Christina Crook, the author of “The Joy of Missing Out: Finding Balance in a Wired World,” writes and speaks about the intersection of technology, relationships and joy. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of BCNN1.
In the treetops of Fewell Island, South Carolina, six young adults in harnesses dangle awkwardly from ropes. Down below, a group stands huddled in windbreakers and hoodies in the frigid February air, calling out encouragement to the Irish girl tearfully embracing the 20-foot-high pole overhead.
“Come on, Paula! You’ve got this!”
Forty minutes later, a crowd greets Paula as she ziplines her way back to solid ground.
Our group’s easy camaraderie belies the fact that most of us have met less than 24 hours ago. We are here for an A-GAP experience — all of us Christians and all of us voluntarily without our phones.
Started in 2018 by Marygrace Sexton, founder and CEO of Natalie’s Orchid Island Juice Co., A-GAP is a nonprofit with the mission to help people of Christian faith journey to clarity, unity and simplicity in a technology-free environment. In short, Christian digital detox.
Over the last decade, Sexton, a Florida business owner, mother and grandmother, had developed an acute sense of technology’s adverse effects, particularly decreased intimacy and professional performance within her own organization. This led to the launch of A-GAP: a reprieve to encourage contemplation, spiritual rejuvenation and healthy technology habits.
Most of the attendees, ironically, found out about the retreat through the internet: A post on the Instagram account of Charlotte One, a young adult ministry in Charlotte, North Carolina, drew a sizable portion of the group. Paula McKee — Paula from the high ropes course, an au pair originally from Belfast — was invited by text. But we each took a step of faith and showed up.
We can credit the internet with fostering these kinds of trusting acts, which have also powered the growth of the sharing economy. While the debate rages on whether this so-called gig economy is undermining secure jobs by replacing them with an army of mercenary, part-time workers, it has opened up new avenues of trust and camaraderie between citizens as they become customer and client.
The traditional commercial relationship, too, becomes more complex in the gig economy. Instead of grunting a rote “How are you today?” or “Have a nice day” or other platitudes as we do at retail outlets, we want to know more about the person we’ve contracted before we accept their services or rate them. That’s opening up intimate conversations and relations most consumers have never had to have before, which in turn opens up all types of opportunities to network, trust and share.
Ten years ago, no one would have dreamed of getting into the back of a stranger’s car or staying in their apartment. Now, thanks to Airbnb and car services like Lyft and Uber, it’s commonplace. (The Anabaptists, cool kids that they are, were doing their version of Airbnb, called Mennonite Your Way, long before there was an internet.)
Trust is built (and broken) the same way online and off — through the keeping or severing of promises. While trust can begin to grow online, it is solidified in close proximity. That’s why when we meet our ride-share driver, our trust in them and the sharing economy grows. We’ve closed the gap.
Of course, this trust can be broken in stunning ways, and the internet, through people’s use of blatant visual distortion and propagation of misinformation, provides plenty of opportunities for that as well. Trusting communities require a balance between nurturing existing relationships and extending outward to form new ones. Mistrust can grow when communities only take care “of their own.”
Chris Lawrence is a pastor of Living Hope church in New York City’s East Harlem, an English-speaking congregation in a historically Spanish community. His church members are making progress slowly with what they call “re-neighboring the street”: connecting 400 households that share the same block but do not currently have much to do with each other.
Source: Religion News Service
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