A few years ago, our young adult kids started using an app called Lapse. My wife considered downloading it to follow them and keep up with the photos they were sharing. At the time, I was teaching a Sunday school class at our church—Christians and Technology: How to Live a God-Focused Life in a Digitally Distracted World. That week, I had introduced several ideas from Andy Crouch’s book The Tech-Wise Family, which I often recommend.
Recognizing that Christians need a simple, repeatable framework for evaluating technology in light of how God designed us to live, I took four questions Crouch encourages his readers to ask and created a simple rubric to help us think intentionally about and evaluate new (and old) technology in light of God’s intended purposes for humans to live God-honoring, purpose-filled, and flourishing lives. I had distributed a printout for the class to take home and keep in a visible place that would give them a framework and filter for discerning whether or not to adopt a new technology. I’ve called it a Technology Discernment Framework and you can download a PDF at the bottom of this article.
The framework is a list of four simple questions to ask when evaluating apps, platforms and other new technology:
- What are the things I’ll be able to do because of this technology? What value will it add to my life?
- What will I no longer be required to do because of this technology? What will it save me from?
But . . .
- What will this technology require me to no longer do or to do significantly less of?
- What will this new technology require of me in terms of time, attention, relationships and money?
In our class, I invited the group to walk through an example that has inserted itself into our lives in the last ten years: streaming services. It was an instructive and helpful activity which I’ll try to reproduce here.
- What are the things I’ll be able to do because of Netflix and other streaming services? What value will they add to my life?
Netflix and other streaming services have given us access to nearly every show or movie ever created. We are now able to watch anything we want at any time we want to watch. There are now no limits to our viewing opportunities and we no longer feel the fear of missing out.
- What will I no longer be required to do because of Netflix and other streaming services? What will it save me from?
We will no longer need to sit through commercials or wait to watch the next episode until next week. It can save us from ever being that person who hasn’t seen the latest movie or show.
BUT . . .
- What will Netflix and other streaming services require me to no longer do or to do significantly less of?
The main thing that these services require a person to no longer do is wait until next week or next month to watch a show or movie. One of the members of the class shared about a friend group who, prior to the advent of these services, gathered every Thursday—together and in community—to share a meal and then watch the much anticipated next episode of LOST. Once streaming services were introduced, they were no longer required to do this.
- What will Netflix and other streaming services require of me in terms of time, attention, relationships and money?
First and foremost, these services are not free. According to the American Business Times, Americans spend an average of $52 a month ($624 a year) on streaming services. Perhaps the higher cost, however, is in the amount of time we spend on these services. In the U.S., where 83% of households have at least one streaming service subscription in 2025, we averaged 9.6 hours of viewing each week. That’s nearly 500 hours of watching streaming services each year—equivilent to twelve 40-hour work weeks. We can imagine that, had Augustine had Netflix, he may never have heard the words, “Take and Read.”
It was an instructive exercise and you could probably add a few things to our answers, but I hope it helps paint a picture of how to utilize this tool. My wife and I were confronted with the opportunity to download Lapse onto her phone that very week and so we walked ourselves through the four questions and decided that it was worth following along with their Lapse journeys. We didn’t just blindly download the app because everyone else was doing it. We took a few minutes to consider what it would do to us and how it would affect our lives and our ability to live God-honoring, purpose-filled, and flourishing lives. We said yes to Lapse. We chose not to use Instagram.
The point is not to say one app is better or worse than another but rather to provide a framework for intentionally and reflectively considering the ramifications of any new technology we might decide to adopt. The Technology Discernment Framework is about intentionality, something that is too often missing when considering new apps, platforms and other technologies.
Before you download your next app, take five minutes and ask these four questions—it may shape more of your life than you expect.
Cobbled Together 