But the MP3 player is phasing out because you can use your smartphone for that. There was another study done by a doctor, Richard Turner. I guess he works in the pediatrics. And he was looking at the negative effects, and I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll read some of it, of screen time and what's happening to the young children and infants. In part one of our screen time series, we explored the effects of screen time on infant and other toddler development. We will now move on to part two and look at the effects of screen time on school-age children and adolescents and the impact on the parent-to-child relationship. Let's see. Family and daily stress was also explored. Revealing parents felt mobile devices help keep kids quiet, decrease conflict and lead to more peace and quiet in the home. One parent put it this way. It is so easy. Just put up your feet, plug it in, and it's all over. And he's watching a DVD and I'm on my phone. It's quiet and it's peaceful. It's like no conflict. At church or any other long event, give them a phone and keep them entertained. Now this guy says that there is time to give children phones and videos, and I think that's kind of up to parents. But the thing he's having a problem with is just all the time. So kids need positive interaction and attention from their caregivers. They need to bond. They need their parents and caregivers to show them that not only are they loved, but you enjoy playing with them. Have an interest in their interests and encourage their imaginations, dreams and activities. They need to know you just, they simply like them and like spending quality time with them, doing things they enjoy. Kids need attention. Let's say that again. Kids, then you got a capital, need attention. And believe me, they will get it one way or another. The still face experiment demonstrates this perfectly. It was profoundly, illustrates even an infant how crucial it is for parents to be actively involved and engaged with their children. He goes on to say how it's also aiding in the problem of obesity and type 2 diabetes because children are not going out playing anymore. They're sitting in front of their screens. He said that adults tend to sit, when they're just watching something, they just kind of snack. So the children do the same. Just snack all day long and gain weight. Bone and joint pain, metabolic syndrome, depression and many other obesity related health problems. Anyways, he recommends an hour a day. But I, I don't know if I'd follow his recommendation on that. I think that, that's up to the parents. And then he said, you can limit their screen time. You are the parent. You are in charge. Your responsibility is non-negotiable. Start setting limits and boundaries. Early. Consistently enforce the rules with appropriate consequences. Engage your children. And remember, the more positive attention you give them, the less negative attention they will seek. That is, that is some of the articles. Now I got a few, I have a few thoughts. I'm not going to get into those thoughts or questions or challenges, some of them that I find in my own life. I would like to tell a story. So there was, there was this person who came to visit us from a long distance away for about a week. But can you guess what happened during the visit? That person spent more than half of their time with the staff as a funny video, meme or article came in view. Sometimes it was shown to us, sometimes it was shown to us. It's like the priority of the visit was with the device that was brought along and secondary to visit with us. Later that year I went to visit that person's home. It was sad to see that the dad and his wife hardly talked with each other. The meals were scattered on the floor. Both of them would put on a headset and talk through it as they played. They were in the same room but this is the reality. I should mention there was a big flat screen TV on the wall that was going 24-7 unless they were playing a video game. Then the TV was switched to a smaller screen next to the big screen. It was on the side so that kept on going as well. In the meantime there was smoking and drinking. In the midst of all this there was a cute little baby being raised and will have to meet the world one day. Yeah, it's just sad when you see that. In short, smartphones and electronic devices are very addictive. People turn to them for fun, entertainment and the list could go on. What a disaster that a programmed piece of matter when I'm talking about matter I'm talking about matter, wood, steel, dirt, whatever. Programmed piece of matter takes the place of God and fellow humans. No wonder depression has risen especially in young people which further lends to drug abuse and suicide. I guess in 2012 was really when the smartphone age started taking off or become more relatively available readily available. They noticed that during that time young people started dealing with depression more. People started especially young people started being more of a suicide problem than devices in general. You know, it would look way different to some of you who have played games before. What if you're playing and your character on your game I don't know what you'd be playing Motocross Madness or something comes to my mind or some war game and you would wreck and that second you wreck the computer would fry and you'd have to go buy a new one. That would change the dynamics big time