By Yang Yang
One day, I read a popular saying online that went something like this, “The farthest distance in the world isn’t the other side of the world, it’s sitting next to you while you play with your phone.” No matter if you’re on the subway, on the bus, in a restaurant, or on the streets … at any time of the day, you can always find a certain group of people, phubbers. They have a phone, tablet, or some other gadget in their hand as they watch videos, play games, or look at their friend feed, and their members are primarily young people.
As technology has developed, the internet has made our lives much more convenient. People can buy what they want without leaving the house, or they can contact different people without going out. But what is brought about by the convenience of the internet? Let’s take a look at the relevant reports.
Ms.
Yue likes to go online. When online shopping emerged as a widespread
phenomenon, she spent a lot of time shopping online, often until 1–2
in the morning, sometimes even until 6 in the morning, and when she
went to work the next day, she fell asleep at her desk. After
chatting software came out, she often chatted into the middle of the
night, and even when she was exhausted, her hands were still not
idle. Gradually her memory declined significantly, she suffered from
a bad neck, and had dark circles under her eyes. Her husband was very
dissatisfied with her over this, saying that she had forgotten her
aims in life over a toy.
Mr.
Wang’s nephew is 14 years old, and he used to be very obedient, but
ever since he became obsessed with going online on his mobile phone,
it is always in his hand, whether he’s eating or sleeping, the
degree of myopia in his eyes has been rising, and he has become
absolutely silent. To buy equipment in the game he loves, he used his
dad’s credit card twice to charge 10,000 yuan. When his father
discovered it, the boy stubbornly refused to admit it.
According
to a psychological counseling survey conducted by Capital Normal
University, 77% of people have their mobile phones turned on for more
than 12 hours a day; 33.55% have them turned on 24 hours a day; 65%
say “I feel some anxiety when my mobile phone isn’t next to me,”
and more than 90% can’t live without their phones. The first thing
phubbers do when they wake up every day is to look at their mobile
phones, and they need to check their mobile phones before they go to
bed. They spend their days refreshing Weibo, watching their friend
feed, and playing online games.
These
phubbers are completely immersed in their individual online world.
They experience all the sensations the internet brings them as if no
one else was there, as if all the people, matters, and things around
them no longer exist. Slowly, they lose direction in their lives, and
the distance between them and other people grows. They focus solely
on phubbing, looking only at their mobile phones while ignoring the
people around them, and erecting a thick barrier to prevent exchange
between themselves and others. In the long run, although they seem to
interact frequently and intensely with their friends on the internet,
their relationships with people in real life become ever more narrow
and closed off, and their ability to socialize withers, which becomes
an obstacle to communication. For example, some children are sluggish
when they arrive at school, and have nothing to say to their
classmates, but when they turn on their mobile phones, their eyes
brighten and their minds become sharp. They have absolutely no
interest in learning or their futures, and only care about gaming.
Or, some couples typically only care about their work, and only play
games or chat online when they have free time. As time goes on,
husband and wife no longer share a common language, and they live as
strangers under the same roof. Not only that, it also leads to
frequent danger. Many people hold mobile phones and tablets while
walking, making major accidents due to looking at their phones a
common occurrence. For example, one young girl was walking along the
street and only looking at her phone, and as a result, she stepped
into a hole and got her leg trapped in a well. Helpless, she had to
ask the police for help, and a metal saw was required to remove the
sewer cover and free her. A young mother stepped into an elevator
while looking at her phone instead of her 2-year-old daughter, who
fell into the elevator shaft and died. Another young woman was
walking along a lake shore while playing with her phone and then fell
into the lake…. We can see that phubbing is no ordinary social
problem, it’s one that impacts and threatens people’s lives and
work, and it’s one that shouldn’t be underestimated. But, the
question we should reflect on is that even though many people have
already seen, heard, and experienced the hidden dangers of being a
phubber, why are they still so obsessed? Why do people choose to be a
phubber without a moment of hesitation? If things keep going like
this, what will be the consequences?
Just
at the moment when I was overcome by this problem, I accepted the
work of God. In God’s words, I finally found the answer. God says:
“We
only wish to talk about the ideas that social trends bring about for
people, the way they cause people to conduct themselves in the world,
the life goals and outlook that they bring about in people. These are
very important; they can control and influence man’s state of mind.
One after another, all these trends carry an evil influence that
continually degenerates man, causing them to continually lose
conscience, humanity and reason, and that lowers their morals and
their quality of character more and more, to the extent that we can
even say the majority of people now have no integrity, no humanity,
neither do they have any conscience, much less any reason. So what
are these trends? You cannot see these trends with the naked eye.
When the wind of a trend blows through, perhaps only a small number
of people will become the trendsetters. They start off doing this
kind of thing, accepting this kind of idea or this kind of
perspective. The majority of people, however, in the midst of their
unawareness, will still be continually infected, assimilated and
attracted by this kind of trend, until they all unknowingly and
involuntarily accept it, and are all submerged in and controlled by
it. For man who is not of sound body and mind, who never knows what
is truth, who cannot tell the difference between positive and
negative things, these kinds of trends one after another make them
all willingly accept these trends, the life view and values that come
from Satan. They accept what Satan tells them on how to approach life
and the way to live that Satan ‘bestows’ on them. They have not
the strength, neither do they have the ability, much less the
awareness to resist.”
