OT: Suggestions needed: impact of technology on spiritual reading

Rosie Perera

A friend of mine with degrees in theology and literature is doing research for a lecture she's giving and a retreat she's leading on "Deep Reading"; her background reading on technology is minimal, but she's asking some very thought-provoking questions. I'm wondering if anyone else here has some suggestions that might help her. I've certainly thought about these things and can point her in some directions, but thought that the "crowd-sourcing" approach might bring in some ideas I had not thought of. Thanks!

Here's what she writes:

I'm trying to find out more about the impact of spiritual reading on the computer screen.  I know you are all busy people, but as this isn't my field, I don't know where to begin looking and would be glad to be pointed in the right direction  eg given a name of a person, title of some research, a book, a link - or failing that - even just a few conversations or observations. This  ties in with my talk at Regent/the chats at Galiano/possible publication down the line.  But please note - these questions are at the intersection of psychology/neuroscience/technology/Christian spirituality....... truly interdisciplinary.

 

Caveat :

I use the computer all the time - find it invaluable - but have big questions about how it impacts my spiritual life. Consider me as playing devil's advocate here...... I know it does affect my brain - which may be overly sensitive, granted - so I'd like to know if it affects others.  (On Galiano, I'm not sure how much I would want to 'fess up to the inadequacies of my brain, given the context, though I might - and no doubt they will be evident for all to see given that it can often affect my ability to follow a verbal argument!)  But given my own experience, I'm laying myself open to you to put me right about the mass of the population... I'm sure you all have powerful arguments for the value of it all, spiritually... goodness, there must be lots of books on this.  I've read John Dyer [From the Garden to the City], but think he isn't probing at the spiritual impact, the way I am, right?)

Briefly, these are the lines I'm thinking along:

Have any of you any ideas about how I could access any information about the screen  and reading and spiritual transformation?  I'm interested in how the screen might:

a.  Diminish action (make us more passive? Erode time for actually acting? etc etc). (This is an observation/question based on my own life.......)

b. Be less conducive to self-knowledge than reading - now that is an interesting conversation..... Anyone know how we'd quantify this????

c.  Any evidence that the screen agitates the brain of people other than myself, George and my sister-in-law????? And therefore impacts ones ability to "be still', think straight, make decisions, pray etc.  

d. Examples of how the screen may encourage spiritual growth - and I mean quantifiable (if at all possible) as opposed to blogs with spiritual content.

Forgive me for my naïveté and ignorance - steep learning curve and all that......

DMB

I'd think that subject could be very interesting but very conflict-oriented as well.  I'd suspect it's individual (similar to when codex's replaced scrolls or typesetters replaced copyists).

So as to avoid getting too theological, whenever I can't get my mind to wrap itself around a subject, a PC screen is hopeless.  I usually get a stack of papers and write pieces of the problem and lay them out on the livingroom floor.  Meaning the literal screen intrudes on the thinking space.

Whenever I do Zen meditation, I have an app for that. And it's a virtual joke (but really pretty). So I'd suspect the mind wants to associate tradition with activity.  (Don't get wound up on Zen; just the mind-clearing part).

I'd think there is indeed a principle; it obviously impacts thinking.  On the theology side, the NT (and earlier judaism writers) tried to accomodate 'spiritual'  with 'thinking' but I don't think they got very far.  I suspect the Gospel of Thomas had strong opinions on this issue.

EDIT:  I'd also think 'fonts' impact, oddly enough along with which culture. I know with Japanese kanji, the message can be in the formation of the 'letters' (brush strokes). Sometimes when I'm shopping Amazon, I specifically avoid a book if it's got obviously evil letter strokes.

Bruce Dunning

I am intrigued with this research. Although I can't speak to research that has been done I can speak for me personally.

To me the computer and Logos is just a tool just like books or any other source of information is. It is easy to allow the tool to become an end in itself just as it is easy to have the Bible slip into intellectual study alone. The Bible is not meant to only be studied but also applied. I consider all sources of information through the grid of reading, interpreting and applying the truths in the Bible.

I can definitely say that the tool of technology has aided me in deepening my relationship with God.

Mark Barnes

Tim Challies' The Next Story: Life and faith after the digital explosion, might be a useful place to start.

Speaking personally, I don't find 'the screen' diminishes any of my spiritual reading. But I do find that the number of distractions at 'the screen', does diminish it. The need for personal discipline is far greater.

On the other hand, Logos users will abound with examples of (d) - 'the screen' encouraging spiritual growth. The amount of study I can do at my PC is exponentially greater that what I can do without it, and the depth and value of the study therefore is significantly greater. They used to advertise that Logos reduced sermon preparation time. It never reduced mine - it always increased it because I found some much more useful stuff :-).

Floyd Johnson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/567033#Comment_567033

Early in my career (25 years ago), I had serious questions as to how it effected my spiritual life (i.e. it hurt it and almost destroyed my marriage).  My wife and I survived the crisis that it brought at that time and will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary next month.  That crisis was as much a part of using the Computer as my "Bible" as it was using Christian Radio as my "church".  I attended church regularly, but CCM was playing constantly - along with the radio preachers of the era (e.g. Chuck Swindoll and James Dobson).  