for anybody that would be playing. But since it's virtual reality you have unlimited lives maybe especially with the premium program you get a few more than if you have a trial version. Anyways, it teaches people and programs people especially a young generation raised in it to not know and be aware of what actually reality is. Someone mentioned that then they are thrust into reality and then all of a sudden you how did he word it some people had watched this video your mom can't get you through school anymore she can't because your last doesn't mean anything anymore I guess the schools are giving out last people last entry medals or something some schools anyways he was saying that it's all fake reality. Now you here in this room may not be consumed consumed as much with electronics as a lot of people in this society but this monster is stealthy and will take any amount you will give it. The only way we can change anything is to change ourselves because again I would like to make it clear I'm not against the use of technology and smartphones but I think there is a big danger involved with this. But like most things it's easier to slide towards the bad and I just made an illustration here does anybody know what that is? If you take a seesaw and you put 100 pounds on one side let's say that's the bad and you put 25 pounds on the other side which way is the 25 pounds going to tend to slide? So if something outweighs I haven't thought this totally through but if something outweighs has more weighing on bad than good even the good is going to end up wanting to slide towards the bad so you have to be real careful. Another thing to remember is that young people are a lot easier to program. I think this is why Solomon said train up a child in the way he should go. Even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 It's why schooling is important when they're young. You can teach a child something that they did not work for and they know it. I was raised in a family that speaks two languages. I didn't have to work to learn Pennsylvania Dutch. Now I have to learn to learn Spanish. Some people here are teaching their children Spanish as they're growing up. Those children when they grow up they won't need to work for the effort their parents put in them. They will just know whatever it may be. Skill sets. Anything. That's also why schooling is important when people are young because it sets them in a way. I've noticed before I'm talking about here what a large army of young people we have coming along. I forgot who I was telling. Tale maybe it was at some point. I was looking out across the field. There's a bunch of children out playing. There's just so many young people here and little children. We as parents have the role of guiding them. What are we giving as an example concerning electronic devices? How are we controlling ourselves? What access are we giving them and how are we teaching them to use electronic devices? The things they learn will be etched in for their lifetime. And the concern I have is that we do not see the devastation in totality that this monster has as it is crushing up the world and the extent and the extent of the addiction. Also, we are still in the phase I would say. Give it another 50 years and you'll really see what this society has led people to be once there's older people from the millennials and on. People that maybe not even millennials. I don't know if there's a Gen X or something. Generation X. Once this young generation that has been totally removed from reality almost at least in certain parts of the world what it's going to look like in 50 years. So we're still in the guinea we're still in the guinea pig time. And there's still tests being done so to speak. And I can say already some of the guinea pigs do not look very well at what has happened. So I had a few questions. And this is challenges for me. These are some things I've been thinking about myself and my life. And I know people are not much different. So I assume some of these things are things you have to work with as well. Do you reach for your phone or device when you have nothing to do? Are you doing something on your phone while your children or spouse are in need of attention? Are you wasting your time watching videos or just endlessly paging through things? Is your use of your phone coming between you and your spouse's interactions? Are you spending time browsing the internet for things you really do not need hoping you might find a deal? Does your family lack attention as you're talking with someone across the world or even in the community? Is your phone or device distracting you when you're spending time with your brothers and sisters? Does your phone grab your attention while you're at fellowship meals or church services or even get-togethers? How many times do you see something that you wish you wouldn't have seen? Do you share information you found online that you do not understand or know if it's true and share it as something true? The list could go on but that's where I stopped and I probably missed some if someone else has some other ideas. Now there are exceptions. This is not a 100% like the exception say for are you talking with someone across the world? Sometimes children just need to wait as you talk with someone. That's an exception but if this is something that constantly occurs and your family keeps lacking attention, at the end of the day the social disconnect