Fitbits are all the rage, and who would dare speak against them? My siblings and best friends swear by them, and I too have a fitbit. I wore it for two days and it told me everything I ever did. But I have this observation about this clever technology: it’s too much. Do we really want to track every step we take in life? Do we really want to know exactly how many minutes we spent in deep sleep rather than light sleep every night? Is it healthy for us to obsess over every single calorie we ingest and every single calorie we burn off?
When my brothers and I were kids we somehow got hold of a tape recorder. We began spending lots of time recording ourselves—staging our own funny radio shows and sportscasts—and then listening to ourselves on playback. We became fascinated and a bit addicted to our own voices. Mom had to intervene. “Dears, it’s not good to listen to yourselves so much.”
After a few days, I put aside my fitbit, partly because the plastic band was irritating my wrist. But I think my fitbit may have been causing a deeper irritation. It is not healthy to look too much at ourselves. Does perhaps the fitbit enable an unhealthy obsession with the autonomous self? Does it not perhaps exacerbate a kind of despair that, after all, we are not gods but merely frail flesh?
Do not despair! We are not gods, nor angels, but we are not merely meat machines either. We are created in the image and likeness of the One True God, who has given each of us an immortal soul to guide the frail flesh. We are given the use of reason and the power of will. Our reason indicates that, “dears, it’s not good to look at yourselves too much,” and our will affords us the capacity to manage any unhealthy behavior.
When my brothers and I were kids we somehow got hold of a tape recorder. We began spending lots of time recording ourselves—staging our own funny radio shows and sportscasts—and then listening to ourselves on playback. We became fascinated and a bit addicted to our own voices. Mom had to intervene. “Dears, it’s not good to listen to yourselves so much.”
After a few days, I put aside my fitbit, partly because the plastic band was irritating my wrist. But I think my fitbit may have been causing a deeper irritation. It is not healthy to look too much at ourselves. Does perhaps the fitbit enable an unhealthy obsession with the autonomous self? Does it not perhaps exacerbate a kind of despair that, after all, we are not gods but merely frail flesh?
Do not despair! We are not gods, nor angels, but we are not merely meat machines either. We are created in the image and likeness of the One True God, who has given each of us an immortal soul to guide the frail flesh. We are given the use of reason and the power of will. Our reason indicates that, “dears, it’s not good to look at yourselves too much,” and our will affords us the capacity to manage any unhealthy behavior.
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