{"id":4987,"date":"2010-12-16T07:43:49","date_gmt":"2010-12-16T07:43:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=4987"},"modified":"2019-08-01T15:50:09","modified_gmt":"2019-08-01T15:50:09","slug":"do-you-want-to-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/do-you-want-to-shut-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you want to shut down?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Switch off – go on, do it!<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know about you, but my laptop is almost always on these days \u2013 very rarely will I shut it down completely, but rather hibernate like some mystical woodland creature, or most arts students. And with smart phones giving us access to the internet 24\/7, on the move, on the go, we\u2019re continually connected. It can be difficult to get away.<\/p>\n

Christmas is a time for family. No problem. But, if you\u2019re anything like me, after a couple of hours, you can be looking for a way to escape, to find some kind of separation. For my Grandparent\u2019s generation, that\u2019s generally found in the form of a sleep by the fire whilst the Christmas dinner settles. But for me, that doesn\u2019t quite cut it. More and more often, I find myself retreating to the comfort of the gleaming screen of wonder, possibility and, let’s be frank, epic procrastination avenues.<\/p>\n

As part of my course, I\u2019ve been looking at how the internet plays a role in religion, and it\u2019s struck me that using the internet has moved from an active to a largely passive activity. We\u2019ve moved from email, to easier and easier, less intensive forms of communication. Email wasn\u2019t personal enough, along comes social networking. Blogging is too labour intensive, so we have micro blogging. It amazes me that, despite this, I can find myself browsing pretty idly for hours at a time.<\/p>\n

I dealt with a pretty horrible addiction last Christmas that involved the internet. The results have been amazing \u2013 God has had so much more space in my life to work out his plans and intentions, and I\u2019ve simply had more time to invest in friendships and work. But the internet is still a routine part of my life, social networking especially. How little effort we need to put in to stay related – would you like to ‘add’ this friend? Why yes I would, thanking you very much.<\/p>\n

What would our day look like without the hours we spend online? I\u2019ve just watched the film Fireproof, in which the principle character deals with his online pornography habit by ripping the monitor from the wall, and setting to it with a baseball bat. I\u2019m not suggesting that\u2019s the best approach \u2013 the internet is undoubtedly a useful tool for that many of us would struggle to be without indefinitely. But is it distracting from the \u2018real\u2019 relationships we should be investing in?<\/p>\n

In Jesse Rice\u2019s Book, The Church of Facebook, he quotes Anne Jackson, who writes:<\/p>\n

When we spend more time staring at a glowing monitor than we do into the eyes of those we love, it might be time to shut off the computer<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s my challenge to you this Christmas. Shut the computer down, if just for one day, and spend Christmas actively seeking to serve your family and friends in authentic relationship, as an act of worship and gratitude to the God that has created us to be connected. This may be impractical for some, but the vast majority of us should be able to spend one day without checking for that all-important email which, if we\u2019re honest, could probably wait. Let\u2019s honour the ones we love this Christmas and make the most of opportunity that Christmas gives us to spend quality, real, unvirtualised time in their company. Have a blessed, beautiful, offline Christmas!<\/p>\n

Tom Barber<\/em><\/strong> is a finalist theology student at University College Durham, who serves on the worship teams at <\/em>Kings Church Durham<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Hay Hill Baptist Church<\/em><\/a> in Bath (www.hayhill.org). He\u2019s currently working on his dissertation, which come with the funky tagline “Worship Defined \/\/ Worship Evolved \/\/ Worship Apparent”, and is currently looking for famous worshippy peoples to interview.<\/em><\/p>\n

Here’s Tom’s list of alternative Christmas songs<\/a><\/em> – this will only work to those in the UK with access to Spotify<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Switch off – go on, do it! I don\u2019t know about you, but my laptop is almost always on these days \u2013 very rarely will I shut it down completely, but rather hibernate like some mystical woodland creature, or most arts students. And with smart phones giving us access to the internet 24\/7, on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5303,"featured_media":22502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[1347,1346,1345],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDo you want to shut down?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"My laptop is almost always and with smart phones giving access to the internet 24\/7 we\u2019re continually connected. 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