Are you a Phubber? Have You Been Seduced into Phubbing?

When was the last time you phubbed? Phubbing is occurring all around us, and it’s easy to get caught up in a practice we once thought we would never succumb to.

The word phubbing was formed by the combination of two other words: phone and snubbing. Phone snubbing, called phubbing, is the practice of being more focused on our phone than on the person sitting next to us. It’s the practice of ignoring the one we’re with to pay obsessive attention to those who aren’t even in the same room.

We’ve all seen phubbers in restaurants: couples gazing at their phones rather than gazing into each other’s eyes. Parents staring at their phones, while their children at the table are given their own screens to serve as babysitters.

Maybe it’s because we’re consumed with FOMO: the fear of missing out. We—and the people we’re with—are predictable, perhaps even boring. But ahhh, our screens are not. Our screens take us anywhere we want to go in the company of those whose lives seem far more interesting than our own or those who are with us.

Technology promised to connect us in ways we had never before experienced. Instead, technology has isolated us from each other, replacing in-person interactions with vicarious experiences. And phubbing isn’t limited to what we do with other people.

Phubbing God

We would never! And then we do. After all, God isn’t just sitting across the table from us. His Holy Spirit dwells in us! And yet how often do we go through our days with hardly a thought to the one who lives in us, speaks through us, and works for us. Ignoring Him just as surely as that couple in the restaurant glued to their phones.

Or maybe we’ll start our day with a quiet time in God’s Word, and we’ll even silence our phones. Then we’ll hear the buzz. We commit to remaining focused on what we’re reading, but the phone continues to buzz. And we think, let me check it quickly, just in case it’s important. And before we know it, we’ve gone down a rabbit hole, the Bible set aside. Even more distracting is when we’re reading the Bible on our phones, holding both the distraction and God’s Word in the same hand!

God has some encouragement for us regarding staying focused and avoiding distraction:

• This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. ~ Joshua 1:8
• Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer. ~ Psalm 19:14
• I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. ~ Psalm 119:15
• Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. ~ Proverbs 4:25
• But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” ~ Luke 10:40-42
• But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ~ Galatians 5:16-17

So, back to the original question: have you been phubbing God? And if the answer is yes, what will you do about it?