is being accomplished. I just thought Philippians 4:8 would be a good example would touch on this fairly well. Finally brethren whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good repute, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise dwell on these things. And so that was the bad and the bad effects. And I thought it would be fair to also add some of the positive things. Even though I think they're far less than the bad. Just so it's not unbalanced. You can encourage people across the world. That's a blessing. People find that a blessing. You can contact with people and connect with them and find brothers and sisters and maybe even move together for fellowship. You can read your bible. You can cross reference with it. There's some tools there that would be really hard. Sometimes you'd have to have a library for things you can do on a device. It works good for multiple different applications and weather. Different things. Jobs. Certain jobs people do. Another thing is this world is glued to these devices. So one of the ways of reaching them is to go through that portal. Sometimes it's a blessing to research a topic. That would just be pretty hard to do if you didn't have internet in this time and age that we live. Well there's your answer. And there's probably more good things that would come from correct use. Anyways, I had a few closing thoughts. Smartphones and electronic devices are tools and not toys. Something to be less acquainted with, not impressed with, treated as very addictive, and most of all given no priority. The only priority it gets is for things that are good and wholesome. If indeed it is stealing our precious moments away, remember, remember, we are being controlled by a machine and its programmers. And I think what Jesus mentioned about that we'll give account for every idle word that we speak, I feel like we'll give the same account for our usage on devices. And this goes across anything that we waste time on. But this is specifically what I'm talking about. that's all I have. Questions or corrections or comments? Thank you Lloyd. I really appreciate you sharing those things and I I think we do well to put thought into these things, take heed. We would, you know, even if we found some some good purposeful reason to keep a lion or a tiger around us for some real practical reason, we'd do it with great caution and great heed because of all the dangers that would come with it. And I I think that's how we how we ought to view these things. It is a subject that that is it's interesting to me, it's important to me. I think Lloyd did good in in pointing out like, yeah, it's a tool and tools tools are useful. Tools are good. You know, when you ask those questions, the questions you were directly pointing to us, I can't quote them all, but, you know, do you reach for your phone whenever you don't have anything to do? Does it take time away from your family? Are you on it? Are you just scrolling through stuff? I found those questions convicting. I find myself doing some of these things. And if if it were not for your follow-up things like here's here are the list of good things, important things, useful things, helpful things that we can do with them, you know, I'd be inclined to find a hammer and just say, let's gather all our electronic devices together and deal with them the way they dealt with wicked books in the Book of Acts. But I recognize it's a tool. But I just want to say, like, I think we do, we do well to treat them for what they are, to remember that it is the world who programs them, it's the world who designs them just exactly the way the world markets everything else and figures out what ticks with people, what gets the crowds, what, that's the way these things are marketed, that's the way they're programmed, that's, they are, they are set up to play into the, to play into the hands of the worldly minded person. You kind of touched on this, but I think one of the reasons, I think one of the reasons that studies would show that, like, depression, discouragement, suicide, all those things increase with the use, increase with the increased use of these things is because when you, like, I don't know if I can thoroughly explain this, but it has something to do with like, people get a little bit of a high when somebody sends you a thumbs up, when they give you a like, when they send you a friend request, when they all those things, like, on social media, you only, we're inclined to compare ourselves with each other, and so everybody, everybody is just posting their bests on their sites. Even, they're almost doing a performance, right, if they're videoing something that they're going to post with the whole world, they're posting their bests, they're not posting their worst, even if they post their failures, they're posted in a way that makes it still seem like they're a good person handling their failure well, or whatever, and so you only see that part, and then you compare yourself, and you don't meet up with other people, or, all these things just take away from the reality of life, the real, like, you know, sitting beside each other, seeing each other in real ways, I find it amazing sometimes, how, how accurately, uh, I find how accurately, um, they, they name some of these things like, Facebook, that's exactly what it is, you see the face of, of people, or even, even, www, World Wide Web, what is it? It is a web that covers the whole