Thursday, November 17, 2011

The Danger of Becoming an Internet Busy-Body

Photo Credit: Internet Society
If you spend a similar amount of time online as I do, you are also at risk of becoming an "Internet Busy-Body." What is that you ask? Trisha Wilkerson writes about this type of person as one who spends an inordinate amount of time online with no real purpose -- just surfing the web, bumping around from site-to-site, wasting time by ingesting massive amounts of trivial news and random updates that don't necessarily serve any real purpose.

Wilkerson says this:
"When was the last time you found yourself going around from house to house being idle? Or, perhaps calling or texting too many friends in one day? Does boredom lure you in to busy-bodying? What do you gain by knowing more stuff? When does being curious distract your heart away from what God wants you to focus on? 
The sin of the busy-body is often when desires are disappointed and we either demand or settle for the pleasure of knowing others’ business. Instead of being connected relationally to God and people, we slip into false intimacy and gather knowledge that doesn't grow us, but instead wastes time. Like greed or lust, busy-bodying is a thirst for more. We are saying to God that he doesn’t satisfy our hearts."
This is a helpful reminder that although this is much that is positive about our ability to connect with another and learn new information on the Internet, there is also the temptation to flutter away significant amounts of time each week by wasting time online. We can all-too-easily trade the realities of our seemingly boring and mundane lives for the salacious and exciting news of celebrities and others we don't know.

While there is certainly a place for entertainment and recreation, we should be concerned if we find ourselves spending more time living vicariously through the lives of others online than we do seeking to become better people ourselves who are growing closer to God and who connect in healthy relationships with others in real life.

To read Trisha Wilkerson's complete post please click here.

2 comments:

Kaye said...

Good post, Scott. I am constantly try to monitor my online time. Most of what I do is "what I'm supposed to be doing" - but it's still easy to get lazy & scroll on down to the comments - or some other unhelpful distraction.

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