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Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith Hardcover – February 3, 2009

by Shane Hipps (Author)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 84 ratings
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Flickering pixels are the tiny dots of light that make up the screens of life―from TVs to cell phones. They are nearly invisible, but they change us. In this provocative book, author Shane Hipps takes readers beneath the surface of things to see how the technologies we use end up using us. Not all is dire, however, as Hipps shows us that hidden things have far less power to shape us when they aren’t hidden anymore. We are only puppets of our technology if we remain asleep. Flickering Pixels will wake us up―and nothing will look the same again.
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  1. Print length
    208 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Zondervan
  4. Publication date
    February 3, 2009
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    0310293219
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0310293217
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“It’s a rare feat for a work to keep teaching and informing and blowing your mind, page after page after page. Shane Hipps has the extraordinary ability to articulate, explain, and educate as to why we should be very, very careful to uncritically embrace the latest offerings from the gods of technology.” -- Rob Bell

“This book is a masterful exposé of our media-saturated world and its hidden influence. But it also contains the seeds of a creative response that could change everything. Shane Hipps points us toward a hidden path out of the media maze that we can’t afford to miss.” -- Andy Crouch, Author

“Shane Hipps pulls back the curtain on technology---exposing the subconscious influences that wreak havoc on our existence. It’s brilliant, eye-opening, and a must-read for any thoughtful person pursuing a countercultural life in the digital age.” -- Gabe Lyons, Coauthor

From the Back Cover

Flickering pixels are the tiny dots of light that make up the screens of life--from TVs to cell phones. They are nearly invisible, but they change us. In this provocative book, author Shane Hipps takes readers beneath the surface of things to see how the technologies we use end up using us.

Not all is dire, however, as Hipps shows us that hidden things have far less power to shape us when they aren't hidden anymore. We are only puppets of our technology if we remain asleep. Flickering Pixels will wake us up--and nothing will look the same again.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zondervan (February 3, 2009)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0310293219
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0310293217
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 0.75 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 84 ratings

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Shane Hipps

Shane Hipps

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4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
84 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Glynn Young
5.0 out of 5 stars Electronic Faith
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2009
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More than 15 years ago, I was struggling trying to understand the electronic communications "thing" that was beginning to arise at work. We were testing an email employee newsletter with 100 people. Within a few short days, those 100 had forwarded it to 1,500, who forwarded it to thousands more. In a week, our test had become an official publication, spread virally (although none of us called it that back then).

I struggled to understand why it has engaged people so fast. I read Marshall McLuhan, who didn't have the answers, or at least in any depth. Our newsletter was straight text -- no images, no icons, no photos. I came close when I found Walter Ong's "Orality and Literacy," which discussed electronic communication as a kind of "secondary orality," a quasi-return to an oral culture (and I was a speechwriter, so I connected with Ong's themes on a number of levels).

I wish I had had Shane Hipps' "Flickering Pixels: How Technology Shapes Your Faith" back in 1993. Not only does Hipps address the same concepts as McLuhan and Ong, but he does it an an easily approachable, engagingly readable way -- in straightfowward, non-academic English.

His theme is not to condemn the growing use of electronic media technologies in the church, but to offer a caution -- technology is not neutral, form is as critical as content, and just because the message is the Gospel doesn't mean that the form -- video, audio, internet, blog, and even print -- doesn't matter. The form does matter, and it matters in big, important ways. Using video screens to allow one minister to deliver a sermon simultaneously to several locations inevitably frames the sermon -- the message -- in what is primarily an entertainment format.

Hipps goes beyond a simple cautionary story, however. The Bible does not have specific references to Twitter and YouTube, but Hipps shows that it does address the underlying concepts of medium and message. And the most vital medium for conveying the message is us -- people. Relationships matter, and they matter more now, in a time when we've surrounded ourselves and saturated ourselves with a vast array of communication technologies -- a tidal wave of information that can have the surprising effect of alienating us frome each other.

"Flickering Pixels" is engaging and important. Well done.
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Fr. Charles Erlandson
4.0 out of 5 stars Raises & Begins to Answer a Key Question for Christians
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2010
Verified Purchase
"The medium is the message" Marshall McLuhan famously declared in the 1960s. Like many of McLuhan's slogans, the meaning of "the medium is the message is not immediately apparent." To dumb down McLuhan considerably, he means that a medium (such as print, the telephone, or the Internet) is not just a container into which content is neutrally poured but that a given medium becomes a part of the message itself.

For this reason, everyone who's concerned about culture and especially about religious faith should also be concerned with how the various media are affecting our lives. As both a student of McLuhan and a Christian, Shane Hipps (a Mennonite pastor) offers his analysis of "How Technology Shapes Your Faith" in Flickering Pixels.

My overall impression, before I get to some useful details, is that Hipps makes us aware of the ways in which technology changes and effects us and does a fairly good job of applying some of McLuhan's principles to some of the media we use. His writing is, thankfully, clear and concise.

He also gets points for having done something that far too few writers do: he's related his understanding of technology to culture and faith. Far too many Christians blithely use the media available to them without giving any thought to the kind of habits and souls that their use of technology is forming in them.

Hipps also has scores some points by pointing out the ways in which technology can lead to isolation and individualism and rightly advocates that we remember the corporate and communal aspect of being Christian.

In fact, some of Hipps's best thinking occurs on this point: "If God's chosen medium for his message was the person of Jesus Christ, and the church is the body of Christ, that means God has chosen the church to extend his revelation in a special way" (p. 168). And also, "The church is simply an extension of the gospel. The church is a direct reflection of Jesus Christ. We are the message (p. 169).

Flickering Pixels is perhaps most effective in showing how the medium of print significantly changed the Christian (especially Protestantism) with regards to theology, the Bible, the Church, and, yes, even the church pew! Chapter 4 is particularly strong on this point (Chapter 8 is also useful).

So far, so good. On the downside, Hipps often doesn't present enough evidence. Maybe his writing and message has been affected by his contact with postmodern media because his anecdotal and elliptical evidence is suggestive but not conclusive.

Flickering Pixels also doesn't adequately deal with how to appropriately use such media as cell phones, the Internet, and others. It's one thing to slam immature uses of technology but it's even more important to teach about more mature uses of these same media. In Chapters 10 and 11 Hipps does deal with the importance of physical presence in relationships, but there's not enough extended discussion of such important issues.

For those who belong to a community of faith, Flickering Pixels has much food for thought. Hipps final words are appropriate ones to challenge us: "Go therefore, and be the message."

WARNING: Don't buy this book if you already have Hipps's The Hidden Power of Electronic Culture (and vice versa), since there's a lot of overlap between them and not much that's significantly different.
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Chris Yates
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book club material.
Reviewed in the United States on October 26, 2009
Verified Purchase
Hipps does a fair job of discussing the diverse ways that technology not only shapes the WAY we communicate the message of the Gospel, but how it actually changes the message itself. We've been using this book in a weekly book discussion group for about a month now, and it's provided a really good jumpstart to some good conversations. Of particular interest is the way he provides specific examples of how technology, from the printing press to text messaging, have influenced the way we collectively think about our faith.
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Top reviews from other countries

Marion Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye-opening
Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2020
Verified Purchase
Thank you for opening my eyes to the oft hidden effects of technology! I definitely needed to examine my life and discover hidden, subtle ways I am absorbing things that I should be examining.
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mcG
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on October 8, 2014
Verified Purchase
Recommended for anyone in leadership. An astoundingly simple, yet profound read.
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