Felicia Song is a professor of sociology who studies social and cultural impact of digital technologies. Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence and Place in the Digital Age. Today, Felicia share her experience growing up in a fundamentalist, Chinese church, discovering the Holy Spirit in college, and what she’s learned about God by studying sociology. We also talk about her book and how Christians can be wise as we live with technology. Felicia’s story reminds us to be wise about how we think and practice technology as Christians.
Listen to Felicia’s story now!
Stories Felicia shared:
- Teaching sociology at Westmont
- Growing up in a Christian family in New Jersey
- The vibrant Chinese church she attended
- Never not believing in God
- Joining InterVarsity and interacting with non-Asian Christians for the first time
- Attending a Vineyard church for the first time
- Discovering that she came from a fundamentalist tradition
- Going to L’Abri Fellowship
- Noticing her students getting email for the first time
- What she’s learned about God from studying sociology
- How liturgy formed her experience
- Why she wrote Restless Devices
- Her encouragement for the way forward with technology
Great quotes from Felicia:
It’s not so much the content that shapes us; it’s really the form or the practices.
As human beings, we are meaning makers.
We live in a meaning-filled world because we serve a meaning-filled God.
We do not need to live under the tyranny of our technologies.
We serve a good Lord, but technologies are often brutal and merciless lords.
Resources we mentioned:
- Felicia’s website
- Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age by Felicia Song
- Fundamentalism and American Culture (New Edition) by George Marsden
- Truce Podcast
- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman
- The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker
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