Today we're pleased to share with you an audio essay written and read by Samuel James entitled

Five Ways the Digital Age is Transforming the Way You Think. Samuel James' book is Digital Liturgies,

Rediscovering Christian Wisdom in an online age.

Five ways the digital age is transforming the way you think.

Written and read by Samuel James.

More than a billion people worldwide on an iPhone.

Nearly 5 billion people use social media.

The average person spends two and a half hours every day on those social media accounts and another five hours just checking email. The days of thinking of

the internet as a hobby that stayed plugged into the wall in a corner of the family room are gone

beyond recall. Our work, education, relationships, and even worship are increasingly happening digitally.

Our tendency is often to think of these technologies as just neutral tools that do whatever we ask them to do.

But this is not quite right. The web is a language-shaping habitat that transforms how we think.

The question is not whether we will be shaped by the

web. The question is how is the web shaping us and how do we respond? Here are five ways the digital

age is transforming how we think. One, the digital age dilutes the importance of truth. Much has been

written about the internet's democratization of information.

It's certainly true that digital technology gives a public platform to many people who would otherwise not have it.

But this blessing comes at a cost.

Because of the web's disembodied nature, things like evidence, reasoning, and expertise have become marginalized.

Instead, the idea of truthfulness has devolved into a question of individual narratives.

My Story is My Truth is one of the key mantras of the digital age.

Traditional authority structures have given way to an ephemeral equality that means that

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