Digital Minimalism w/ Wisephone Creators Chris Kaspar & Jon Lentz | Pints with Aquinas
Tuned in to learn more about the Wisephone, but stayed for the parenting advice and philosophical/theological discussions. Excellent podcast. Well worth the 2 hours run time.
If you are a parent of young kids and you are concerned about how distracted you are around them, then you will find a lot to relate to in this podcast.
Takeaways
As mentioned above, the whole podcast was a little over 2 hours long. Here are some of my takeaways from watching it. Note that most of these are not direct quotes. I tried to capture the idea as best as I can, but I would suggest watching the podcast to get the context and fully appreciate them.
When Matt, the podcast host, mentioned that he no longer gives out his phone number to everyone, and that he now only corresponds with people through email, which he can only do so with a laptop that stays at his office, John Lentz said this (not a direct quote):
What is more loving, giving 10% of your all to everyone? Or giving 80-100% of your all to the people you love?
You have to pick and choose who you want to be able to reach out to you 24/7. By opening yourself up to be interrupted by anyone, you stretch yourself out too thin. And so you can only give so much of your best to people.
By going the email route for correspondence, you actually give yourself time to disconnect. You're no longer expected to reply right away. Now the expectation is, you'll get to their message when you check your emails. You'll get to it when you get to it. People will need to learn to wait for a response, which can be hard in today's world of instant messaging.
Children are like arrows. It's our job to pull the string, point them hopefully in the right direction, then release and let go.
~ Chris Kaspar
A very good analogy of what it means to be a parent.
Most parents usually have a plan on how to introduce kids to the subject of money. We usually go about it slowly. And the lessons progress over time, going through a number of years until we deem them responsible enough to handle money. Why don't we have the same plan for the technology that we hand out to our kids?
Most parents, including me, will allow their kids to use an iPhone or an iPad and call it a day. I see now how that is reckless. We have to teach kids how to handle technology, just like how we teach them to handle money.
We use tech to escape God, but simultaneously, God uses tech to protect and reach out to us.
~ Chris Kaspar
That's a great reminder of what we are losing, when we spend our days distracted with social media or the phone in our hands — we are losing time with our loved ones.
Lastly, an interesting explanation of why the company is named “Techless”. I previously thought it meant “less technology”, which equates to “techless”, makes sense, right?
But actually, the company name alludes to what John the Baptist said in John 3:30, “He must become greater; I must become less.” With regards to the company name, it means “God must increase, technology must decrease.” It's a very paradoxical name for a technology company.
Tags: #Bookmarks #DigitalMinimalism #Parenthood #Parenting #SmartphoneAddiction #Spirituality