A Week Without Google: Reflections

Mike Leake

Last week I did the unthinkable; I refused to use Google. Each day I posted a couple of reflections and a list of some of the things that I wanted to search for but could not. Here they are:

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four and Five

Now that you’ve not clicked those links, here are my reflections on a week without Google.

Humility
I discovered last week that my greatest use for Google is to keep myself from looking like a moron.
There were a few classes that I failed to pay attention to in school. Like those kind of important ones like English and Grammar. I am still not the best at grammar. Because of this I forget basic punctuation rules and at times I have no clue what a certain word or phrase even means. Google does for me what I failed to allow my elementary school teachers to do for me; namely, teach grammar and help me not look quite as dumb.

I remember in grade school first learning language and at times totally butchering it. I can recall the embarrassment of singing a song with horribly wrong lyrics. Or arguing a fact for hours until we could find an Encyclopedia somewhere or ask someone’s grandpa. That was in the days before Google. Now we just search for it and don’t have to have egg on our face for singing, “Excuse me while I kiss this guy” instead of “excuse me while I kiss the sky”. By the way you can Google the worst misheard song lyrics and find this hilarious site.

There is a humility that comes from not knowing all of these facts. There is something refreshing with being able to say, “I have no idea if I should use a colon here”.

Information Addicts
I have become an information addict. I found myself desiring information and not being able to know the answer in only a few seconds. I don’t think I ever got to the point of twitching but there were some searches that I really wanted to make. Today I can barely remember those questions that had to be answered and I am sure that my life isn’t worse because of it.

Bare information is becoming more powerful in our day than actually knowing something. I can do a quick search about the 14th president and find out who that is. But I’ll probably have to do that same search six months from now because I never really knew who the 19th president was—I only pretended like I did. Searching for the 14th president is simply an information fix and the high wears off after about a day and we totally forget that information. But try actually doing a little research on that 14th President (whoever that dear chap might be—I’d guess Millard Fillmore but I think I’m wrong) and you’ll never forget him.

Time Wasting
My list of “searches I wanted to do” consisted of about 30 minutes each day of things that would have consumed my time. These were things that I did not need to know but because I am an information addict I thought I needed a fix. It was nice to not chase a rabbit trail and start thinking about The Shot Heard Round the World and baseball in the 1950’s.

These things are interesting. Occasionally an article might have spawned from one of these rabbit trails. More than likely I would have just filled my cranium with useless Jeopardy trivia.

Google and Bible Study
I was actually quite surprised that I did not use Google (or want to use Google) for Bible study as much. Perhaps that was the case because I was made privy to my shortcutting problem thanks to an article I wrote a few months ago.

I did find myself at times wanting to search for something before trying to figure it out on my own. By the end of the week I had already started thinking on my own more than instinctively turning to Google. I am convinced that there are times when we ought to be querying the text instead of doing a Google search.

The Benefit of Google
There are great benefits in Google. It helps with illustrations when I only have a partial thought in my head—Google helps fill it out with facts rather than my own assumptions about what happened in history. It also helps when I think of an article but totally forgot it’s location.

There are things that need to be researched that are not time wasters. There is information that legitimately is helpful to know. It is my desire in the future to start filtering these searches a little better. I want to ask myself, “Do I really need to know this?”

Finally, it does help to not make stupid punctuation and word choice errors. Though it is humbling to make dumb mistakes for all the world (or your 300+ followers) to read, it can also be counter-productive to not fix those mistakes. People stop reading whenever something looks really sloppy. It’s probably best not to get bogged down with too much grammar/punctuation type issues in a blog post, but you probably ought to be certain to get a title correct.

The Forthcoming Zombie Apocalypse

Yes, I will be able to survive. And not because I have done a Google search for how to survive a zombie apocalypse. But mostly because I spent the week watching the Discovery channel show The Colony and also because I have learned how to live without Google.
As a counterpoint, though, I believe my brain has gotten more lively and fruitful without just quickly Google searching. Therefore, it might be more tasty and appealing to zombies. I’m not sure. Maybe I should do a few Google searches to prepare myself just in case.

