I’ve been thinking recently about  the irrational gravitational pull that the internet/iPhone exerts on my life.
I wake up in the morning and immediately check my email, daily websites, and Twitter.  Then throughout the day I spend every free second (at a stoplight, between appointments) on my iPhone catching up on Twitter/Blogs/etc.  I am enthralled by what Søren Kierkegaard called the “passing moment”.  He insisted: “all moral elevation consists first and foremost in being weaned from the momentary”.
I read an article this past week with somewhat parallel insights from John Mayer on why he quit Twitter:
“Has any artist, since they’ve begun to give you daily insights into their life created their best work yet? Are the best writers of our time on Twitter?
Those who decide to remain offline will make better work than those online. Why? Because great ideas have to gather. They have to pass the test of withstanding thirteen different moods, four different months and sixty different edits. Anything less is day trading. You can either get a bunch of mentions now or change someone’s life next year.”
Over 200 years ago, for Kierkegaard it was not Twitter but the Daily Newspaper! Â Such an applicable thought for our modern world:
“On the whole the evil in the daily press consists in its being calculated to make, if possible, the passing moment a thousand or ten thousand times more inflated and important than it really is. But all moral elevation consists first and foremost in being weaned from the momentary. There has never been a power so diametrically opposed to Christianity as the daily press.”
So, put down the blog and go listen to Josh Harris’ sermon –
Self Control in a Wired World
Very convicting for me — “A little web surfing, a little Facebook, a little folding of the hands around the smart phone and spiritual poverty will come upon you like a robber.”
Hearing that sermon is the first time I really understood how essential Wired Self Control (self-denial) is to following Jesus.
For the record, I think Twitter, Blogs, iPhones, et al are invaluable for leadership, effectiveness and efficiency. Â Just trying to find the balance!
photo courtesy of guccio at Moleskiner.net