About

About Me

Hi, I’m John Dyer. My day job is the director of web development at Dallas Theological Seminary. I also had the priviledge of studying theology there and earned my Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree in 2008. I also make some websites like www.bestcommentaries.com and www.biblewebapp.com.

I live in the Dallas area with my amazing wife who is a university professor of literature and philosophy and my beautiful little boy Benjamin.

About this Site

After working in the field of technology and studying theology for several years, I have begun to think that technology may not be all it is seems. On the one hand it expresses the power and beauty of our God-given creativity, but on the other hand it showcases the corruption and decay of our Adam-given sin. Neil Postman, Marshall McLuhan, Murray Jardine, Jaques Ellul, Martin Heidegger, and others have heavily influenced my thinking and I hope to simplify their long, complex thoughts into short digestible blog posts that might be helpful to the community of faith.

The title Don’t Eat the Fruit is meant to be a play on “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid” from the Jim Jones cult, a certain amazing computer company, and the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. In the garden and Jones’ cult, the consumers thought that what they were consuming was harmless, and they didn’t know the full effects of what they were doing. Today, we are told by our screens that everything new, fast, and shiny will make our lives better. I suggest that we need to think more deeply about the tools we use. In other words, “Don’t eat the fruit.”

2 Responses to About

  1. Avatar

    John (Human3rror)

    March 19th, 2009 at 8:20 am

    you are the man.

  2. Avatar

    Corene Dyer

    October 29th, 2009 at 9:10 am

    John, as your mother and a great resistor of the constant barrage of new technologies and my love hate relationship with the computer I am just blown away especially having been a reader of Marshall McLuhan and having received a degree in RadioTVFilm and ahve been a photographer who has had to go through digital depression as I gave up my beloved film, a tangible beautiful piece of celluloid that I could hold and feel with my hands. Now I could not think of going back to film but I still feel nostalgic at just hearing the word. I am so grateful to God to have borne a son who is grappling with all the ramifications of technology as it relates to relationships starting with God across the spectrum to our next door neighbor who now is in Africa. Thank you John for your heart your passion to use your gifts this way. I love you son, Mom

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About this blog

John DyerI'm John Dyer a web developer working on sites like Best Commentaries, Bible Web App, Dallas Seminary. I'm also a seminary graduate and teacher at Irving Bible Church.

This blog is about the the role of technology in the redemptive movement from the Garden to the City. I believe technology is an amazing testament to the creativity embedded in the imago dei, but instead of assuming technology is always a neutral tool, I believe it - like culture in general - profoundly influences us.

Upcoming Posts

  • The Cornwall Alliance: Technological Theory at Work
  • Learning from Buber: I-Thou and I-It
  • Prepackaged Communion and Albert Borgmann’s Device Paradigm
  • Technology is Kinda Like Money
  • What Can Hard Drives Teach Us about Forgiveness?
  • Approaching Technology like We Approach Money
  • Aristotle’s Ethics and the Goal of Online Relationships
  • Speed and Suffering
  • Technology Metaphors in Literature
  • I marginalize my father through technology

Asides

Our brains are designed to more easily be stimulated than satisfied
Fascinating look at the science of the brain’s response to seeking and rewards: http://www.slate.com/id/2224932/ (1)

Roman Catholic Church Expresses Concern Regarding Social Technologies
The head of the British Roman Catholic church says,

“I think there’s a worry that an excessive use, or an almost exclusive use of text and emails means that as a society we’re losing some of the ability to build interpersonal communication that’s necessary for living together and building a community.”
(0)

Internet Fatigue
CNN has a report on the phenomenon of internet fatigue. I wish they would have spent more time on giving suggestions for how to understand why this happens and how to avoid it. (0)

Articles and Tools on Texting
The NYTimes has a new article on the effects of texting on youth which include anxiety, sleep deprivation, and hand injuries. Interestingly, as Andy Crouch points out, the article also mentions that teens send many texts to their parents, meaning that teens are now connected to their parents more often during the day – a time when teenagers of the past were developing independence. LG has also created a new site to help parents decode text messages. (0)

Course Syllabus: Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era
A humorous, but enlightening syllabus for a class on writing in the “postprint” era. Writing for nonreaders in the postprint era: “Students will examine why former generations carried around heavy clumps of bound paper and why they chose to read instead of watching TV or playing Guitar Hero.” (0)

Language Shapes Our Worldview
A psychology professor at Stanford University found that in languages with gender, the gender assigned to an objects tends to shape the way a speaker views that’s object. For example, in Spanish, “bridge” is masculine so Spanish speakers describe bridges as “strong” and “dangerous,” while German speakers for whom bridge is feminine tend to describe bridges as “fragile” and “beautiful.” Perhaps our own understanding of words like redemption, wrath, and adoption are also shaped by unseen factors. (0)

Survey Says Facebook Users Get Lower Grades
A study from educational researches at the Ohio State University found that students who regularly used facebook only study 1-5 hours per week and had GPAs in the 3.0-3.5 range, while non-facebook users study around 11-15 hours per week with GPAs in the 3.5-4.0 range. I wonder how church education compares? (0)

Risk-Reducing Technologies Increase Risk-Taking
The Pope and a Harvard scientist make an interesting argument that AIDS is increasing in Africa precisely because of condom distribution. More... (0)