No Habitat for Humanity

A Review of Digital Liturgies: Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age by Samuel D. James

Last year, I came across an article in which Samuel D. James referred to the internet as an “immersive, epistemological habitat [that] has transformed the way humans read, learn, communicate, labor, shop, recreate, and even ‘worship.’” He went on to argue that, due to their very form, digital and online technologies are “powerful instruments of personal formation that push us in a certain spiritual and epistemological direction.” In his view, “No other technology is as disruptive to traditional forms of human activity.”

In Digital Liturgies: Redis­covering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age, James expands on this argument to explain how the digital environments we immerse ourselves in change us —how they shape and mold our desires, habits, and lifestyles in unhealthy and inhumane ways. If you are wondering why the internet is having such profound effects on everything from friendship and community to marriage and family to anxiety and suicidality, this book is an accessible place to start.

Formative & Liturgical

He begins by establishing a helpful definition of what he means by terms like internet, web, social media, and digital technology, all of which he uses to refer to one single idea:

The disembodied electronic environment that we enter through connected devices for the purpose of accessing information, relationships, and media that are not available to us in a physical format.

He then builds on the large body of work that has emerged in the philosophy of technology and weaves it together with mounting sociological and psychological research on the effects of the internet on human wellbeing.

James wants us to get beyond the “technology is neutral” mindset and see our use of digital technologies as formative and liturgical in nature. As he puts it, “rather than being a neutral tool, the internet . . . creates in its members certain ways of thinking, feeling, and believing.” Not only that, the web has become so pervasive in realms of work, entertainment, relationships, transportation, and more that “it is becoming the foundational medium, the superstructure of nearly every other experience.” And, James argues, we are becoming different kinds of people because of it.

How Our Technologies Mold Us

In Part Two, he describes five specific types of formation that exert an effect on us all to varying degrees. He shows how we are becoming different people by tracing five digital liturgies —formative patterns of thinking or behaving by which online experiences shape our lives:

• “Authenticity”: Digital environments further cultivate unhealthy expressive individualism by centering the self.

• Outrage: Digital environments stir up and reinforce outrage by feeding users more extreme and polarizing information to keep their attention.

• Shame: Digital environments make it much easier to shame or cancel others for any wrong, whether perceived or real.

• Consumption: Digital environments feed our consumption habits through a listlessness and restlessness that grows the more we are online.

• Meaninglessness: Digital environments place us in unending, disorganized pools of information, leading to further distraction, discontentment, and dislocation.

For Web Wisdom

James concludes with suggestions for how to cultivate wisdom and habits of resistance to these formative effects. Throughout the book, he weaves together personal stories, historical illustrations, and insights from philosophy and theology in ways that help us clearly understand and respond wisely to this significantly defining issue of our time.