12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You

April 10, 2017
Reinke (Newton on the Christian Life), staff writer and researcher for desiringgod.org, presents an informative primer on the effects of technology on Christian smartphone users. Reinke offers Christian readers 12 dynamic chapters specifically laying out the ways smartphones change people from the inside out. The author contends that if you own a smartphone, it is highly likely that you have abused it, as smartphone users check in online an average of once every 4.3 minutes. Reinke uses his apt research skills to point out the problematic issues of idolatrous smart phone usage and then guides readers to think critically about their own habits of engaging others. He recalls a time when he was immersed in something on his own smartphone when he should have been engaging his family and itemizes the problems that began with that moment of distraction. The author delves into such topics as addiction to distraction, craving immediate approval, losing literacy, becoming what one “likes,” feeling lonely, and being harsh with one another. Reinke’s work is smart, efficient, and effective, laying out the insidious problems that pocket computers can bring into everyday life.

Tom Parks narrates one of the more thought-provoking books on cell phone usage with a flair that keeps the listener wanting to hear more. With the smartphone now so ubiquitous in our lives, we need to pause for a moment to consider how we ought to respond generally as users and specifically as Christians who use smartphones. Parks offers great pacing and vocal inflection as he transitions seamlessly from research to scripture to the author's own theological musings on cell phones. Though an easy listen, the content will more than likely challenge the way Christians view and use their phones. T.D. � AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine