A few weeks back I was reading through “Digital Disciple” by Adam Thomas, and loved it. I loved it so much I emailed Adam and asked if he would be willing to answer some questions about it for everyone’s mutual enjoyment. Read his interview and go buy his book, you won’t regret it.
-Adam, your book Digital Disciple came out a couple months back from Abingdon Press. Tell us a little about it.
Let’s see. The text of the book (not including study guide or footnotes) has 162,912 characters (including spaces). That means it would take 1,164 tweets to post the full text on Twitter. But now that I think about it, that’s probably not what you meant by your prompt. Let me try again. Digital Disciple is a book about — you guessed it — discipleship. There are plenty of books out there about how the church can leverage the Internet and social media to increase congregational size and vitality. My book is NOT one of them. I hope people don’t clump it into that group. Digital Disciple is about the individual, about how the Internet and spirituality meet in the lives of followers of Jesus Christ.
-In your book you talk about the negative aspects technology can have on our lives. What are some of the biggest problems tech can cause in our lives?
Speaking from personal experience, the Tech can suck you in and not let go. As a former World of Warcraft player — you might have call me a high functioning addict — I have sat at my computer for double digit hours straight, I have eaten all my meals in front of the screen or skipped meals entirely, I have worn away patches of paint from my laptop’s finish, I have developed migraines, strained friendships, ignored all other interests, and let my mind and body atrophy — all because I couldn’t yank myself out of Azeroth. This is an extreme example, but obsession with social media, MMOs, and other online content can have horribly deleterious effects on our lives. I thank God for getting the flu on March 13, 2008. That’s the day I accidentally quit WOW.
-Also you talk about some of the awesome parts of technology (though never mentioning my blog specifically, probably for copyright reasons). What are some of your favorite elements of technology?
My favorite thing about technology, specifically the Internet is that it enables connections. Case in point–as you say, I didn’t mention you in my book because I didn’t know you existed. Now I know you do — unless you are a very sophisticated spambot (or a cylon). But because the Internet makes connecting so easy, you were able to send me an email and now we are having this merry exchange. Perhaps our connection will deepen past this initial meeting. I see God’s movement in connections like these and I thank God for them.
-Anything else you want to mention?
So, Seth sent me these questions to my gmail account, and I wanted him to know that the Google generated ad that showed up on the right side of the gmail window was for a woman who specializes in “love spells.” I went to her website and apparently she has 25 years of experience and offers some sort of 100% guarantee. Not sure how Google came up with that one for this email exchange.
What is your favorite part of technology? What makes you nervous about it?
I do not own the image in the above post.