world, just like one great big spider web, and yes, it catches many people, just like webs catch insects, um, I've, I've, I've marveled at that in like, other ways, I marvel at it when I, when I drive past the downstream casino and I think, what a perfect name for a casino, just downstream, um, uh, and, uh, anyways, when I think long about these things, it just, doesn't it, it just makes me long for, just, you know, old sages, people, people who can meditate, who can think deeply without, without even books, let alone the internet, makes me want people who, who can actually have experience in life, um, who have lobster claws for their hands and calluses on their knees, and, um, anyway, I, I just, I just think it's good to be reminded of these things, and, uh, you know, I know, I know for good reasons, that, that, I, I don't think that, that the approach of the church ought to be to say, uh, well, here's, here's a danger, so let's practice total abstination, uh, or abstain totally from, from something that, that could also be useful, um, but I, I'm just, I just want to be in, I, I am in agreement with Lloyd, like, let's take heed, let's consider well. Uh, thank you, Brother Lloyd, and Brother Duane for your comments afterwards. Um, I agree with you that some, some names are well, well named, and I, and you actually reminded me that a long time ago, I thought how peculiar the, the WWW, the World Wide Web was, like, why, why did they choose that? but, uh, this is prior to me ever having the internet. Um, I, I never actually had a phone that I could carry around until I was 32, I think, and so that would have been well into the 2000s, and how quickly I have, slid downhill. I, I just wanted to say that I agree with, uh, Brother Duane that when Lloyd made the list, um, I, I found myself cringing quite a bit, like, yeah, there, there's, there's, there's a lot of room for improvement. Um, and, and I do agree that I, obviously, like, I'll just, I'll just use Will Yoder as an example, I mean, there, there is, there is a practical application to, um, to, um, owner operators that, with, with a smart device, but, there, there also, there is, there is an easy, um, avenue to, to, uh, temptation there as well, and, uh, and I also agree with Dwayne, what he said about, um, it's pretty easy to, to say that, like, let's just, okay, let's just, let's just pile them up and burn them, like, however, uh, then we would be building walls, you know, walls of safety around our children that are actually really false because once they get to a certain age, that they would just explode out of that and, and have no, no good knowledge about the dangers of it, uh, to apply to life, and so, I think from the, the things that I can take away from, um, Lloyd's discussion here was that more emphasis should be placed on, on, like, that one researcher had said, like, you're the parent, there, there is no room for negotiation with the rules in the household, set the boundaries, this is the household rules, but the sons are gonna do what the father does, and so, um, the, uh, yeah, anyway, lots of, lots of room for, um, improvement in my life there. Thank you Lloyd, I know you're in the restroom there, but it was needed and I'm glad that I'm an older generation, and even though I had TV growing up, but I gave it up 40 years ago, I just, not as a Christian, I thought it was all about the me generation, I don't need this stuff, I have my own ego to deal with, I don't have to watch television and all that foolishness, now it seems younger, for the guys, Lloyd and Duane and Tyler brought up, it's harder on them, we don't know where it's going, but some biblical thoughts I wrote down would be, of course it seems to be entertainment, and of the four soils, the thorny soil was rocky, I mean I said thorny to thorny, the cares and pleasures of the world drowns out the truth, and Father Michael Oestringer did a wonderful thing on the cell phone years ago, it was great, it was long, it was about six pages, I read it, Michael Oestringer, and it was great, and I don't know anyone really takes heed to it that much, but it was great on the dangers of the cell phone, I still have that, and I told Michael I agreed with just about everything he said on it, I used one for work, GPS, but I've also looked at foolish things on there, if you look at one thing, you call it artificial intelligence, they will program other things to come up that you never asked for, for example, someone at work said, a young guy said, there's a white basketball player named White Chocolate, look, Google him up, and watch the video, so I can get, every time I Google, I get about all white chocolates, different white chocolates, and different basketball players, and I just did it one time, and I get a half dozen of these other things that, you know, how if you let him in, he can, he'll give you six more demons in there, something like that, but, and Duane says it, it does warp our thinking, it warps your thinking, and TV, when I was growing up, it warped your thinking, okay, this is a drunk, let's everyone laugh, this is a homo, let's everyone laugh, you know, the way the world thinks, it warps our thinking, so we would laugh at drunks, we don't talk about the drunk that abused his wife, and the children grew up in that family, and how terrible a sin it is, or the homosexual who's going to be lost forever, but we can laugh at sin, by these, you know, these electronic