When Dr. Daniel Allen ’10 began teaching at Olivet Nazarene University in 2021, he noticed something immediately: The moments in the classroom before class began looked very different from when he was a student. It was often completely silent in a lecture hall filled with students as they scrolled on their devices and waited for class to start. As a sociologist who studies human interaction, Dr. Allen was concerned. Students were “alone together,” he noted, isolated by their devices even while sharing physical space.
Unease with technology’s effect on students led Dr. Allen to begin studying technology usage among college students. He was soon convinced it was having a negative influence on students’ mental and social well-being. In response, he created a class to explore this growing issue with students. Media and Society, a course open to students of all majors, was an opportunity, Dr. Allen says, to give students the chance to “live deliberately” and critically assess their use of technology. Offered for the first time this past fall, the course includes readings, discussions and class activities that guide students in asking, “How does our use of various technology impact our values, beliefs and experiences?”
This was a question that appealed to Caleb Jones ’26, a sociology and intercultural studies double major who decided to enroll in the course.
“Throughout college, I found myself healthier when I had days without being on social media,” Caleb says.
With a growing awareness of the negative effect technology was having on him, he joined a cohort that also included communications, psychology and education majors to explore the issue more.
“I was curious to see what facts could help me understand what I was seeing in myself,” he says.
Alongside studying sociological trends in technology usage, Media and Society gave students opportunities to evaluate the impact of technology beyond the classroom. In one activity, for instance, students were challenged to take an eight-hour “digital detox,” during which they completed tasks from a list of things to do without devices, including navigating to a local business and paying in cash. Even such an apparently simple assignment had an impact.
“I took this opportunity to go to a coffee shop and pay with cash,” Caleb recalls. “When I did, I had a fun conversation with the barista, and I realized how often I rely on mobile ordering and miss out on the opportunity to talk with people. This encouraged me to begin bringing human experience back into the very simple things that I do in life.”
Max Penrod ’26, a double major in sociology and psychology, also found the course to be a transformative experience.
“My relationship with technology has not been the same since this class,” Max says. “I have been more cognizant of my phone usage both in and outside of the academic setting. I am beginning to regain control over my attention span that has been ruined by endless scrolling.”
Max recommends the course for any student who “feels the constant anxiety that comes from being lost in the digital world.”
For Dr. Allen, a Christian university is the ideal place to explore these topics, because Christianity has the theological resources to critique our culture’s dominant paradigms regarding technology. Chief of these resources, he points out, is Christianity’s belief in an embodied Savior.
“While American culture in the digital age encourages separation or fragmentation of our online and offline selves,” Dr. Allen explains, “[Scripture teaches that] all of our human experience is connected and inseparable.”
Christ’s incarnation and resurrection point to redemption of “the whole created order” and the significance of living holistically in community, Dr. Allen continues. Media and Society gives students a unique opportunity to do just that.
And the period before classes? Based in part on his experience with this class, Dr. Allen has initiated a “device-free zone” in all his classes. Instead of the silence of screens, the pre-class conversation provides opportunity for students “to meet a new best friend — or future spouse, to talk about current events with someone who doesn’t think the same way, or to come alongside another human being who is going through something outside of class,” he says.
Mindfulness with devices is helping restore a sense of community.
“I still use technology, and I am still on social media,” Caleb admits, “but I am much more aware of myself now and feel like I am now in control of my technology use, not the other way around.”
From Olivet The Magazine, Abundant Life – Spring 2026. Read the full issue here.
