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Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age
We're being formed by our devices. Today's digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God. Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the industrializing effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital powers that be might seem like a losing battle. Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of living in digital ecosystems. In this book she combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions:
What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand? And who do we really want to be? Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits and their subtle yet pervasive effects. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition, especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time. Considering digital practices through the lens of liturgy and formation, she offers practical experiments for individual and communal change. In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live--and how we can get there.
What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand? And who do we really want to be? Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits and their subtle yet pervasive effects. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition, especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time. Considering digital practices through the lens of liturgy and formation, she offers practical experiments for individual and communal change. In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live--and how we can get there.
232 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2021
54 people are currently reading
1657 people want to read
About the author
Felicia Wu Song
2 books22 followersFelicia Wu Song (PhD, University of Virginia) is a cultural sociologist of media and digital technologies, currently serving as professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. Her publications include Virtual Communities: Bowling Alone, Online Together and articles in such scholarly journals as Gender and Society and Information, Communication and Society.
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January 25, 2022
Summary: An exploration of how our digital devices shape us, our relationships, and our economic life, and how we might establish a “counter” lifestyle shaped by our communion with God and each other.
Do you recall how your life changed when you acquired your first smartphone? Or think further back to your first cell phone, or the advent of the World Wide Web? Some of us remember the advent of email. Each of these changed how we work, how we relate with others, our economic activity, and the use of our time.
Felicia Wu Song began to notice an uneasy feeling in her life in relation to digital devices, from seeing them as serving her to beginning to recognize that she was serving them. She was reminded of an observation by Jurgen Habermas “that the ruling logic of the economy had hopped the boundaries of the market and begun to exert control over historically noneconomic aspects of life such as family and community.” She notes the rise of dissenters from the very ranks of those who created the architecture of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, decrying the consequences of the technology they helped create.
The first part of the book explores how our broader social and cultural structures make our digital ecology so compelling. It is not just a lack of willpower. We are digitally tethered 24/7 making us constantly available, and even if we have powered off our devices, our minds are still there, wondering what we are missing out on. It turns out that the tech companies actually reward our continuous use and become the medium of our relationships and the means of “performing” our identities.
The second part of the book explores how we counter this. The counter begins with a counter-narrative rooted in the Christian story of being made for communion with God and each other as embodied creatures. In the long history of the church are counter-practices and counter-liturgies. Drawing on James K. A. Smith’s ideas of liturgies as thick, formative practices–whether on Facebook or in church, she both identifies the secular digital liturgies and propose counter-liturgies. Whereas our digital technologies enable us to “push our productivity to the max,” practices of spiritual formation invite us to shift from managing our time to managing our attention, inviting us into adoration, and being open to holy interruptions.
I appreciated her discussion of faithful presence. This often sounds mild-mannered or passive until we consider what God’s faithful presence with Israel was like or that of Jesus during his ministry. Wu Song invites us into the powerful work of embodied, rather than digitally disembodied, presence with others. She believes the church can be a powerful counter-culture with counter-liturgies that help liberate us from the tyranny of our devices. The practice of Sabbath is one such counter-practice. She is not a Luddite. She recognizes both the usefulness and pervasive presence of the digital in modern life. Rather, she calls us to an ordered digital life and even proposes ten commitments to help us do so. Here’s one: “When I am sad, bored, angry, lonely, or anxious, reach for another person, nature, or God before turning to a screen.”
This brings me to one other aspect of the book, four “experiments in praxis.” The first is taking a 24 hour digital media fast–what to fast from, exceptions, preparing and debriefing. The second is digital stock-taking, in which we monitor and become more self-aware of our digital usage and how this makes us feel and even change our posture. The third has to do with counter-liturgies: creating a sacred zone around our beds, monotasking, boundaries in which we set blocks or limits on app usage, and finally new bedtime and morning routines. Each of these run three to five days. Finally, the last is to determine alternate paths and new futures based on the readings and praxis exercises.
At the beginning of the book, Felicia Wu Song mentions C. Wright Mills observation that personal troubles are often public issues. What she has done in this book are a few helpful things. One is to name the public issues, how the hard and software we carry around have been designed to addict us to their use and shape our lives. Another is to help us stop and pay attention to this aspect of our lives through the praxis exercises. Finally, she lays the groundwork for a Christian counter-culture, critically aware of the uses and abuses of this technology, and intentional about refusing to allow our devices to distract us from communion with God and each other, and the rich embodied practices of Christians at work, play, and worship throughout the church’s history.
