The Tech-Wise Family: Everyday Steps for Putting Technology in Its Proper Place

by Andy Crouch

As with so much in our mediated world, the solution to this mess is astonishingly simple, and radical only because it is so rarely done. The problem isn’t with our devices themselves—it’s with the way we use them. We simply have to turn off the easy fixes and make media something we use on purpose and rarely rather than aimlessly and frequently. So when we do sit down in front of a TV screen, it will be for a specific purpose and with a specific hope, not just of entertainment or distraction but of wonder and exploration. When we do scroll through social media, it will be to have a chance to give thanks for our friends, enjoy their creative gifts, and pray for their needs, rather than just something to take our mind off our tedium. And this means that most of the time, the screens stay blank. We will never, ever figure out how to help our children—and ourselves—survive that maddening half hour before dinner if we always settle for the screen. Instead, we will simply decide that whatever else happens in those confounding moments of children’s boredom and parents’ frustration, we will find some solution other than mediated entertainment.