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speak with our friends and family over the phone, with text messages, and with video chats. Questions can be answered by Google, Siri, Alexa, or Cortana. The primary strand that integrates all of these everyday conveniences is technology. Advances in technology have enabled our lives to be integrated or connected with others around us, from shopping experiences to learning. It is a rare experience to walk into a school classroom in any type of community and not find technology that enables learning to reach out further than it ever has. Gone are the days of the Encyclopedia Britannica volumes sitting on a classroom or library shelf. They have been replaced by the current realities of Discovery Education streaming, Wikipedia, and About.com integrated into common internet searches. To make information searching even easier, students are using smartphones and other mobile technology to integrate instant information gathering into everyday learning experiences. 1 Even though our lives have been completely permeated by technology, the vast majority of the population interacting with the new technological realities are still digital immigrants. 2 As we grapple with moving from traditional twentieth-century roles for learning, communicating, and shopping (to name but a few of a growing list), we simultaneously are embracing the conveniences of twenty-first-century technology. Smartphones with a multitude of apps seem to be replacing common tasks like shopping, navigation, and talking to our neighbors or friends. The complete impact of a world with technology that integrates into our everyday experience is somewhat unclear. However, we must recognize that it is changing the way we think, act, learn, and believe. Rather than simply letting technology change and sometimes control the way we think, act, learn, and believe, we must be proactive not only in how we use technology, but also in how we view its role in our lives. What kind of environment—both offline and online—do we want to be a part of and even create? Where do our Christian beliefs and practices fit in and affect what we do with technology? Citizenship can define our identity— whether it's national, digital, or faith-related. For us as Christians, our identity and most important citizenship is in Christ. At the core of a Christian's life is the belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and Savior of the world [Luke 2:11; John 20:31; Acts 5:31; 1 Timothy 4:10]. While some may not immediately agree that technology has changed this core belief, technology has certainly provided a platform to ask more questions and challenge more common assumptions than has been done in the past. Technology often claims to be a panacea for problems rather than a partner in finding solutions. Our hope is that, through a careful and critical integration of faith and technology, we can be confident that technology becomes a help rather than a hindrance for Christians in all aspects of life. As we dive into the topic of faith and technology, consider the following reflection questions: 1. Stop and think for a moment about all of your social media profiles, your posts, your email signature, and your basic online presence. What do they say about you? 2. If someone from the outside looked at your search habits, what could they deduce about who you are? Would you be happy with the answer? 3. Is there something about you that does not show up online? Why or why not? Are you okay with that? 3 w 1 See Brad Maguth, "The Educative Potential of Cell Phones in the Social Studies Classroom," The Social Studies, 104:2 (2013), 87–91. 2 See Marc Prensky, "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Part 1," On the Horizon 9:5 (September/October 2001), 1–6. 3 Reflection questions from Faithfully Connected: Integrating Biblical Principles in a Digital World, 53. You know how to be a good citizen of society. But what about a good citizen of the digital society? Learn how to teach young Christians how to handle technology from a Christian perspective with this guidebook. Find this title and others listed in Lutheran Life at cph.org/llresources. FAITHFULLY CONNECTED Lutheran Life 3

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