Reconnected Quotes

“Sometimes it seems like God is silent today, but maybe it’s just that the volume of life has been so loud lately.”
― Carlos Whittaker, Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human

“We. Don’t. Wonder. Anymore. And because we don’t wonder anymore, you know what else we’ve lost? Wonder. As in the awe-and-wonder type of wonder.”
― Carlos Whittaker, Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human

“But somehow this hyperconnectivity feels an awful lot like disconnection”
― Carlos Whittaker, Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human

“What I had done was quite simple. I had decided not to look at a single screen for the next seven weeks to see what screen time was doing to my head, hands, and heart. To see what had been missing. Part one of this experiment would involve hanging out with twenty Benedictine monks in the high desert of California for two weeks. For part two I would fly to Middle America to hang out with 125 Amish people in Mount Hope, Ohio, for two more weeks. And I would wrap up with three more screen-free weeks at home with my family. That’s right. Monks. Amish. Carlos. Seven weeks without looking at a single screen.”
― Carlos Whittaker, Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human

“So I asked my mom. Specifically, I asked her about Life360, the family tracking app that not only allows you to see where all your family members are but also sends parents alerts about their kid’s driving habits or when it detects a car crash. She knows what Life360 is because she’s on mine now. As she and my dad get older, I want to make sure I can get to them if something happens. “Mom, do you wish you had something like Life360 when I was growing up?” I asked. “I don’t know,” she said. “I have a tendency to worry, and I feel like maybe an app like that would have made me worry even more. When you and your friends went somewhere, your dad and I used to just have to trust that things would be okay. Once in a while they weren’t, and we eventually found out.” Her response initially surprised me, but I think she’s right. In fact, I think gaining the smartphone has caused us not only to lose trust in something greater than ourselves but also makes us feel like we are in control of our lives. And both things—losing trust and believing we’re in control—are problematic.”
― Carlos Whittaker, Reconnected: How 7 Screen-Free Weeks with Monks and Amish Farmers Helped Me Recover the Lost Art of Being Human