This book is a good first step toward breaking the technopoly over our lives. It doesn’t solve the public issues but helps us become reflective on how we are being shaped and how we regain a sense of our own embodied personhood, communion with others and faithful physical presence in the world. This is a good beginning.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
Do you recall how your life changed when you acquired your first smartphone? Or think further back to your first cell phone, or the advent of the World Wide Web? Some of us remember the advent of email. Each of these changed how we work, how we relate with others, our economic activity, and the use of our time.
Felicia Wu Song began to notice an uneasy feeling in her life in relation to digital devices, from seeing them as serving her to beginning to recognize that she was serving them. She was reminded of an observation by Jurgen Habermas “that the ruling logic of the economy had hopped the boundaries of the market and begun to exert control over historically noneconomic aspects of life such as family and community.” She notes the rise of dissenters from the very ranks of those who created the architecture of Google, Facebook, and Twitter, decrying the consequences of the technology they helped create.
The first part of the book explores how our broader social and cultural structures make our digital ecology so compelling. It is not just a lack of willpower. We are digitally tethered 24/7 making us constantly available, and even if we have powered off our devices, our minds are still there, wondering what we are missing out on. It turns out that the tech companies actually reward our continuous use and become the medium of our relationships and the means of “performing” our identities.
The second part of the book explores how we counter this. The counter begins with a counter-narrative rooted in the Christian story of being made for communion with God and each other as embodied creatures. In the long history of the church are counter-practices and counter-liturgies. Drawing on James K. A. Smith’s ideas of liturgies as thick, formative practices–whether on Facebook or in church, she both identifies the secular digital liturgies and propose counter-liturgies. Whereas our digital technologies enable us to “push our productivity to the max,” practices of spiritual formation invite us to shift from managing our time to managing our attention, inviting us into adoration, and being open to holy interruptions.
I appreciated her discussion of faithful presence. This often sounds mild-mannered or passive until we consider what God’s faithful presence with Israel was like or that of Jesus during his ministry. Wu Song invites us into the powerful work of embodied, rather than digitally disembodied, presence with others. She believes the church can be a powerful counter-culture with counter-liturgies that help liberate us from the tyranny of our devices. The practice of Sabbath is one such counter-practice. She is not a Luddite. She recognizes both the usefulness and pervasive presence of the digital in modern life. Rather, she calls us to an ordered digital life and even proposes ten commitments to help us do so. Here’s one: “When I am sad, bored, angry, lonely, or anxious, reach for another person, nature, or God before turning to a screen.”
This brings me to one other aspect of the book, four “experiments in praxis.” The first is taking a 24 hour digital media fast–what to fast from, exceptions, preparing and debriefing. The second is digital stock-taking, in which we monitor and become more self-aware of our digital usage and how this makes us feel and even change our posture. The third has to do with counter-liturgies: creating a sacred zone around our beds, monotasking, boundaries in which we set blocks or limits on app usage, and finally new bedtime and morning routines. Each of these run three to five days. Finally, the last is to determine alternate paths and new futures based on the readings and praxis exercises.
At the beginning of the book, Felicia Wu Song mentions C. Wright Mills observation that personal troubles are often public issues. What she has done in this book are a few helpful things. One is to name the public issues, how the hard and software we carry around have been designed to addict us to their use and shape our lives. Another is to help us stop and pay attention to this aspect of our lives through the praxis exercises. Finally, she lays the groundwork for a Christian counter-culture, critically aware of the uses and abuses of this technology, and intentional about refusing to allow our devices to distract us from communion with God and each other, and the rich embodied practices of Christians at work, play, and worship throughout the church’s history.
This book is a good first step toward breaking the technopoly over our lives. It doesn’t solve the public issues but helps us become reflective on how we are being shaped and how we regain a sense of our own embodied personhood, communion with others and faithful physical presence in the world. This is a good beginning.
____________________________
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.
July 14, 2023
4.5 stars. I loved how the author addressed the greater issue than merely too much time on our phones. She highlighted the things that we truly need and what we should be replacing our phone time with. It was a good mix of scientific research and spiritual insights to back the claims of the book up
December 30, 2021
I've finished the book at the end of 2021 and I can say it's been rather convicting. The book is a socio-theological mix. The first part focuses on information regarding digital ecology, social media, tech companies (plenty of research, be it historical, psychological, neurological...). While some info wasn't particularly new, the light under which it was presented augmented the driving force of the argument.
The theological side was also great - the "immerse yourself into the Christian story by practicing liturgies that form your desires, rather then letting yourself be deformed by the secular liturgies of the digital universe" was greatly illustrated.
A very informative read; one that (I hope) will shape the way I engage with (and within) the digital realm in 2022.
The theological side was also great - the "immerse yourself into the Christian story by practicing liturgies that form your desires, rather then letting yourself be deformed by the secular liturgies of the digital universe" was greatly illustrated.
A very informative read; one that (I hope) will shape the way I engage with (and within) the digital realm in 2022.