vices, the video, how evil it is, and yet people, we can poo-poo it, that's how a drunk walks, and that's how a homo walks and talks, it's evil, it is so strong, he is the roaring lion, and he's trying so hard to get us, and an easy way is to do that, and you know, well maybe it was yesterday, I worked a few dollars yesterday, and someone went in to take a delivery, and they said I don't want to go to that person, they stiff you, that means they don't tip you, and I said well maybe it will be Bill Gates, maybe he'll give you a million dollars, and like this, and they said well he's the richest guy, and I said no, he's not the richest guy, don't you know who it is, it's Bezos, he's Amazon, Amazon is the richest, right, it's all the cell phone, whatever, if it's an Amazon computer, yeah, so it's, you know, and I thought Bill Gates, I guess he's probably in the poor house, he's not in the poor house, but it's all about the internet, or something like that, but the psalmist said I will set no worthless thing before my eyes, we should do that, I mean we should do that, Helen Keller, she wrote, if I had three days to see, what she would see, I don't think she'd put down in one of those days, I want to go before a computer and look at all this gobbledygook and all that stuff that's out there, I mean we have our eyes, we can see the constellations at night, they declare the glory of God, we don't have to look at a little screen and say, okay this is Ursa Minor and Ursa Major and that is what do they call all these names for the stars, you can look at the real thing in life, face-to-face communication, and I know we all know that, but we need to go over that, it's face-to-face communication, I mean can you imagine if Max said to Lisa, before he proposed to her, he did it on the cell phone, and then she said like that, there was no face-to-face communication, that's so, can you imagine doing, I mean this is so ridiculous, and that's, you know, not just like that, and Brother Duane's message, dead to the world, yeah we should be dead to the world in the sense that it's, we don't care about the next thing, my wife likes to read every day before I go to work, okay here's the weather forecast for today, and I'm not interested, I'm not interested if a tornado comes, I'll come back, if it's a flood I won't come back, you know, I'm not going to work, but she loves to tell me, this is how it's going to be when you go out, you know, Sarah, I just don't want to know, life has surprises, let it be as it is, but one of the things in the Old Testament, remember the prophet, Duane knows it, I guess most of you that the prophet he went before, he told another prophet, hit me over the head, wound me, and the other prophet didn't, so he, I don't know if he told him or he struck him down, but then he said another guy, hit me over the head, and so the prophet did, and he hit the prophet over the and he wounded him in the blood, he put a kerchief around his neck, then he went to Ahab, and he told Ahab the story about, there's a certain man who had a prisoner, and I was to guard him, life and death, but he escaped through my hands, and what's the consequence, and Ahab says, you know the rules, it's your life or his, and he said that, yeah, but I got busy here and there, I was busy here and there, so we get busy here and there with this foolish computer, busy here and there, and we're wasting the time, today is the day of salvation, that's not, you know we redeemed the time, like that, and then you didn't mention Lloyd, but of course you know from the doctors, you know there's Kikadian things, that's when you sleep at night, your Kikadian things Tyler, your Kikadian, you get all upset when you watch that screen, rhythms, Kikadian rhythms, all messed up, so you will have night music, what is it, how do you say it, am I saying it wrong, Kikadian rhythms, circadian rhythms, I'm from Boston, we talk different, and it messes up your sleep patterns, and you can have wild dreams, because you're Kikadian and circadian things, and that's another one, and I hope that you and Harvey, Lloyd, you have less use for that, you know the good old letter writing, really it's a skill, the letter writing, and it takes time, and patience, and that's really something, and the electronic gadgets, it's trying to, one of them is to try to beat the curse, you know as far as work by the sweat of your brow, it's not just any type of electronic thing, you don't want to be a ditch digger, you want to use the forklift, and all the other things, and so it is with these quote mind things, it's trying to, I didn't read it, but I know there's a book called The Brave New World, The Brave New World talks about America or any country will be destroyed from within, they're going to be destroyed by the toys, the toys, and the cell phone can be a toy, and it also can be an access, you see one bad picture of a woman, and then pornography can come in, and you know for anyone who had that problem, that can do it, it's a bad thing for all of us, all men, even me, an old guy, I could look at that and say hey that's not, and look at that, and so it is a danger, it is a poison to be avoided over those certain things, but there is good technology and bad technology as Brother Dwayne and all the brothers said, but anyway, we need that Lloyd, we need a lesson like that because Satan is trying to destroy us, our families, I guess that's why the Amish, they