Today in Blogworld 01.19.13

Mike Leake

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Week Without Google: Day Four and Five

Mike Leake

Yesterday is my day to be at home with my children. Therefore, I didn’t have much of a need to Google search—unless you count the crazy things I need to search for when I’m home alone with the kids, like how to get a fork out of child’s nose…you know, things like that.

Today at the office was an atypical Friday. Normally, I get to do a good amount of writing on Friday. But this week we have a big annual meeting with our church constitution. We also are beginning a new series that needs outlined and I have to write small groups. Furthermore, I had to put the finishing touches on Isaiah’s Colossians devotional that I’m giving him for his birthday. Not many searches then, but I did have a few.

Stuff I will probably go to bed without knowing that I would have Google Searched

  • Michael Morse was traded to the Mariners. I wanted some more info on the deal.
  • With the Royals have 9 guys playing in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) I’m interested to see the regular season production of players that participated in the WBC.
  • Steve McCoy introduced me (and all his other loyal followers) to a band called The Lone Bellow. I want to know more. But I’ll have to wait until Monday.
  • The Browns hired Michael Lombardi. My twitter feed is blowing up with Browns fans hating on this decision. I want to know why.

How this Google-fast as helped

  • Humility. (I’ll explain more on Monday)
  • Again, I would have wasted a good amount of time on the WBC thing. I’ll waste that time later.

How this Google-fast as hurt

  • I really wanted to know about The Lone Bellow. Not being able to get more information on a band like this is stinky.
  • I wonder if some articles aren’t spawned from these rabbit trails of information.

On Monday I will post my summary of a week without Google. Including the lessons I learned.

Trading Awesomeness for a Lawn Mowing Shoe

Mike Leake

I’ve been working on writing a devotional through Colossians for my son. When I came to Colossians 2:1-5 I struggled with how to teach my five year old son about the reality of being deluded by plausible sounding arguments. Here is how I eventually decided to illustrate this.

First, I ask Isaiah what his favorite toy is. We talk about it for a little bit and then I’m going to offer him a trade. I’m going to hand him one of my old dilapidated shoes that I use for mowing the yard. I am pretty confident that he will reject my offer. We will then talk about how silly the Colossians were for doing such a silly trade.

Then I’ll inform him that I do have another trade for him. This time I will give him a big package that is neatly wrapped (I’ll have his mother wrap it). I will let him know that this present is a million times cooler than his favorite toy. I’ll use all of my powers of daddy persuasion to get him to make the trade.

I am pretty confident that he will accept the trade. How could he not? It will be far too enticing for a little boy to turn down. Then we will open it and be sorely disappointed that it is my other disgusting mowing shoe. At this point we will be able to talk about the difference between a plausible sounding argument and one that is obviously silly. I will inform him that Satan rarely just hands us an old ratty shoe and says, “Would you like to trade Jesus for this”. No, he always packages it up.

I will close the devotional by showing Isaiah the way to stay anchored in a world that will consistently try to offer him old lawn-mowing shoes in exchange for the beautiful Christ. The way that we do not make that trade is by being completely convinced that Jesus is the most valuable treasure ever. That way you know that no matter what is in the package it cannot beat what you already have in Jesus. Nothing will be able to lure us.

We will end by talking about how wonderful Jesus is and why there is nothing or nobody that is better than Him.

A Lesson For You And I

It is not only Isaiah that needs to hear this message. In Colossians 2:1-5 Paul also tells us another way to stay anchored in our deceptive world. Somewhere along the way we forget that we are like that little boy that is easily duped into trading something of infinite value for a shiny new box. But we are. And just as a little boy left to himself is going to get duped every time, so we too will be tossed to and fro by every flashy new thing. Unless…

Unless, we are knitted together with other believers. If we have a healthy relationship with a local church body we will not be so easily duped. In a congregation there are many that foolishly made those trades. They will not only remind us of the sufficiency of Christ but they will also be there to convince us that what’s in the pretty package is nothing that will satiate.

This is why we need the body. This is why Paul says, “being knit together in love” in Colossians 2:2. The reaching the “riches of full assurance” and the “encouragement of the heart” do not come through an individualistic experience. Those sweet and precious graces flow to us through being knitted together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We need one another to constantly be reminded of the infinite worth of Jesus. Otherwise we’ll end up like a little boy trading his favorite toy for an old lawn-mowing shoe.