June 25, 2023
FelicIa Wu Song deftly illuminates the digital ecology in which we live- personally, as a society, and as a church. She asks important questions about our relationship with our devices, and helps us see “how living in our digitally saturated society inadvertently trains us to view embodiment as a nuisance, time in terms of scarcity, and the other as an object to be managed or manipulated for one’s pleasure” (201).
Dr. Song then paints a picture of “how the good news of Christianity can actually be good news to those who are exhausted and harried by digital demands” (209). Along the way, this college professor also provides us and her students various “praxes” to help us see (and grow in) the habits of our hearts. The last chapter on the church as counter-liturgy is worth the price of the book, which also includes her “10 commitments to ordered digital life.”
If you are looking for a more accessible introduction to her work, this podcast was just posted this week: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
Dr. Song then paints a picture of “how the good news of Christianity can actually be good news to those who are exhausted and harried by digital demands” (209). Along the way, this college professor also provides us and her students various “praxes” to help us see (and grow in) the habits of our hearts. The last chapter on the church as counter-liturgy is worth the price of the book, which also includes her “10 commitments to ordered digital life.”
If you are looking for a more accessible introduction to her work, this podcast was just posted this week: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...
January 22, 2025
This book was a natural follow-up to The Liturgy of the Ordinary. It provided practical guidance and in-depth reasoning on how and why we need to carefully consider our use of the digital in order to be fully present with one another and to experience true communion.
March 18, 2022
What does it mean to live our lives as embodied persons? Our increasingly digital lives make the answer to this simple question far more convoluted. Felicia Wu Song provides a ton of thoughtful discussion on how and why we are struggling in the digital age, AND she also includes incredibly helpful “experiments” for not just breaking free from screen addiction, but more importantly, becoming formed people through person-forming liturgies that serve to reclaim our God-intended, embodied way of life and community.
March 5, 2025
The author is too wordy. It takes her a while to get to the point, and I just didn't enjoy reading this book. I think her argument is helpful, but it's hard to follow.
Here's a good quote from near the end:
"...the long-term solutions to our digital discontents are not to merely limit or remove devices or apps from our daily lives but require a fundamental reordering of our lives. The church is exactly the place and people with whom we can collectively explore what it means to cultivate appetites that are fixed on the Kingdom of God, so much so that the otherwise captivating allure and promises of our digital world become powerless."
Here's a good quote from near the end:
"...the long-term solutions to our digital discontents are not to merely limit or remove devices or apps from our daily lives but require a fundamental reordering of our lives. The church is exactly the place and people with whom we can collectively explore what it means to cultivate appetites that are fixed on the Kingdom of God, so much so that the otherwise captivating allure and promises of our digital world become powerless."
April 23, 2024
Dr. Felicia Song does an excellent job unpacking the social engineering in our tech (smart phones) and social media that causes addiction. And also our responsibility to make wise decisions concerning our tech use.
I highly recommend this book for adults, parents, and teens.
I highly recommend this book for adults, parents, and teens.
January 8, 2022
This is the best book I have read about technology, and I have read a vast number. I first became interested in social commentary about the digital world in 2013, alarmed by rapid changes in my peer group and wanting to better understand what was happening. Over the past decade, I have been intrigued to see how discourse surrounding technology has changed, especially as more people realize that technology is not neutral, and that responsibility does not solely lie with the user to use it correctly. As Felicia Wu Song explains near the beginning of this book, even though the alarmists in the 1990s were wrong in many of their assumptions, optimists about the Internet are having to face harsh realities about how much of our privacy, relationships, and emotional lives we have given up to technology companies that prioritize moneymaking over any sense of their users' well-being.
Insightful and Holistic
Restless Devices summarizes relevant history, provides incisive social commentary into pressing issues, and provides ideas for how Christians can recover fuller lives through the resources inherent in their faith. This book is particularly powerful because Song is not arguing against or in favor of digital technology. This book is not a screed against Silicon Valley, and nor is it a defense of how we will all be fine as long as we take occasional media fasts. Instead, Song addresses the core questions that people need to ask themselves related to their use of technology. What is technology making them, and who do they want to be?
Restless Devices is very insightful and highly readable. Even though this is an academic book, Song communicates complex ideas clearly and well, also weaving in practical exercises to help readers reevaluate their relationship with technology and make gradual changes. Song writes about some of the reasons why it is so difficult for people to achieve lasting changes in their digital lives, but she provides positive, holistic ideas for how people can move forward.
The second half of the book focuses on how the Christian story and the spiritual resources within the Christian faith can help counterbalance the secular liturgies of our digital tools, and Song makes a strong argument for how recapturing a holistic Christian perspective can counteract struggles with fragmented attention, loneliness, community breakdown, and idolization of productivity. However, she also writes in a way that is welcoming and inviting for people of other faiths, and I would recommend this to anyone interested in the subject, regardless of their belief background.
Conclusion
This book is very timely and thoughtful. Because I have already read so much about technology and spiritual formation, not much in this book was new to me, but Restless Devices will now be my go-to recommendation, since it combines so much that I have read from multiple different sources. This is a wonderful resource for people who want to better understand and manage their digital lives, and I would highly recommend it to adults and to teenagers who are equipped for the book's reading level. This would also be an excellent selection for a book club or church discipleship group, especially since working through this material in community can help people experience deeper perspective shifts and create lasting changes.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Insightful and Holistic
Restless Devices summarizes relevant history, provides incisive social commentary into pressing issues, and provides ideas for how Christians can recover fuller lives through the resources inherent in their faith. This book is particularly powerful because Song is not arguing against or in favor of digital technology. This book is not a screed against Silicon Valley, and nor is it a defense of how we will all be fine as long as we take occasional media fasts. Instead, Song addresses the core questions that people need to ask themselves related to their use of technology. What is technology making them, and who do they want to be?
Restless Devices is very insightful and highly readable. Even though this is an academic book, Song communicates complex ideas clearly and well, also weaving in practical exercises to help readers reevaluate their relationship with technology and make gradual changes. Song writes about some of the reasons why it is so difficult for people to achieve lasting changes in their digital lives, but she provides positive, holistic ideas for how people can move forward.
The second half of the book focuses on how the Christian story and the spiritual resources within the Christian faith can help counterbalance the secular liturgies of our digital tools, and Song makes a strong argument for how recapturing a holistic Christian perspective can counteract struggles with fragmented attention, loneliness, community breakdown, and idolization of productivity. However, she also writes in a way that is welcoming and inviting for people of other faiths, and I would recommend this to anyone interested in the subject, regardless of their belief background.
Conclusion
This book is very timely and thoughtful. Because I have already read so much about technology and spiritual formation, not much in this book was new to me, but Restless Devices will now be my go-to recommendation, since it combines so much that I have read from multiple different sources. This is a wonderful resource for people who want to better understand and manage their digital lives, and I would highly recommend it to adults and to teenagers who are equipped for the book's reading level. This would also be an excellent selection for a book club or church discipleship group, especially since working through this material in community can help people experience deeper perspective shifts and create lasting changes.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
March 2, 2024
I would HIGHLY recommend this book for anyone wanting to think deeply about digital technology’s impact on everyday life. Song not only introduces the problem, she confidently navigates the theological implications of our devices (because in the end, EVERYTHING is theological)—down to how it impacts our view of how the person next to us more than a mere mortal. She offers thoughtful ways to remove ourselves from the enmeshed chaos of the digital lifestyle, without flagrantly demoralizing or reactively blaming and bashing things like social media. Rather, she turns inwardly, and she celebrates the life we can live when we have a right view of the gospel, and subsequently, a right view of digital technologies.
There’s so much this book offers that I haven’t mentioned and could not do justice if I tried to reiterate it. Safe to say, I was challenged, encouraged, and motivated very deeply that I hope sticks to me like sap from a tree, inasmuch that I can break from my harmful digital habits. I would hope it would do the same for anyone else who reads it.
(P.S. thank you, Dr. Plummer for recommending this book and thank you random Marketing bookshelf that I noticed (the very next day) that had two copies at my disposal.)
There’s so much this book offers that I haven’t mentioned and could not do justice if I tried to reiterate it. Safe to say, I was challenged, encouraged, and motivated very deeply that I hope sticks to me like sap from a tree, inasmuch that I can break from my harmful digital habits. I would hope it would do the same for anyone else who reads it.
(P.S. thank you, Dr. Plummer for recommending this book and thank you random Marketing bookshelf that I noticed (the very next day) that had two copies at my disposal.)
October 21, 2024
My high school Bible teacher once said that we need less books about Christianity and more Christians writing books about the physical world—this book is the perfect example of why. Felicia Wu Song, a Christian and a sociologist, brings a fresh and needed take on technology and how it impacts our ways of relating with the world.
January 16, 2022
This is the best Christian book on this topic that I've read.
For my MA dissertation, I'm looking at smartphones and their impact on our faith and lives. The author brings a lot of what I've been reading together in an easily readable and engaging way. There wasn't too much that was new to me, but her angle on it and the way it was brought together means I will definitely recommend it as the first book people read if they're interested in what technology is doing to our personal faith and church communities and for those who want to reflect more deeply on the issues. There is also plenty of practical tips but the real strength is in the questions the author poses throughout the chapters which, if people take the time to reflect themselves, could lead to significant changes in the way people engage with digital technologies and devices.
For my MA dissertation, I'm looking at smartphones and their impact on our faith and lives. The author brings a lot of what I've been reading together in an easily readable and engaging way. There wasn't too much that was new to me, but her angle on it and the way it was brought together means I will definitely recommend it as the first book people read if they're interested in what technology is doing to our personal faith and church communities and for those who want to reflect more deeply on the issues. There is also plenty of practical tips but the real strength is in the questions the author poses throughout the chapters which, if people take the time to reflect themselves, could lead to significant changes in the way people engage with digital technologies and devices.
Want to read
December 12, 2021From Jeffrey Bilbro:
Felicia Wu Song begins with an all-too-plausible premise: that today’s young people are best understood not as digital natives but rather as an indicator species. If this is the case, perhaps their rising levels of anxiety and loneliness point to a troubling toxicity in our digital ecosystem. Song’s pastoral book also guides us toward ways that we can all begin the work of restoring a polluted social ecology so that we might enjoy healthier relationships with one another and with God.
May 14, 2024
She spends the first half of the book explaining why technology is so addictive and bad for you, then the second half basically saying phone dependency and addiction is because you lack spiritual fortitude. The idea of creating counter liturgies is nice but only addresses a small part of why people use technology. Overall, I found her approach to be filled with pretentiousness and self-righteousness and I could have done without her slipping in her comments and personal beliefs about Covid, race, and LGBTQ+ stuff.
May 15, 2023
Extremely convicting read about how the omnipresence of technology / digital connectedness impacts our spiritual practice and our ability to be present.
I was especially struck by her description of our use of phones as a liturgy - that is, our rhythms and habits that form our lives and express our spiritual practices. What does it say about what defines and gives order to my life if the first thing I do when I wake up is reach for my phone?
I was especially struck by her description of our use of phones as a liturgy - that is, our rhythms and habits that form our lives and express our spiritual practices. What does it say about what defines and gives order to my life if the first thing I do when I wake up is reach for my phone?
March 31, 2025
She does a great job of capturing the nuances of technology. In this day and age technology is not something we can live completely without. “The solution to the tyrannical imperatives of digital ecology is not exercising complete withdrawal but rather cultivating an independence from them.”
There were a lot of other great practical guidances on how to begin the journey of independence from our devices. Highly recommend this book for people who have been feeling frustrated with the hold technology has on us.
There were a lot of other great practical guidances on how to begin the journey of independence from our devices. Highly recommend this book for people who have been feeling frustrated with the hold technology has on us.
January 14, 2023
Convicting and direct. This book really dives deep into the lasting effects our technology has had on us as a society. From a Christian perspective, her commentary on liturgies and rest were wonderful!
November 3, 2023
I like this book because the local church is the answer! Observing the Sabbath in community reminds us of the importance of person, place, and time. We are embodied individuals who require food, rest, solitude, and connection. We are accustomed to abiding in our devices, may we learn to abide in Christ.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 25, 2025
“Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in You.” I really appreciate how she talked about our hearts searching for God but settling for distraction from our devices. Also it’s packed full of practical active, like having a charging dock for the whole family to make evening and morning routines tech free. 5 stars.
February 10, 2025
Very well written book. The author's idea of resistance against the "soft tyranny" of the digital is the refuge in counter liturgies that shape the mind and heart according to how God intended us to be.
I liked the idea of experiments in praxis. It made me more aware of my digital use and also boosted some really important changes. I don't know if the author ever reads these reviews, but if you do, thank you!!
I liked the idea of experiments in praxis. It made me more aware of my digital use and also boosted some really important changes. I don't know if the author ever reads these reviews, but if you do, thank you!!
June 7, 2024
For me, this was a much needed companion book to Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation. It offered a deeper dive into what it means to be human from within a tradition Christian framework. Song offered academic insight as well as meaningful liturgies and counter-liturgies to lives that have become rules by digital devices.
November 10, 2023
3.5 stars
An academic approach to how we use and are used by our devices.
Side Notes
• Our devices govern our day.
• There's no guards between 'desire' and 'action'; no inhibitions to pursue your desires.
• Watch out for apps/games that are alluring, but not satisfying.
• The note about modern dating culture was interesting, the seeming abundance of options makes people more picky and gives excuse for dumb reasons to turn someone down..
• We can live our lives to be performed instead of experienced...
• Not sure about her thoughts on liturgy and "experiencing God"...
• I liked her take on the physical world and the life found in human interaction and interaction with God.
• I'm going to be more aware of my phone usage and putting up safe guards for myself.
Let us not forget that people are eternal.
“Indeed, what we have discovered in our digitally saturated society is that we have a remarkable endurance and capacity to remain attuned to our devices—it is the first thing we greet in the morning and it is the last thing we take into bed with us at night. In between meetings and activities, at any given pause whether we are standing in line or sitting in wait, we diligently tend to our devices. Why? Because we are waiting and searching for joy, for satisfaction, for purpose, for love. We are waiting and therefore abiding in the digital. What would it be like if we were to cultivate such a permanent state of expectancy for God’s desire to communicate with us? What if my antennae were always outstretched toward checking in with God as much as I am always checking my smartphone? What if I was filled with great expectancy that there would be a word for me? And that I could trust that that word would not be a word that simply demanded something from me but a word that came to nourish me? What if I knew that there was a word that revealed God’s very nature . . . waiting just for me."
An academic approach to how we use and are used by our devices.
Side Notes
• Our devices govern our day.
• There's no guards between 'desire' and 'action'; no inhibitions to pursue your desires.
• Watch out for apps/games that are alluring, but not satisfying.
• The note about modern dating culture was interesting, the seeming abundance of options makes people more picky and gives excuse for dumb reasons to turn someone down..
• We can live our lives to be performed instead of experienced...
• Not sure about her thoughts on liturgy and "experiencing God"...
• I liked her take on the physical world and the life found in human interaction and interaction with God.
• I'm going to be more aware of my phone usage and putting up safe guards for myself.
Let us not forget that people are eternal.
“Indeed, what we have discovered in our digitally saturated society is that we have a remarkable endurance and capacity to remain attuned to our devices—it is the first thing we greet in the morning and it is the last thing we take into bed with us at night. In between meetings and activities, at any given pause whether we are standing in line or sitting in wait, we diligently tend to our devices. Why? Because we are waiting and searching for joy, for satisfaction, for purpose, for love. We are waiting and therefore abiding in the digital. What would it be like if we were to cultivate such a permanent state of expectancy for God’s desire to communicate with us? What if my antennae were always outstretched toward checking in with God as much as I am always checking my smartphone? What if I was filled with great expectancy that there would be a word for me? And that I could trust that that word would not be a word that simply demanded something from me but a word that came to nourish me? What if I knew that there was a word that revealed God’s very nature . . . waiting just for me."
February 11, 2022
Restless Devices
Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age
by Felicia Wu Song
Pub Date 30 Nov 2021 |
InterVarsity Press, IVP Academic
Christian | Religion & Spirituality
I am reviewing a copy of Restless Devices through InterVarsity Press and Netgalley:
Unfortunately in this day and age we are being formed by our devices. Today's digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God.
Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the "industrializing" effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital "powers that be" might seem like a losing battle. Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of digital ecosystems.
In this book Felicia Wu Song combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions: What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand? And who do we really want to be? Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time and offers practical experiments for individual and communal change. In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live—and how we can get there.
I give Restless Devices five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age
by Felicia Wu Song
Pub Date 30 Nov 2021 |
InterVarsity Press, IVP Academic
Christian | Religion & Spirituality
I am reviewing a copy of Restless Devices through InterVarsity Press and Netgalley:
Unfortunately in this day and age we are being formed by our devices. Today's digital technologies are designed to captivate our attention and encroach on our boundaries, shaping how we relate to time and space, to ourselves and others, even to God.
Our natural longing for relationship makes us vulnerable to the "industrializing" effects of social media. While we enjoy the benefits of digital tech, many of us feel troubled with its power and exhausted by its demands for permanent connectivity. Yet even as we grow disenchanted, attempting to resist the digital "powers that be" might seem like a losing battle. Sociologist Felicia Wu Song has spent years considering the personal and collective dynamics of digital ecosystems.
In this book Felicia Wu Song combines psychological, neurological, and sociological insights with theological reflection to explore two major questions: What kind of people are we becoming with personal technologies in hand? And who do we really want to be? Song unpacks the soft tyranny of the digital age, including the values embedded in our apps and the economic systems that drive our habits. She then explores pathways of meaningful resistance that can be found in Christian tradition especially counter-narratives about human worth, embodiment, relationality, and time and offers practical experiments for individual and communal change. In our current digital ecologies, small behavioral shifts are not enough to give us freedom. We need a sober and motivating vision of our prospects to help us imagine what kind of life we hope to live—and how we can get there.
I give Restless Devices five out of five stars!
Happy Reading!
November 30, 2021
This book had me at the title. The conviction of knowing how restless I am with my own devices immediately began but Felicia Wu Song brought hope.
It is easy to find writings taking the easy road by categorizing our relationship with devices as all or nothing. Anybody can tell us to dump our social media platforms and move back to a flip phone with no bells or whistles.
Dr. Song is upfront in admitting, “The visual effects of these tools is undoubtedly impressive. Our social media feeds take on the likeness of fashion runways where we all become consumers of each other’s curated collection . . .” This is followed, later in the book with, “The more we seek control through the powerful tools and allure of digital media, the less we exercise and growing our capacity to negotiate those real-life relationships that are so often not in our control.”
Dr. Song took the narrow path of helping us manage well. Her work to bring science into balance with theology and practical application move us toward a healthy view of how we handle the ever-present clarion call of those so easily transportable devices. Her data and research lead us to move more toward communion and creating counter-liturgies.
As a pastor of youth, children and families I see firsthand the best and worst effects when devices are out of control. Felicia Wu Song offers tools for pastors, community leaders, teachers, parents, and anyone who manages (or doesn’t manage) devices. The short section of “Commitments to Ordered Digital Life” is worth the price of the book.
Find a comfortable chair and rest in the “restlessness” and hope of this book.
It is easy to find writings taking the easy road by categorizing our relationship with devices as all or nothing. Anybody can tell us to dump our social media platforms and move back to a flip phone with no bells or whistles.
Dr. Song is upfront in admitting, “The visual effects of these tools is undoubtedly impressive. Our social media feeds take on the likeness of fashion runways where we all become consumers of each other’s curated collection . . .” This is followed, later in the book with, “The more we seek control through the powerful tools and allure of digital media, the less we exercise and growing our capacity to negotiate those real-life relationships that are so often not in our control.”
Dr. Song took the narrow path of helping us manage well. Her work to bring science into balance with theology and practical application move us toward a healthy view of how we handle the ever-present clarion call of those so easily transportable devices. Her data and research lead us to move more toward communion and creating counter-liturgies.
As a pastor of youth, children and families I see firsthand the best and worst effects when devices are out of control. Felicia Wu Song offers tools for pastors, community leaders, teachers, parents, and anyone who manages (or doesn’t manage) devices. The short section of “Commitments to Ordered Digital Life” is worth the price of the book.
Find a comfortable chair and rest in the “restlessness” and hope of this book.
May 11, 2024
Fantastic book as Dr. Song looks at technology and what our devices are asking of us.
One "Aha moment" for me came late in the book as Song was explaining why text messaging is the most pervasive form of communication in the current days. I'm borrowing language from Tim Gaines, she essentially suggests that we like texting so much because it has the least claim on us and on the person we're communicating with. We don't have to be fully present to text, they don't have to be fully present to text. We can answer at our leisure instead of being beholden to the here and now of other forms of communication.
What ends up happening to us, though, is that the possibility of a message (or any sort of notification) holds a much larger claim on us because we're so afraid that we're going to be missing something important or that someone has tried to communicate with us. This is why we're constantly looking at our phones seeing if there's a new message or new story that we need to engage with.
Dr. Gaines' language of "claim" really helped me as I was thinking through this book from Felicia Wu Song.
Song also includes a four part practical project for readers to undertake and relieve some of the claim that our devices have on us called "The Freedom Project." I did not engage in this project yet, but I will certainly return to it as I personally have been seeking to reduce the claim social media (and my cell phone) has on me. I highly recommend this book.
One "Aha moment" for me came late in the book as Song was explaining why text messaging is the most pervasive form of communication in the current days. I'm borrowing language from Tim Gaines, she essentially suggests that we like texting so much because it has the least claim on us and on the person we're communicating with. We don't have to be fully present to text, they don't have to be fully present to text. We can answer at our leisure instead of being beholden to the here and now of other forms of communication.
What ends up happening to us, though, is that the possibility of a message (or any sort of notification) holds a much larger claim on us because we're so afraid that we're going to be missing something important or that someone has tried to communicate with us. This is why we're constantly looking at our phones seeing if there's a new message or new story that we need to engage with.
Dr. Gaines' language of "claim" really helped me as I was thinking through this book from Felicia Wu Song.
Song also includes a four part practical project for readers to undertake and relieve some of the claim that our devices have on us called "The Freedom Project." I did not engage in this project yet, but I will certainly return to it as I personally have been seeking to reduce the claim social media (and my cell phone) has on me. I highly recommend this book.
November 30, 2021
Though a self-professed late adopter of tech, it’s apparent that Dr. Song has been onto this for years. This book is one significant culmination of careful attention to the ever-evolving and embedded nature of technology, lived experience as both a parent and professor, and well-integrated insights of sociology and theology—on the way to a healthier situation of tech in our lives. It has arrived at exactly the right moment, as we reimagine what proximal, embodied connectedness will be as we emerge from the most stringent pandemic-related constraints. Beyond a wise criticism of the “soft tyranny” that is wrought on us by unrelenting digital connectedness, this book offers praxes for resistance, reparative “counterliturgies,” and a moving case for embodied presence and sabbath rest. As acknowledged in the final pages, we all remain in the trenches of navigating the digital, but this offering is a warm invitation to hope and an urging toward evaluation and change that is gentle, sustainable and effective. If we find ourselves in the trenches now, this book is a major signpost marking our path out.
