Christ in the App Store

To read this series, Christ & Culture, from the beginning, click here.

Flappy Bird, originally released in May, became the top free iPhone app mid-January. However, in an unforeseen turn of events, its creator, Don Nguyen, took the app off the store yesterday. According to CNN, the game had an average four-star rating from more than 543,000 reviews in the Apple App Store and 228,000 on Android.

For those of you who didn’t get to experience the maddening addiction of Flappy Bird, the object is to tap the screen to bounce an odd-looking yellow bird through the air without hitting the pipes or the ground. Sound simple? It should, with all logic, be. But Flappy Bird defied logic and became the most frustratingly obsessive game on the app store.

On the iPhone, my high score was 1 but on the iPad, I reached a whopping 5. Most of the addiction comes from that part of your brain where you know – you just know – that you can do better. So you play just one more game … just one more game … just one more game …

But this isn’t a blog about Flappy Bird necessarily. It’s a look at our addiction to mindless entertainment and our outlet, the App Store.

Let me go on the record stating that though I did not download Flappy Bird (I played it on other people’s devices), that doesn’t mean I am immune to mindless gaming. Games where we connect dots, match colored jewels, or swipe fruit are not inherently bad.

It’s bad when we replace items of higher importance with them. How do we navigate the daily waters of our cell phones and tablets? Can we follow Christ rightly and still own a smart phone? 

Kevin and I both upgraded to smart phones a couple years ago. Mostly for practical purposes – we don’t have internet so we wanted a way to check our email at night. Also,  I wanted an easier method to post facebook updates and pictures from ministry opportunities.

So I found myself in the app store trying to stick to my productive needs like the the Bible App, Logos, and WordPress. But who am I to resist the Free Games section?

Here are a few rules of thumb I follow (or attempt to follow) when using my smart phone: (note: I do not have children, so at this time I will not comment on how our children should or should not use technology)

Set my Phone in a Central Location: I didn’t want my pockets to feel barren without a phone in them. When I come home, my phone gets set down. This means I can navigate my house without my phone haunting me like a shadow. I turn the ringer up so I can hear if the phone rings but not necessarily every text or update. This means I truly don’t always have my phone on me. Yesterday, I was able to focus all my attention on reorganizing my closet without getting interrupted by text messages. I accept the fact that the world won’t explode if I don’t respond within 30 seconds of every text message.

Don’t Use it to Isolate Myself or Others: The majority of my gaming occurs when I am on my lunch break or home alone waiting for Kevin’s arrival. They are moments when I desire to keep myself occupied without having to think or process information. I don’t typically play on my phone in waiting rooms because I want to remain alert to my surroundings. There have been times when I have felt like I needed to strike up a conversation with the person next to me rather than put my head down and tap away at a game. Other times, I sit down at church with a group of our youth students and they are so engrossed in their game that they don’t acknowledge me. This leaves me sitting quietly, feeling less important than their current level and high score.

Never at the Dinner Table: I have a strong dislike for the use of cell phones at the table. Gathering together as a family is important to me and dinner and is usually the prime time for us to talk about our days. Included in this category is not checking my phone when we invite friends over. Hospitality involves ignoring the outside world so that the person in your home receives your attention.

No Passive Aggressive Comments: I definitely fail at this one from time to time. But one of the most important lessons we can learn is when not to respond to a text message. Sometimes, using the smart phone to make an actual phone call is a better way to respond than a text message. No amount of emoticons can ever fully replace the tone of your voice.

When was my last quiet time: If you use the excuse that you don’t have time to read your Bible, but you have a high score on any game at all, you’re a liar. We make time for the things important to us. I doubt many of us would openly admit that Candy Crush is more important than the Holy Scripture, but our actions reveal our priorities.

We can use apps to glorify Christ. There’s nothing evil about scrolling along with Bible app rather than flipping along in the book. Many apps send you alerts and Scripture passages for you to read everyday. They have calendars and to-do lists to help us prioritize our time. They enable us to send quick messages to people like, “Missed you in Sunday School today” or “Thought of you just now and said a prayer.”

But we can also use apps to distract our attention away from God. Though we may occasionally play a mindless game, we should never become thoughtless when it comes to our daily use of technology.

To read the next blog in the series, Christ in our Writing, click here.