I was looking forward to reading a christian book about the influence of social media! I find this as a great resource that brings a fresh perspective on the subject!

Thought-provoking and interesting essays on the ever increasing use of social media in society and it's effects on those who are heavily influenced by it....and that's all of us.
Published to coincide with the 25th anniversary publication of "Amusing Ourselves To Death", this series of essays draws together several authors' essays and presents different aspects of the effects modern communications on society as a whole, and the individuals within society.
It makes for uncomfortable reading, exposing, as it does, the fact that none of us is immune from the influence of the dopamine induced effects of the immediacy of the Internet and its ability to appear to answer all our queries, while quietly constructing an algorithm which feeds into our personal interests, producing content tailored to what we want to read and learn, rather than a wider spread of information on what we ought to read and learn in order to make far better and more informed ideas and choices.
For Christians, modern technology tools are an extremely sharp, double-edged sword and we would do well to read both this, and it's twenty five year old predecessor , in order to better understand how pervasive they are, and how we may come to terms with, and combat where necessary, their effects.

This new book is a timely book for God’s people to read Scrolling Ourselves to Death – Reclaiming Life in a Digital Age by Brett McCracken and Ivan Mesa. Not only that, if you are familiar with Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, which at one time was required High School literature reading, this will be a great book to read in addition to it. As it brings in many of the teachings from that book, along with making it more applicable to our current day. We need books from the past to sometimes help us see our current time more clearly and also to learn from the wisdom of those that have lived before us.

This is one of those books I will want my teenagers to read, so I may make Scrolling Ourselves to Death required reading. The author pointed out many of the issues we are dealing with today regarding the usage from the internet/social media. I agree with the author, I have seen my own struggles with it, along with seeing and hearing what it is doing to our young people. I think we must do something about it, and this book makes a great starting point to get people thinking and discussing with others.

After each chapter are discussion questions, this book could be easily used in a book group or even to teach from.

I have so many highlights from the book, so I will only share a few here:

No one likes to think of himself as an entertainment addict, wasting away his life on impulsively foolish, self-indulgent, self-destructive endeavors.
Our addiction to dopamine media is training us to love much what ought to be loved little. It’s making us miserably unhappy, hurting our relationships, and demanding more and more of our time to get the next high.
Dopamine media is the most powerful, pervasive, and engineered form of communication technology in human history, and it’s not shaping us to love Jesus most. It’s not shaping us to love our neighbor. It’s shaping us into pleasure-seeking addicts.
A series of studies suggests that as AI-enhanced automation increases, religiosity decreases.
We must seek to redeem and reorient technology to serve kingdom work.
According to Proverbs, having wisdom is thinking and living in line with how things actually are – the truth – which takes time and work.
Do I know why I’m logging on right now? Is it to find something, share something, or accomplish a task? Or am I merely seeking distraction?
You can’t perform a digital baptism. You need actual water. You can’t partake of the Lord’s Supper in the multiverse. You must taste the bread and wine for yourself. But a sermon set by continuous exposition through the Bible or a liturgical calendar reminds us not to center our felt needs as if we’re searching on Goggle.
We can’t trust our hearts to determine what we want or need. But we can trust the one-way voice of God found in the Scriptures, all the way from Genesis to Revelation.
The best preaching tells us what we don’t always want to hear. The best preachers, committed to teaching us to obey everything Jesus commanded, don’t abandon us to the algorithm.
Postman was already observing shorter attention spans and eroded capacities for logic in the TV-shaped world of the 1980s. These troubling trends have grown considerably worse in the world shaped by scrolling feeds and social media.
We must keep trying to engage people in deeper thinking about topics that matter – God, the gospel, and how to live in alignment with God’s word.
The presence of Christians on social media should add to the net amount of truth, goodness, and beauty while reducing the amount of nonsense in cyberspace.

So much more I like to share, but this will probably be one of my top 10 books I would recommend this year that I will have read.

An excellent read for any and all readers! Author comes at you with both barrels and knocks you out of your shoes! Great job fleshing out all the characters. I give this book FIVE stars! Definitely recommend!

This cohesive and incisive collection of essays is a must-read for Christians today. There are many books about the effects of the digital age on society and the brain, but this is the only one I’ve read yet that focuses on the impact on the church. I also appreciated the frequent references to Postman’s classic work, which I now want to read. The discussion questions make this a great book to use for conversation with a group. Even though the book may seem extreme, that is necessary given the insidious and ubiquitous effects of technology - and authors also acknowledge the ways technology (e.g., video) can be helpful if used knowingly and responsibly.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crossway for the free eARC. I post this review with my honest opinions.
This review is cross-posted on Goodreads. It will also be posted on Instagram and Amazon within a week of the book’s publication date.