didn't like TV because it keeps one person in one room, one person in the other room, and you wouldn't have your family time together, you wouldn't eat together, you wouldn't have devotions together, you couldn't sing together, and that's what, were you Amish? Yeah, and that's one of the reasons for the TV, but this is ten times worse to sell one, and yet we can gobble it up like a fish, we don't have anything to say about it, Satan gets an A+, let's be aware of his devices, and I really think that Michael Oestringer did a good one on the cell phone, correct me if I'm wrong, I'm too radical, I'll be magnified. I appreciated the message, but I think I appreciate the recommendation for smashing or burning, but that's just me, I know that there's a lot of practical things that have been done with the cell phone, but it seems like at some point there's a natural separation of these things, like the world is going to head to the furthest point of the Like as Lloyd said in his sermon, that we're just the guinea pigs, and right now, I just remember this commercial that I saw on television before I stopped really watching TV, and it was actually an Apple phone commercial, and it was one side of the street, they showed all these people lined up down the sidewalk, and they were grayed out, and looked like they had all these old style clothing and stuff on it, and then they zoomed over real fast to this other corner, and there was all these people and they're lined up to get the Apple phone, and they were like, they had color, and they were happy, and they were doing great, and I just noticed that as time has moved on, that you cannot use your older phones, like, they little by little weed them out, they give you bad updates, and it starts to make it more difficult to use it, like, you can't just, like, I could hardly even use a flip phone when I had it, for the functional purpose of just calling or receiving text messages, so I'm saying, like, somehow I feel like there's going to be a separation. Thank you brothers for sharing your thoughts, thank you Lloyd for being brave enough to speak on a subject that probably was by and large researched on the very subject that you were speaking about, that takes bravery, Lord, that takes bravery. I'm grateful for brothers that are willing to talk about these things and seek the Lord in them. Just to add a few points, one point to your pluses, to your good side, the tremendous amount of time that we can save, that I save per day, with a device, adds up quite quite profoundly, surprisingly. It's amazed me. What are you gonna do with that time? That was the question that really struck me. What are you gonna do when you're bored? When you got nothing else to do? When you've got all your work done in an hour and a half that normally would have took almost a whole day. Connecting with people, figuring out where they are, what's going on, what do they need? You can whip through that in no time with the proper infrastructure. So what are you gonna do? Whether you have saved time with that device or whether you are as David in the Old Testament, I don't think, I don't think the smartphone was his downfall. It was good people that could handle whatever he needed done and afforded him with extra time. You can create the same scenarios in in a lot of situations. What are we going to do with that extra time? Let's let's invest that wisely in our families and our brotherhood. We have a we have a site where I can connect with all my drivers as a group within seconds, check in on everybody. It doesn't bother me. I'm not looking for interpersonal relationships necessarily. The fact that we have a group where we do that as brethren, that does bother me. I must confess that, that we we're content with with checking in on each other. That's shallow. It does bother me. A brother sends out a message, you know, would anybody be interested in going witnessing? As far as I could tell, there was no response. Had we have talked with each other about that, we could have maybe stirred up in each other a desire to go witnessing. I could have asked a brother, I mean, yes I would have liked to go witnessing, but I'm carrying a touch of flu. Is it a good idea to go or isn't it? So let's be careful. Let's be very, very careful on that level. Business is business, but brotherhood relationships, family relationships are way more important than business. There's there's no there's no trade-off. If we're using technology and we're efficient in our business, let's use that for an opportunity to invest in our in our other relationships. If you've saved a lot of time not having to call every one of your drivers, then take that time and call a brother. Converse, stir each other up in the faith. That's what we're here for. The Lord be praised. Yeah, I wanted to share my appreciation for the for the thoughts too and a lot of what was been shared by all the brothers. Not sure if I can actually share my thoughts thoroughly or well enough, but I had to think of my memory started going back into what I could know about technology and then like my grandparents, they hardly had any at all. And the basic the basic pattern of a home where my grandparents and my parents came from would have been like you get up in the morning and and you work, do your chores and you eat breakfast and whatever different families did. My dad never had any any kind of Bible reading or devotions. We went to church for that. But