“Do
these social trends have a big influence on people? (Yes.) So
do these social trends have a deeply harmful effect on
people? (Yes.) A
very deeply harmful effect on people. Satan uses one of these social
trends after another to corrupt man’s what? (Conscience,
reason, humanity, morals.) What
else? (Man’s
view on life.) Do
they cause a gradual degeneration in people? (Yes.) Satan
uses these social trends to lure people one step at a time into a
nest of devils, so that people caught up in social trends unknowingly
advocate money and material desires, as well as advocate wickedness
and violence. Once these things have entered man’s heart, what then
does man become? Man becomes the devil Satan! This is because of what
psychological leaning in the heart of man? What does man advocate?
Man begins to like wickedness and violence. They do not like beauty
or goodness, much less peace. People are not willing to live the
simple life of normal humanity, but instead wish to enjoy high status
and great wealth, to revel in the pleasures of the flesh, sparing no
effort to satisfy their own flesh, with no restrictions, no bonds to
hold them back, in other words doing whatever they desire. So when
man has become immersed in these kinds of trends, can the knowledge
that you have learned help you get free? Can the traditional culture
and superstitions you know help you cast off this dire predicament?
Can the traditional morals and traditional ceremony that man
comprehends help them exercise restraint? Take the Three Character
Classic, for example. Can it help people pull their feet out of the
quicksand of[a] these trends? (No,
it cannot.) In
this way, man becomes more and more evil, arrogant, condescending,
selfish, and malicious. There is no longer any affection between
people, no longer any love between family members, no longer any
understanding between relatives and friends.”
“Satan
corrupts man at all times and at all places. Satan makes it
impossible for man to defend against this corruption and makes man
helpless to it. Satan makes you accept its thoughts, its viewpoints
and the evil things that come from it in situations where you are
unwitting and when you have no recognition of what’s happening to
you. People fully accept these things and take no exception to them.
They cherish and hold these things like a treasure, they let these
things manipulate them and toy with them, and this is how Satan’s
corruption of man becomes deeper and deeper.”
“‘Deception
and paralysis’ is that Satan makes up some sweet-sounding
statements and ideas that are in concert with people’s conceptions
to make it seem as though it is taking people’s flesh into
consideration or thinking about their lives and futures, when
actually it is just to fool you. It then paralyzes you so that you do
not know what is right and what is wrong, so that you are unwittingly
tricked and thereby come under its control.”
God’s words completely reveal the root cause of how phubbers came
into being. This is nothing but a means and method for Satan to
deceive and paralyze people! Satan’s mischief is behind the
obstinacy of phubbers. Satan often uses social trends to confuse,
bind, and numb people, and induce them into debauchery and
degeneracy. These evil things occupy people’s minds and trap them
deeply and inextricably, such as online games, which we think of as a
fashion, but with which we can become obsessed to the point that we
lose self-control, both old and young, men and women. Online love
destroys many originally happy, stable families. Countless housewives
are addicted to online shopping. They immediately fall in love with
what they see and buy it, which in turn greatly stimulates people’s
extravagant desires, making us unable to stop until we possess
things. Our thoughts, morality, insight, and reason are seriously
damaged by all these things. The Internet Age given rise to by Satan
has become a trend. The whole world has been enveloped by Satan’s
evil trends, and we all accept, grasp, and use these things of Satan
as positive things. Once we begin following worldly trends and the
evil airs of Satan, our lives are naturally impacted. These things
have inundated everyone’s hearts, from unacceptance at the start to
taking it for granted today, and now our hearts have completely
acquiesced. Especially those born in the 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s
are hooked on the internet as if it was opium. These things are
already firmly in control of our thoughts, and they make it
impossible for us to extricate ourselves. The Satan’s deception and
temptations are the real reason that phubbers are produced and
spread. This kind of evil trend is unquestionably a poison by which
we are slowly killing ourselves. One step at a time, it leads us to
the abyss and to death.
Only
God is concerned for and loves mankind, and without God’s
protection and care, we can never escape being toyed with and harmed
by Satan, and finally being swallowed up against our will by tide
after tide of evil. Just as God’s word says, “I
am mankind’s only salvation. I am mankind’s only hope and, even
more, I am He on whom the existence of all mankind rests. Without Me,
mankind will immediately come to a complete standstill. Without Me,
mankind will suffer catastrophe and be trodden down by all manner of
ghosts, even though no one takes heed of Me.”
Mankind was created by God, and God gives mankind sunshine, air,
food, and all the other things that mankind needs to survive. At the
same time, God has been working among people, speaking to provide for
people, saving people, and teaching people how to live, how to
behave, how to worship God, and many other aspects of the truth in
the hope that we can accept everything from God, so that we mankind
can dwell and live normally on the earth, live out a true human
likeness, and live out lives blessed by God. God says: “I urge the
people of all nations, countries, and even industries to listen to
the voice of God, to behold the work of God, to pay attention to the
fate of mankind, thus making God the most holy, the most honorable,
the highest, and the only object of worship among mankind, and
allowing the whole of mankind to live under the blessing of God, just
as the descendants of Abraham lived under the promise of Jehovah, and
just as Adam and Eve, who were originally made by God, lived in the
Garden of Eden.” God cares for us mankind, who He personally
created, and is concerned about us mankind trampled upon by Satan. He
hopes that the lost can become aware of their confusion and return,
and come before Him and accept His salvation as soon as possible.
Footnotes:
a.The
original text does not contain the phrase “the quicksand of.”
Source: Daily Devotionals
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