A Philosophical Lent

Now that Lent has been over for a few days, I’d like to write a little bit about my Lenten experience this year, because it has to do with a topic we touched on in early February – Borgmann’s philosophy of technology. For Lent this year, I gave up non-academic use of the internet. I had one exception in that I did still check my e-mail, because that has become a vital form of communication for me and people who need to communicate with me. But other than that, I only used the internet when I needed to use it for school. So, since I’m a Spanish and Creative Writing double-major, that meant I was mainly on sites like SpanishDict.com and, well…occasionally this one.

I’d like to go back for a second and explain why I chose to give up non-academic use of the internet. Before Lent this year, I spent MASSIVE amounts of time every day on websites like facebook and Pinterest doing absolutely nothing of value. I would just surf the internet whenever I wanted to avoid doing homework or facing some other responsibility that was looming over my head. And once I started it was really hard to stop. If I thought I had a second of time to spare before I had to do a piece of homework I would use that second to continue mindlessly surfing the internet. Then finally, when I knew that I couldn’t possibly waste any more time and still turn in my assignment on the day it was due, I would start working.

This was pretty awful. It always made me feel even more tired and stressed than I already was. And I started to hate myself. To think that I was lame for spending so much time staring at a computer with my brain disengaged, that I was an idiot for doing it repeatedly even though I knew it wasn’t good for me, and that I was weak for not being able to stop.

But I did stop for Lent. I told God that I would forgo my disgusting habit because I knew that it was damaging my mental and spiritual health and preventing me from doing my best work. On Ash Wednesday I started to feel better. I discovered that I didn’t miss the internet much at all. Aside from the fact that I couldn’t check the weather and occasionally wore a sundress on a day that only got up to about 50^oF I was really quite happy. Unfortunately I didn’t get a whole lot better at not procrastinating, but I’m pretty sure that I at least did better things with my procrastination time than sit alone in my room. I say that I’m “pretty sure” because I don’t quite remember what I’ve been doing these past 40 days to procrastinate. I think I’ve just hung out with my family a lot more, but I’m not entirely sure. (I live at home.) At any rate, I know I wasn’t doing anything that made me hate myself, so I must not have found another source of technology to distract me.

Anyways, to tie this all back to Borgmann I’m going to reference an interview that he gave with a Baptist pastor named David Wood that I read on Easter when I was planning for this blog. (Here it is: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2901.)

The first thing about my experience that I think is interesting is the way in which I felt kind of enslaved by the internet, or unable to stop using it for destructive purposes. This reminds me of the substantive school of thought within the field of the philosophy of technology (we talked about it super briefly in class) which posits that technology is a force unto itself, an autonomous thing with its own purposes that is changing our culture visibly and decreasing our humanity. And I would say from my experience, well, it’s not autonomous, but it sure did feel like a force that I had to fight, and a force that was decreasing my humanity. Borgmann says it well in the article. He explains that technology is not just a tool, “[i]t’s an inducement, and it’s so strong that for the most part people find themselves unable to refuse it. To proclaim it to be a neutral tool flies in the face of how people behave.”

The second thing I find interesting about my experience is the fact that the only way I was able to finally break my habit was by making a promise to God (and then depending on Him to help me keep it). This is interesting because Borgmann actually wrote a book called Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology in which he “makes explicit connections between his critique of the technological character of contemporary life and Christianity.” He also talks to the pastor who interviews him about how he can help his congregation to regulate their relationship with technology. So it seems like Borgmann is all for a spiritual solution to the problem of technology. (This reminds me of Curtis White too, who suggests a spiritual solution to our economic/environmental/social problems the book we’re reading right now.)

The third thing about my experience that interests me is the fact that I’m pretty sure I spent my procrastination time during Lent with my family. Borgmann talks about how technology often stealthily replaces focal practices. A focal practice is something you do that engages your body and mind and engages you with others (like running, learning to play the guitar, cooking, writing, etc.). And I think he’s right. I think I engaged in focal practices with my family when I stopped using the internet.

So it was a philosophical Lent to say the least. And I’m glad I did it. I’m so much happier now than I was on Mardi Gras, even though I have even more homework to stress about now. I think the time I took to step back and examine my relationship with the internet was well spent, and I think that I will be less liable to let it enslave me again.