I think other families might have spent some time in. Anyways, then in the forenoon there'd be work and there's there's no cell phones of course. In at noon there'd be lunchtime and then I thought of my uncle he would sit down and read the newspaper every after every meal. Not every meal, but after lunch meal. And my dad kind of did that too in the family life and in our home got read. And we didn't have a lot of newspapers in our home, but sometimes we did get a for short time. But usually we didn't have the newspaper that much. So so how do we use how do we use yeah so are we using our time you know worth a matter with whatever we have. My time my thoughts also went back to on in the past. Sodom and Gomorrah or they they had no technology to my knowledge. Their minds were filled with wickedness. I grew up not being trained in that. My mind was full of wickedness, very harmful. It's technology is an easier route maybe in many ways of these these wicked things. But the warning I would have about that just because we don't have a certain thing we're not very safe. We're not there's really not any safety for us. And doesn't mean that we should not care about what these cell phones are doing. I I just I see these patterns that were shared and I I agree with them. I I think we do well to to discipline ourselves as much as possible. So I could think if maybe we get different jobs we could come up with a fairly safe solutions here and there. We would have what more strength. We would have more time to think. We more have more time to fellowship. We could maybe work together as a community and maybe be more efficient. Who's willing to sell all they have and do this? These are these are questions that go through my mind and I'm not I'm saying this not because I think we should be doing that. I'm saying this because we think they're safe in something that is perhaps not so safe. Again I agree with all these patterns I see. So I'm not sure if I'm I'm not sure if I'm making myself clear. And and the things on the on the phones that they're programmed like Facebook they are programmed to captivate people and that's all the things on there are pretty near that way. Excepting maybe the business things that they can be straightforward. But most of the other is is designed to catch you and it's that's just true. We have to be very very diligent careful in those areas if we're going to use them. And I think when I hear this idea I feel like just smashing our phones. I think there's an inconsistency involved in that that is dangerous too. I just suggest give your phones to me I'll smash them. No problem. Anybody would like that done to their phone I'll do it. But again I I'm not sure I'm making sense but these are thoughts going through my mind. So ultimately I would not want the thing anybody to think that I'm okay with the phone being used in a bad way. That is it is very captivating it does a lot of these things we've heard and I think if we just deal with it like okay I wish we could smash the phone but I'm not going to do it. There's just something about that that I feel is dangerous. It's maybe defiling the conscience. It's maybe like one man used to say he thinks cars are bad and but he used it because he had to kind of he felt like he had to use it. I just felt like that is not right for him like God is displeased with this car but I have to use it. And it's displeasing to have a phone but I'm going to use it. I think there's something defiling about that but there's something within us I think getting broken down that is this bad. That's maybe just as bad or the same bad as the other bad we're trying to save ourselves from. If that makes any sense. And then I could think about like our work again is our work competing with our families is in so many different ways we can get caught up in. I think I think we had no phones. We had no we had to turn on television like Robert had to babysit him. And I think we had more thoughts about things. I thought we I think we I think we thought more about many things. I especially would have thought of being a vendor or inventing things. And probably if you had a TV maybe some of that would have been gone. I'm not sure how that works. But when we're occupied with things we do it gets used. It's part of our time. And whatever we're occupied with it's going to be so much less for something else. And if if our family is suffering from it I think we need to I think we need to take action and hit that work hit that phone hit that whatever. And actually if we're not convicted about it then maybe we should take a different approach. But I think we do well to be more more radical about I don't know just my idea that we should be more radical as a whole about a lot of things. I could think of many scenarios where we wouldn't hardly need a phone anymore. But that's probably another subject in itself. But anyways whatever I'm saying here I'm not trying to say this in defense of like the phone is OK. It is it is definitely in the hands of of the ignorant in the hands of the youth it will get used wrongly. And older people as well if we're there is there's there's definitely a draw and I agree with maybe everything I heard about that part. How to deal with it I think is where I think we have to be more careful in not defiling our consciences. If we have a problem with it we I think we should try and deal with it and in reality not maybe and all be nice if we