A hopeful warning

“Postman, Postman, Postman.” That was one commentator’s response to yet another report about the growing harms caused by social media. He was referring to media ecologist Neil Postman whose book Amusing Ourselves to Death predicted our “descent into a vast triviality” and “dangerous nonsense” 40 years ago.

In honor of this classic that has proven prophetic, the Gospel Coalition editors Ivan Mesa and Brett McCracken released Scrolling Ourselves to Death (Crossway, 256 pp.), a collection of essays by various authors revisiting Postman’s warnings about the Age of Television to apply them to our tech-driven turmoil. They also go a step further, applying Postman’s wisdom to the Church.

Their ability to build a whole book on a 40-year-old commentary about the degrading effects of TV suggests the timeless value of Postman’s seminal work. Writing in 1985, Postman was alarmed by television’s transformative effect on American culture. He saw it ushering in what Aldous Huxley predicted in Brave New World: that people would come “to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think.” TV downgraded everything to entertainment. It changed the quality of education, religion, politics—even the way we think. But that was just the beginning of our rewiring compared to what smart devices and social media are doing to our brains and relationships.

Scrolling turns repeatedly to Postman’s concern over the “Now…this” dynamic of TV news that strings unrelated, and unequal, things together: distressing images of war atrocities between clips from a dog show and a soap commercial, with no buffer beyond the show’s theme music. Our devices with endless scroll and algorithmically driven results take this approach to extremes.

TV was disorienting and desensitizing. But the pathologies of the personal computer, internet, smartphone, and social media are exponentially worse. Still, Scrolling offers hope. Its subtitle, Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age, suggests we’re not dead yet. In the first section, the authors apply Postman’s insights to our current moment, considering what has changed since the dawn of the TV age and what hasn’t. Part 2 dissects the challenges facing Christian preachers, apologists, and laymen. The final section offers practical advice for pushing back against our distracted, dystopian age.

Scrolling notes the limitations of Postman’s nostalgic longing to return to the “typographic age.” In the book’s final essay, Andrew Spencer writes that “despite Postman’s stark warning and prescient analysis,” his book ended with “a whimper of application.” Not so Scrolling. Where Postman said education could equip children to see through media to its “politics and epistemology,” Scrolling looks to the vibrant in-person community of the Church as the place best suited to “turn the tide of the soft tyranny of technology.” It commends being locally involved over globally informed and prefers action over outrage. The most helpful things we can do haven’t changed over time: “Embrace the tangible missions God commanded” including tending the garden (Gen. 2:15), being fruitful and multiplying (Gen. 1:28), and fulfilling the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19).

The final section is the most helpful. There are no cheerleaders for adopting any and all new apps and platforms in the Church. Rather, Scrolling advocates wise evaluation. The chapter “Heed Huxley’s Warning” points to the Amish, who “adopt technology selectively, hoping that the tools they use will build community, rather than harm it.” Their primary concern, Spencer writes, is “the community’s strength.” They “use technology rather than being used by it.”

Scrolling brings strong support to Christians who want to be “loving resistance fighters” against soul-deadening media. It also has the potential to introduce a new generation to Postman’s classic. The two books together warn us that we could be so happy with our amusements that we’ll never even notice they’re killing us.