by Rhett Smith | Aug 31, 2017 | Parenting, Podcast
One of the most prevalent topics that I come across in my counseling and when I’m speaking, is the topic of technology and relationships. Specifically, the technology of the smart phone/iPad/computer…but usually the smart phone. And along with this...
by Rhett Smith | Feb 23, 2016 | Parenting, Podcast
Fuller Theological Seminary changed my life, so it’s probably not a surprise that you see me talking about the seminary so much. Fuller was and is an amazing community of people who provide a safe place for someone to wrestle with the big questions of faith....
by Rhett Smith | Feb 11, 2016 | Intentional Living, Podcast
“How do you get so much stuff done?” That’s one of the questions that I get quite a bit. Sometimes the comment comes from colleagues who wonder how I have a busy practice and still find time to write, blog, podcast, speak, teach, train for a 50 mile...
by Rhett Smith | Nov 4, 2015 | Podcast
It seems to me that how I start my day off…especially the first 1-2 hours, often dictates how the rest of my day goes, or to what degree I will navigate the ups and downs of it successfully. And I’m not alone in thinking this. It’s not surprising that many of...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 26, 2015 | Podcast
I love technology. It has absolutely shaped my life in some amazing ways in the last 12 years especially. Technology can encompass all kinds of things, but the technology I’m primarily speaking about here have to do with computers, cell phones and social media....
by Rhett Smith | Jun 17, 2015 | Podcast
About 5 weeks ago I was perusing through Instagram and I came across the feed of lvtrailrunner. I have been following lvtrailrunner (aka Benji Zimmerman) online for quite a while, and I have really been inspired by what he posts, especially his amazing trail running...
by Rhett Smith | May 6, 2015 | Podcast
I first met John Dyer online somewhere in the summer of 2008. I was engaged online quite a bit at the intersection of faith and technology. I am definitely not an expert in technology, but there was a period of about 4-5 years where I spent a lot of time at social...
by Rhett Smith | Apr 29, 2015 | Podcast
I first got to connect with Adam McLane when we were driving through the Dominican Republic, and across the border into Haiti. It was only about a month after the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti, and we were part of a youth ministry team that went down there...
by Rhett Smith | Dec 9, 2013 | Marriage
Sometimes I’m hesitant to bring this subject up because in the past it has sometimes been met with resistance and people making comments that I’m talking in generalizations, or anti-technology, some sort of luddite. Truth be told. I’m writing this...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 8, 2013 | Intentional Living
“Mindfulness is basically just a particular way of paying attention. It is a way of looking deeply into oneself in the full spirit of self-inquiry and self-understanding.” Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress,...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 7, 2013 | Technology
This is an interesting question that Jon Acuff raises for us who are parenting in the “digital age.” It’s a discussion that I have had with many parents in the parenting classes that I teach on technology, social media, and parenting. What thoughts...
by Rhett Smith | Sep 18, 2012 | Intentional Living
Over the last couple of months I’ve really been thinking about how I can be a more thoughtful consumer of the technology that I consume, especially my mobile phone. As a pastor and therapist I have grown increasingly concerned with the side effects that our...
by Rhett Smith | Aug 1, 2012 | Technology
A couple of weeks ago I wrote the post, Laptops and Mobile Phones: Creating the New Deficit In Our Kid’s Lives. In the post I talked about the emotional deficits that parent’s use of technology can often create in their kid’s lives. One of the...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 31, 2011 | Technology
High-Tech Flirting Turns Explicit, Altering Young Lives But adults face a hard truth. For teenagers, who have ready access to technology and are growing up in a culture that celebrates body flaunting, sexting is laughably easy, unremarkable and even compelling: the...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 29, 2011 | Technology
Doctors Warn About ‘Facebook Depression’ in Teens Dr. Megan Moreno, a University of Wisconsin adolescent medicine specialist who has studied online social networking among college students, said using Facebook can enhance feelings of social connectedness...
by Rhett Smith | Mar 8, 2011 | Technology
I recently just wrote the article, Maintaining Relational Presence in a Technological World, for the Fuller Youth Institute. In the article I quote a comment from a nun in Ronald Rolheiser’s book, The Restless Heart: My vocation is, at each moment, to make the...
by Rhett Smith | Dec 1, 2010 | Technology
I do that with satire, which is a tremendous vehicle for truth. It’s like a big mirror: You take an issue and you blow it up so it’s big enough and obvious enough for everyone to see. Then you stand next to it and ask: “Is that us? Are we OK with that? I love that...
by Rhett Smith | Nov 17, 2010 | Technology
[image by nashworld] If you want to get a glimpse in how my thinking has changed in regards to my use of technology and social media, and more specifically Twitter…then look no further than these two articles that I have written for Collide Magazine in the last...
by Rhett Smith | Oct 22, 2010 | Technology
“The technology is rewiring our brains,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse and one of the world’s leading brain scientists. She and other researchers compare the lure of digital stimulation less to that of drugs and alcohol than to...
by Rhett Smith | Jun 2, 2010 | Technology
Compassion on the Decline Among College Students A new study finds that today’s college students are not as empathetic as college students of the 1980s and ’90s. University of Michigan researchers analyzed data on empathy collected from almost 14,000 college students...