just be in heaven now and everything be nice and life just doesn't seem to be that way yet. And we have to work we have to press we have to strive for this kingdom. And another thought I had was the phone and all our work and everything that we have has to be in subjection to us. It has to be our slave. So if this monster is not our slave even though he's just getting bits of us it doesn't matter if we're his slave and he's demanding these little bits from us. I guess that was the idea that he is he if he gets a little bit he's happy. And and I would say we're his slave then and he doesn't care that that monster is fine with a bit here and a bit there. Snakes just need a little bit of food for a year or maybe a little bunch of food but then they're good for a year. If they can harvest they're fine. And so this is just a way maybe we can know and Lloyd's been trying to point that out too in a different way but if we're a slave to anything our work or anything Christ demands surrender to all things and and this is the demand that we have to demand of each other or rebuke one another in is is I think our safety is in the fear of God and and demanding this surrender of all all things. This is what's going to help our children get a hold of Christianity if they will. I know I know my my hope is a little low in those areas because of history but I don't know anything else to do but press forward in in in teaching our children these these very precious precious things that we need to like when we when Jesus said all he meant everything he didn't oh we can have part of the phone or we can have part of the our lands we can we can have some pride in our clothes and we can have some pride in in this but these are all these things are going to keep us from heaven and we those things will not enter in so anyways I'm not sure I'm not sure what I'm thinking about all this but it just kind of stirred up a big big thing in my mind I really appreciate any effort we put forward to recognizing these dangers and staying from them but it's not just in the phone the phone is a big thing though there's something about the society I tend to think maybe in our group here I hope and believe that we are keeping these things in check and we are we are making lines and we're not we're not doing this thing of allowing our children to just go ahead and and just splurge in this and and so yeah so let us be warned if if we follow this the ways of society as a whole the phone will just fit into all that in that same way and these things will be happening exactly that way but if we discipline phones discipline our homes discipline our our clothes discipline our these desires we keep we make these things be our slave I think I have great hope that we shouldn't we shouldn't be doing this thing but we continue to do because I I've I've wondered about myself you know I thought of just putting away my phone anyways I thought of Daniel and I did a tree job one time where there were a bunch of these maple trees with a bunch of tall branches on them and when I went up there I was very uncomfortable on top of that tree and I didn't really want to I didn't really want to be there but so in that way I would have rather been out of the tree but I it was something I had to do because it was my job and so I was up in the tree feeling uncomfortable with the thing I had but so I think it's okay to be uncomfortable with something that we're doing because we recognize there's a danger there I recognize that if I if I if my branch breaks off or if my if I don't tie my rope right and I fall out of the tree I'm gonna get hurt real bad and probably die and I think the problem is if we don't if we get up in that tree and we aren't aware of that anymore that's where we're when we we're probably gonna be in big trouble and fall down sometime when we start tying our ropes and crazy ways and start swinging through the branches and and someone falls down and dies then because we we aren't recognizing that danger anymore so we can we can do something that we do things that are that we that we don't feel comfortable with but we have to it's because we recognize the danger and if we stop recognizing that danger then we'll possibly die spiritually or at least get hurt spiritually Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh us all along the way. Help us to never closer walk to Thee, Through waves of darkness where we cannot see. Years of the brightest doubtings were before, O Heavenly Father, lead us now and evermore. Christ Jesus, our Savior, Redeemer, and Lord, The Lord of salvation and flesh of the world, With name shall be wonderful, Prince of all peace, Emmanuel, Counselor and our High Priest. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. God's only begotten, love has over man, True in chastity, He is, Lord, and I am. She borne her stone-proud blood, and in spring of time Our leader and bright truth and true bread of life. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. The Son of the Highest, true Light and the Lord, The Light of Judah and Lord of Lords, Arunah, Abednon, the King of all Kings, Messiah, Chief Shepherd and Heir of all Kings. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia. The One, the Ever-Present, Dear Light of the World, The Head of the Church and the Arm of the Lord, The Alpha, Omega, Beginning and End, Desire of all nations, our only Amen. Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.