January 25, 2022
Definitely a challenging but needed read - taking examination of our lives as humans connected with technology and digital devices. Dr Song offers tangible exercises to her readers to take stock of our relationship with technology, called The Freedom Project. There's a lot of reflection that is needed from taking in the amount of good wisdom in this book.
Her examination of liturgies was an important section - about how we are formed consciously or unconsciously by the habits and practices we employ day to day. This is important for both spiritual formation but formation as a human. I resonated with so much of her observations especially in feeling a life of restlessness, performance, and dissatisfaction while trying to establish some control as a source of security.
Dr. Song invites us to consider how the Gospel is good news to those who are exhausted and hurried by digital demands and invites us into embodiment in time and place - sources of communion with God and each other.
Definitely am convicted to respond in action to the challenges and personal inventories she invites us into, as well as commitments to follow as we live in this digital age.
Her examination of liturgies was an important section - about how we are formed consciously or unconsciously by the habits and practices we employ day to day. This is important for both spiritual formation but formation as a human. I resonated with so much of her observations especially in feeling a life of restlessness, performance, and dissatisfaction while trying to establish some control as a source of security.
Dr. Song invites us to consider how the Gospel is good news to those who are exhausted and hurried by digital demands and invites us into embodiment in time and place - sources of communion with God and each other.
Definitely am convicted to respond in action to the challenges and personal inventories she invites us into, as well as commitments to follow as we live in this digital age.
February 10, 2025
Felicia Song is an extremely gifted writer and communicator. Her prose sparkles with striking metaphors. She writes long sentences that are yet clear and understandable. She took care to judiciously organize her thought, thought that is the fruit of reflection and experience. Besides this, I found her message to have a sage wisdom to it. I have read a number of books on the invasiveness of technology but this book provides a perspective that was lacking in the others. It is a more feminine perspective that considers the impact of technology on our personal relationships and our habits and attitudes more than, say, on our productivity. It is also explicitly Christian and keeps man's other-worldly purpose in view throughout.
Unfortunately, her theology is Anglican/Episcopalian and is tainted with wokeness in places, especially in regard to accompanying people without condemning them. Like so many today, she does not seem to have the rights of God in view at all, which makes her religious message seem in places more philanthropic than supernatural.
Unfortunately, her theology is Anglican/Episcopalian and is tainted with wokeness in places, especially in regard to accompanying people without condemning them. Like so many today, she does not seem to have the rights of God in view at all, which makes her religious message seem in places more philanthropic than supernatural.
February 13, 2022
We live during a pandemic that has forced us to live differently. Churches have had to adapt themselves to digital forms of connection. For some, this is something that has to be endured and then abandoned. Others believe it is the way of the future. I'm not sure either is correct. Digital platforms are here to stay -- whether we like Facebook or not.
There is wisdom in this book, but at the end of the day, I found it less helpful than I hoped. I found her to be more pessimistic than am I (and I'm more pessimistic than those who believe we can live virtual lives). I guess I would recommend reading this together with Deanna Thompson's The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World. I actually think Deanna has a more balanced view.
There is wisdom in this book, but at the end of the day, I found it less helpful than I hoped. I found her to be more pessimistic than am I (and I'm more pessimistic than those who believe we can live virtual lives). I guess I would recommend reading this together with Deanna Thompson's The Virtual Body of Christ in a Suffering World. I actually think Deanna has a more balanced view.
March 1, 2022
Felicia Song, the author, must admire Augustine of Hippo. She quotes him at least three times, the same quote, in this book. "Our hearts are restless until it finds its rest in you." This is a major theme in her book, Restless Devices. We do not really rest when we are immersed in digital, "time saving" devices. We are pursuing an idea and ideal that cannot meet our deepest needs.
Song introduces the concept of counter-liturgy, and the radical idea of a sabbath being an actual rest day, not simply a time to go to church and act churchy.
She recommends keeping your smart phone in a separate room when you sleep. I started doing that three years ago. She advises people to forget their phones at home once in a while. I like doing that because I detest phones. She councils us to think what would Jesus text, WWJT, before we send something out. I like that.
Song introduces the concept of counter-liturgy, and the radical idea of a sabbath being an actual rest day, not simply a time to go to church and act churchy.
She recommends keeping your smart phone in a separate room when you sleep. I started doing that three years ago. She advises people to forget their phones at home once in a while. I like doing that because I detest phones. She councils us to think what would Jesus text, WWJT, before we send something out. I like that.
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