For decades, summertime has been a time for many to relax in a lawn chair — with a favorite book to distract them from the busyness of life — by the pool, at a resort or just under a favorite tree.
The choices for reading could be something fun that would help take our minds somewhere else or something to help us reflect, recharge and reassess life so we would be able to get back to the routine of life with a renewed spirit and sense of worth.
But now at the beach or at the campground, we are more apt to see someone scrolling through a tablet or smartphone to find random reads rather than a lengthy novel. And the inspiration no longer comes from books but from websites, news feeds and social media sites. And the method of self-assessment no longer comes from inspirational reading or from taking tests like DISC or Myers-Briggs, let alone from just sitting quietly staring into the clouds.
Many people are relying on personal feedback and distraction from online quizzes.
If you are a fan of social media you have most assuredly seen the myriad quizzes available for the taking. Perhaps you have taken one or 10.
If you have taken any of these quizzes you know you can enlighten yourself and others on your Facebook feed to the fact that you now know which city or state you should really live in, what kind of parent you are, what your spirituality is, which World Cup player you should follow, or what Disney princess you are.
Now you may be saying to yourself, “Seriously? Who cares?”
Well, apparently more than 18 million of us do.
Yes, I wrote 18 million.
According to BuzzFeed.com, that is how many people have viewed the quiz, “What City Should You Actually Live In?” That same quiz has been “liked” on Facebook approximately 2.5 million times to date.
For full disclosure, I will tell you that I am among those millions who have taken — or more appropriately stated — been taken in, by several of these quizzes. Why? Did I honestly think that finding out which Star Trek or Downton Abbey character I was would alter my life? Of course not. Do I think any of my friends care? Of course not — which is why I don’t bother sharing silly quiz results on my timeline.
So why did I bother taking the quizzes at all? Psychologists say we do these things as “displacement techniques.” For me, I am naturally curious — a fact I knew long before social media told me so. And after repeatedly seeing the quizzes popping into the news feed I wanted to see what all the fuss was about and why people feel compelled to share the fact that their completed quiz identified them with Captain von Trapp in the “Sound of Music.”
Is that what the world has come to? Do we need distraction so bad that we allow ourselves to be randomly categorized by a digital mechanism in six clicks or less? Will we all come back from vacation with big fish stories, sandy beach selfies and hundreds of meaningless quiz results? And will we sink into depression if no one “likes” the test that says the decade to which we really belong is the ’70s? Nah.
Can we really turn off and tune out for some time with the sun, the sky, the breeze and all the refreshment that God has to offer us?
Let’s try this: instead of taking another quiz, grab your phone, your tablet, your laptop or device of preference. Download the Bible. The Truth and Life New Testament with foreword by Pope Benedict is pretty good. Or you could just take your Bible or prayer book and tuck it in your beach bag. Start reading some of our Lord’s words while you enjoy some of His handiwork, which may include the sun, the moon and the stars, the colorful creatures that fill the air and oceans, or the shade from the trees on blankets of green grass.
Try answering the “old” quizzical questions the Gospels provide like “Why this waste?” Or “Surely, it is not I, Lord?” Or “Do you understand what I have done for you?”
The answers won’t immediately pop-up but we most assuredly will benefit more from this quiz and enter into a category all of our own making, inspired by our creator not a computer.
Now, try sharing that with your friends.