Chris and Kerry Shook, pastors of the Woodlands Church in Houston are challenging the members of their church and other people they know and reach through their newly released book: “Love at least sight”, to fast from Facebook, laptops, Ipods and cell phones taking a break from technology (check here, here and here).

To suggest this, is a rather radical step within the context of their church and they way they work and minister since people can twitter their questions even during the worship services and sermons!

Yesterday, though, they asked the church’s 17,000-plus attendees to do the unthinkable: turn off their laptops, iPods and cell phones, and take a break from technology.

“They’re called it a National Facebook Fast. For a whole day, the Shooks wanted people to swap digital communication for face time with family and friends. “For us, having one day when we don’t (use technology) makes us more conscious throughout the week about how we’re using our time,” Chris said. “We have to figure out what are the best uses of technology. It can also be a time-waster.” According to Houston belief.

Those of you, who know me, know that I am trying to use Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and my blog to communicate to different people in different ways. I work extensively through text messages and e-mails and even flyers connecting with people within my network and our church… I use all these different means because I notice how fragmentized communication has become… What do I mean? Some people will NEVER answer a mail or a message left on a cell phone (they never listen to any messages left there) while others never respond to a flyer that has been given them.

We have a problem. I realize that the tremendous overload of communication with al its different forms and shapes demands attention and time. And we can’t create surrogates for the true face-to-face, heart-to-heart, being-in-one-room-communication!

The Shooks say it’s fine to use e-mail and the Internet at work if it’s part of your job, but technology can become a distraction at home. People have become used to multi-tasking so much that they often have dinner, play with their kids and even watch TV while glancing back and forth from their iPhones and Blackberrys.

In the 21st century, technology addiction is a real thing. The Center for Internet Addiction, founded by psychologist Kimberly Young, warns about people who make the Internet the organizing principle of their lives, a priority over family and friends. Even if most Internet users aren’t that hooked, we tend to have some level of dependency, also me, like the Shook’s, I feel “naked” without my phone, it has become my contact with the world, my mouth piece, my brain (remembering everything I planned), it is my office, it helps me to “kill dead time”, it makes me effective, and yes… I have to admit to a certain degree dependent.

The best media for me is the cell phone. Since its availability I have noticed that I will do more work while travelling. Where I, years ago, spent many hours on the phone as soon as I came back home, I now have done all these phone calls before I get home and in that sense I can see a tremendous difference in our private life. I do turn off the phone and so feel that I can sift through calls.

However, taking a Sabbath – a day of rest – from the endless number of buzzing, ringing, glowing devices can be a way to renew and refocus, experts say.

The Shooks’ Facebook Fast encourages people to break their tech-dependent routines and meet friends for coffee, sit down for a family dinner or mail a handwritten letter instead. According to their latest book, these kinds of interactions allow people to go deeper than you can with your hundreds of friends on Facebook.

Still, many say it’s digital connections that actually enhance their relationships, not just with long-lost classmates but the people they are closest to.

What is your experience with this?

John