The Emotions of Faith, Family, Pharmacy and Phones - Why We Text

Ten years ago, my cousin who is a pastor was at a restaurant and noticed a group of teenagers bowing their heads before the meal. He thought, how nice they are praying - then he realized that they were texting. What was strange 10 years ago is now so common, we do not even notice when no one is paying attention to each other at a table.

We invest our time and treasures in pursuit of activities that give us positive emotions. In the Christian faith, this is highlighted in the “fruit of the Spirit” which are “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Love, joy, peace are the positive emotions of faith and is one reason why people invest so much time in the pursuit of faith. For the faithful, spending an hour a day in prayer, meditation, reading and worship is not uncommon.

Healthy family and friendships produce these same positive emotions. We like to be with family and friends where there is an environment of love, joy and peace. One of the best gift a parent can give a child is helping them to develop the character of patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control which generates an environment of love, joy and peace. The friends we surround ourselves can encourage this as well. Good friendships will produce the emotions of love, joy, peace. As for self-control, if you are with friends that want to exercise and eat healthy, you are more likely to do the same and will be happier and healthier on average in the long run. If you are with friends that like to go to the all-you-can-eat buffet, you may be happier as you are eating but your BMI and pants size will be larger and there will be “more of you to love.”

I am reading the book: “The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your Hands” by Dr. Eric Topol. In the book he referenced that in U.S., there are 3.2 billion prescriptions per year and we spend $350 billion per year. This got me thinking of the emotions of both legal and illegal drug and why our society is so drug focused. “According to a report in the International Business Times: An analysis of recent surveys and research studies places the size of the illegal U.S. drug market at $200 billion to $750 billion per year, with most estimates coming in between $400 billion and $500 billion.” https://247wallst.com/economy/2014/05/31/sex-drugs-could-add-800-billion-to-u-s-gdp/

Consider what Michael Zennine reported in 2012 for The Daily Mail: ‘Americans consume 80 percent of the world’s supply of painkillers — more than 110 tons of pure, addictive opiates every year — as the country’s prescription drug abuse epidemic explodes. That’s enough drugs to give every single American 64 Percocets or Vicodin. And pain pill prescriptions continue to surge, up 600 percent in ten year, thanks to doctors who are more and more willing to hand out drugs to patients who are suffering. As more people get their hands on these potentially-dangerous drugs, more are taking them to get high. Their drug abuse leads to 14,800 deaths a year — more than from heroin and cocaine combined.’ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2142481/Americans-consume-80-percent-worlds-pain-pills-prescription-drug-abuse-epidemic-explodes.html

“Forty million Americans ages 12 and older (16 percent) have the disease of addiction involving nicotine, alcohol or other drugs, a disease affecting more Americans than heart conditions, diabetes or cancer; another 80 million people are risky substance users – using tobacco, alcohol and other drugs in ways that threaten health and safety. ”https://www.casacolumbia.org/templates/NewsRoom.aspx?articleid=678&zoneid=51

Legal drugs can be used for 4 outcomes of a disease: prevention (vaccines), cures (penicillin), control (insulin, gleevec) and mask the symptom (pain drugs). But there is also a 5 outcome, drugs can harm as noted in the statistics above. Drugs, especially the illegal kind, are taken to produce the short turn emotions of “the high,” “the rush,” ecstasy, euphoria, well-being and excitement and to take away physical and emotional pain. For some with specific medical problems and with consultation with a doctor, legal drugs are what is needed. But for many Americans, they are trying to self-medicate in the pursuit of the short-term, good-feeling emotions and “solving for pain” with drugs that are actually causing more pain and negative emotions in the long term.

There are 24 hours in a day or 1,440 minutes but since it is good to get 8 hours of sleep a day, we are left with 16 hours or 960 minutes. What we spend our time, treasure and talents says much about ourselves. Americans spend ~7 hours a day looking at different screens: TV, computer, cell phone and tablets. We are now approaching 50% of our waking hours with this technology. A good article that overview of the trends of social media and technology is “Digital, Social & Mobile Worldwide in 2015” by Simon Kemp https://wearesocial.net/tag/sdmw/

I believe that the time we spend on technology will only increase. One reason we spend so much time on technology is the emotions that it generates when we use it. Even now when we are with friends, we would rather stop focusing on our friend and connect with our smart phone. This cannot make for healthier friendship. I read once that when a child was ask if they would rather spend time with their brother or sister or their dog, the dog was chosen. Dogs tend to give unconditional love and affection, that a brother or sister may not. I could see in the next 10 years, robots and computers providing a more satisfying emotional relationship than some friends – especially the difficult ones. :) We can either embrace the technology or we can work to make sure our relationships with friends are meaningful. In the show the big bang theory, Sheldon and Penny highlight two extremes of humanity. A computer/robot is easier to replace a Sheldon than a Penny. Over time, if we are not careful, we may be replacing friendship and relationships with smart phones and computers but I would still rather spend time with a “Penny” and even a “Sheldon” than a computer.

I have read a few books on the subject of technology and society:

• “Glass Gage” and “The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” by Nicholas Carr
• “Smarter Than You Think: How Technology is Changing Our Minds for the Better” by Thompson Clive
• “Enchanted Objects” by David Rose
• “The most human human – what Artificial Intelligence Teaches Us about Being Alive.” by Brian Christian

If you are interested in this subject, I would encourage you to read them. In “Enchanted Objects” by David Rose, he outlines 4 ways we do or will interact with technology:

• Terminal World
• Prosthetics / Wearables
• Social Robots / Animism
• Enchanted Objects

But as this video from Wall-E highlights, a world where we let technology do everything for us is not the best world for us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvMvvjPCtyw

Now it is time for me to stop looking at a computer and go for a walk in the forest with a friend. It is such a beautiful day out but of course, any day you can walk with a friend in the forest is a beautiful day! Besides, some of my friends have invited me tonight to go to em chamas brazilian grill – an all you can restaurant. This is not helping my diet but at least there will be more of me to love.