Are you addicted to your phone? Surveys show 61% of people sleep with their phones and 75% grab their phones as soon as they wake up. In this episode of …
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Saints and Smartphones
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Bishop Robert Barron could you explain us what is happening on vatican especially with the nude lady. Thank you God bless?
I had no idea a smartphone could be a compass. Or find constalations. Looks like I don't spend enough time on the thing.
As always Phenomenal! Bishop Barron has helped me immensely and more than words could proclaim … I pray more of us sinners find this distinct avenue to the narrow path. Thank You Father, Thank You.
I Love this podcast. Just love it. Bishop Barron is awesome. Thank you.
Hello Bishop Barron. I would just like to thank you and your ministry for bringing me back, and strengthening my faith. As a 15 year old, I find it difficult to stay away from my phone and all of the social media, and I can completely testify the addictive affects it has on me and especially my peers. In the cafeteria of my school, I see half of the people looking down on a phone screen, when there are people around them. It truly is saddening, but we can do so much to evangelize in this digital era, and I am very thankful that the Lord guided me to your ministries in this digital age.
Thank you once again Bishop Barron!
Everyone does not have one!!! I don't.
There's a difference between abundance of information (computers have that) and abundance of wisdom…
Prelates fiddle while Rome decays.
There's something great about looking through a bookstore looking for a title, then discovering something along the bookshelves that piques your interest…
I sometimes accompany a priest to a nursing home and occasionally he consults his phone for special blessings, anointing, etc.
I use a keypad phone. I admit I sleep beside it but that's because I use it as an alarm. I could call and text with it, use it as radio, music player and flashlight. I do almost all my Youtube, Internet and social media on a 7 year mini laptop where I'm typing this. I'm usually offline from any social media from 6PM to about 8:30AM the next day. That gives me time on other things, TV Mass on EWTN, Scripture reading, spiritual writing time and much of my mental space spent on religious contemplation on Christianity, Jesus and His Church. I'm a sinner but being this way purposely has given me its benefits.
After 3 years of being connect 24/7/365 for the military I never want a smartphone. I never want to be that connected again.
Bishop can you provide some light on what’s happening at the Vatican? The pachamama idol? The tree planting ritual ? It’s heart breaking !
This discussion reminds me of the one line that stays with me from the final season of “House of Cards,” where one of the characters refers to the smart phone as becoming “the sarcophagus of the soul.” I thought it was surprisingly witty and erudite for the writers of a popular TV series to work in that veiled send-up of Plato’s “The body is the prison of the soul.” And so true.
It’s a treat to hear you speak. God bless you.
technology is far from perfect, but I wouldn't want to live completely without it. One of my concerns is the fact that the government collects emails and phone calls on every American citizen… this is very bad and lousy… you can imagine the abuses and if someone out there doesn't like you they can find a way to try to ruin your life… I feel especially bad for the young people… In addition to collecting emails and phone calls, government funded groups that promote wars overseas are paid to patrol the internet and many pro-peace and dissenting voices have been banned from various platforms and/or targeted… Daniel McAdams from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity was banned from twitter for speaking TRUTH. Ron Paul often says, "truth is treason in an empire of lies". Dr. Paul is known for speaking truth and so it is even more reason to watch him on the Ron Paul Liberty Report Monday-Friday on YouTube.
I grew up amid phonebooks & public call boxes. Now I tell the elderly how blessed they are not to have – or even know of – a digital footprint. Indeed when I see older people on the street they seem immune from the general pathology of "social autism"; I wonder is there a connection with the lack of empathy & focus in the younger generations.
The book Fahrenheit 451 comes to mind in connection with this video. My grandmother told me that as a child she learnt by memory, simply because they could not afford books plus the technology wasn't yet there. Indeed she could recite Macbeth by heart. I recall testing her out on a hard sum which required long multiplication. At the age of 96 she gave me the answer faster than I could input on my phone.
My point is like Boromir we could see the smartphone as a gift. But I wonder should we treat it with caution. Its ubitiquous presence is slowly changing our culture and us into formless wraiths?
Regards GK Chesterton I think like Tom Bombadil (who I suggest is Tolkien's homage to GKC, since he doesn't fit into a neat category & is a force of nature) the smartphone would have no power over him. He'd have no interest in it. He'd be more fascinated with one that gave it to him. More likely he'd drop & break it!
Interesting though that the gurus of Silicon send their kids to select schools that ban or restrict iPhones & tablets & emphasise interaction with the real world around them.
Still, if I could find a smartish flip dumbphone, without endless tap tap input ? — a phone, to actually talk to people — I'd drop my smartphone in a second. Sherry Turkle's book "Reclaiming Conversation” is insightful.
I learn and enjoy these programs. That said, I watch it on my smart phone in the evenings. I now place it on silent mode all day and make a list of things to do. Once I get working and cross off each project I find that it helps me to forget the phone. I respond to email and calls in late afternoon. I now have freedom and in control of impulse to pick it up. It works for me hope it helps someone else.
Nothing wrong with smartphones in themselves. I have John Henry Newman's, A Grammar of Assent on Kindle app. And Summa Theologica on Google Play Books.
Books occupy a real space and demand the conscious self to design a study room that is overwhelmingly conducive to the one activity.
"For, unable to endure Thy strength, its idols fell; and those who were freed from their spell cried to the Mother of God: Rejoice, uplifting of men: Rejoice, downfall of demons! Rejoice, thou who hast trampled on the delusion of error: Rejoice, thou who hast exposed the fraud of idols!" -taken from the Akathist to the Theotokos
Use the smartphone don't let the smartphone use you. Set limits of time and break a while.
Great video! I use my phone to follow every new piece of teaching you share… I'll keep in mind your advice though. Thank you Bishop and team.
I am one of the nones represented in the pew survey. Honestly this isn’t as much of a problem as it’s being made out to be. Some people have real, substantial and valid issues with the faith of they’re upbringing and you’re not going to get them back. Honest, good faith dissenters are real people.