Today, the computer is a tool that allows me to get deeper in the scriptures than ever before - but that credit goes not to LOGOS, WordSearch or e-Sword, but to OneNote, Evernote, or The Journal as tools that augment my study of God's word - whether I am using e-books or paper ones.  

Rosie Perera

Thanks for all the replies so far. I thought I'd share some of my thoughts for others to see as they contemplate these questions.

I took quite a while to be willing to do any "spiritual reading" (devotional reading, lectio divina, and so on) in Logos or Kindle format. (Similarly for poetry.) I felt that those sorts of books deserved my undivided attention, a slow pace (which technology seems to make hard to adhere to, because we're used to skimming, jumping around, getting info QUICKLY), and no glowing screen but just the paper page facing my eyes. But it turns out that as I've adapted to the medium of e-book reading, I've become more and more able to focus on just the book I'm reading and not get distracted by all the bells and whistles of the software. It is in fact a spiritual discipline to train my mind to stay focused on the text and go at a pace which is appropriate for the material. I can read a few lines, look up from the screen and contemplate them, or close my eyes and pray for a while. I don't need to read voraciously, speeding through it and clicking all over the place to look things up, as I might with some text I'm using for research. So, while technology does indeed enable bad habits in spiritual reading, it doesn't necessarily force us to adopt those habits.

The one thing I'm still not sure about is the effect of reading on a screen vs. on a printed page. I know that the light spectrum from computer screens does affect our brains. For example, if we spend time looking at a screen late in the evening right before bed, our brains are over-stimulated and it can be hard to wind down and fall asleep. So it might be possible that reading devotionally on a screen could make it harder for us to calm our anxious thoughts and abide in the presence of the Lord. I'm not aware of any studies that have looked into this, but it would be interesting for someone to investigate if nobody has yet. A good PhD topic!

I'd be interested to hear from others about your own experiences or pointers to anything you've read on these matters. Thanks for the recommendation about Tim Challies' book, Mark. I have it but haven't read it yet. I've read Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps, but found it somewhat superficial, however it might be a good place for someone who hasn't yet read much about technology and spirituality to start. I'm not sure it addresses reading per se, though.

Paul C

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/567080#Comment_567080

Some very good advice about the dangers of being drawn into rabbit holes/goose chases. I do think I should comment on  the other issue...How  reading on a monitor compares to paper. It took some time to tweak my machine. But now I prefer it over reading paper. Early on I was diagnosed with mild dyslexia. Late in life, I read about color filters to lay over pages to soften the contrast. I tried it . It helped tremendously. I think it would be worth while for everyone to experiment with font and background colors. (Logos could offer more variations) Less contrast, brightness also helps. Laptops usually have the option to dim the screen. There is free software to accomplish this on PCs as well. Very handy for reading in low light situations.

Brother Mark

When traditions, legends, stories, and Scripture were passed on primarily while talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up (Deut 11:19); our brains assimilated the data differently than when when we were able to write or get our hands on the written word.  That brain activity is distinctly different than reading a uniform typeset printed book with uniform margins, edges, and comfortable binding.  THAT experience is dramatically different from watching a movie, or TV, or absorbing information via Logos/web browser/or even talking book format.

I'm unclear why having one part of my brain light up vs. a different auditory or visual area is important (other than being mildly interesting).  To my way of thinking, the important thing is that we "get it"... We're all different in that some of us are tactile/auditory/visual learners, and the point (for me) is that we're going to naturally gravitate to the methods that best suit our needs. Eh?

--Bro. Mark

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/567108#Comment_567108

I'd start by looking for articles, usually in education but sometime computer science or neuroscience, on reading on screen in general. I know I've seen some in academic google but I've not kept track of them.

As much deep reading has oral roots, I'd also consider the aspect of read-aloud features.

The bibliography of The Digitally Divided Self: Relinquishing Our Awareness to the Internet by Ivo Quartiroli might provide some leads

Mike Childs

I just don't see how one could possible quantify much of this.  It is all somewhat intangible, and it will vary from person to person.

I can do real Bible / theology study on the computer screen better than I can do it with paper books, and make better use of my time (especially using Logos software).  That gives more time for thinking and meditating on the results of study, and less time turning pages and fetching books from the shelves.

On the other hand, extended reading on a computer screen is difficult for me.  However, extending reading on a computer tablet that I can hold in my hand like a book is better than reading paper for me.  (I did not ever believe this would be so, but for me it is.)  So using a computer tablet is better for me than books, and I now only study and read on a computer tablet.  I feel it is an asset to my spiritual formation.

But as far as data goes, don't have it.  It is subjective.

Floyd Johnson

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/567130#Comment_567130

Michael Childs said:

I just don't see how one could possible quantify much of this.  It is all somewhat intangible, and it will vary from person to person.

Might make a good PhD dissertation - developing a tool for measuring how technology has influenced the spiritual lives of those using technology - in different ways.  The results would give a running start to a career that was more concerned with how technology has influenced individuals and culture, rather than the technology itself.