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Don’t get mad. Get even. In the 1995 film Falling Down, Michael Douglas plays the character of William Foster -- an ordinary guy, your typical shirt & tie professional. However, in the congested, crowded urban jungle of Los Angeles, the setting for this film, Foster becomes frustrated with how the inhabitants of the jungle treat him. Each time he is slighted, he reacts with more aggression than warranted. He removes the obstacles before him using a bat, then automatic weapons, and then a rocket launcher. Although his reactions are cool and calculated, the anger that simmers below the surface is palpable. Getting even, taking revenge, seeking vengeance -- these are not in place of anger. Rather, they are surely driven by it. He does get mad, but it is not clear that he gets even.
Technology is part of almost every obstacle that Foster confronts: urban decay, the congested mass of cars in a traffic jam, the construction zone blocking his path, the armed thugs that try to rob him. At the same time, technology empowers Foster himself to take greater and greater revenge, amplifying his will and his wrath.
In this article from my blog series on Technology and the Seven Deadly Sins, I take a look at the sin of anger, and more specifically, how technology can fan the flames of our wrath. Let’s start by talking about how an emotion can become a sin, then make the connection to technology, and wrap up with some practical tips to avoid this deadly sin.
How Can an Emotion Be a Sin?
Anger is an emotion: a strong feeling of irritation, antagonism, displeasure, hostility, and belligerence. Anger is also one of the seven deadly sins. There are also probably more than seven sins and the wages of all of them are deadly. Nevertheless, anger is one of the seven that early Christian thinkers believed were the root of all the others.
How can anger be a sin, if we cannot help how we feel? If we cannot stop an emotion from arising, then how can we be held accountable? While we can’t stop a feeling, we can process it. If we do not manage turbulent emotions, they can grow into gut-wrenching wrath and rage, turning quickly from internal feelings to external, sinful action. When anger turns to action, temptation turns to sin.
Anger may lead to action, but it is not the original cause. Anger itself is a reaction, a secondary emotion. Anger puts us in a self-preservation mode, protecting us from raw fundamental emotions. The primary emotions that drive anger can include:
- fear (anxiety, worry, jealousy)
- sadness (loss, disappointment, discouragement, hurt)
- shame (embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, rejection, frustration)
We use anger to protect ourselves, lashing out to hurt the other person more than they hurt us. Somewhat irrationally, we think that hurting them will stop them from hurting us. Unfortunately, technology often empowers our anger -- and sometimes it induces our wrath in the first place.
Technology Empowers Anger
We sometimes describe someone easily angered by saying that they “fly right off the handle.” Literally, this refers to an ax head that is insufficiently secured to the handle so that mid-swing it is flung back into the air like a slingshot. Presumably, an angry person who loses their cool has lost their head, flown into actions they will later regret, wreaking damage just as a flying ax head might. Isn’t it interesting that we use so many technological metaphors for anger: fly off the handle, let off steam, boil over, blow up, blow a fuse, blow a gasket.
Technology empowering anger is not new. In one of the panes of his painting “The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things,” Hieronymus Bosch depicted the sin of wrath as two men fighting in a duel, though it appears the fight started with smashing small tables on each other. Furniture, then knives and swords extended their reach to inflict greater damage on the object of their wrath. Even in the middle ages, anger drove irate humans to use the tools at hand to amplify the power of their rage.
When anger turns to action, temptation turns to sin. Active anger puts us in a blind rage, unable to foresee the consequences of our actions clearly, not caring whether we will later regret the damage we do. In this murderous state, we lack judgment and lack mercy. We reach for the nearest tool at hand to inflict maximum damage, bringing to bear overwhelming harm disproportionate to the injury that triggered our anger. We reach for tools because tools make us stronger. If we can hurt someone by swinging a fist, how much more so by swinging a bat. If we can injure by hurling a pan, how much more so by firing a projectile.
You’ve heard that one should use the right tool for the job. The problem is that anger clouds our judgment, so a tool in the hands of an angry person is likely to be used indiscriminately. Tools forged specifically as weapons are not the only technology wrongly used in anger. Technology amplifies our abilities, so any technology might become a weapon in angry hands.
The automobile is one such technology that can become an agent of wrath. This is despite many safeguards. The technology of the car is heavily regulated. We must reach a certain age and must pass a special training course before earning a license to drive. We must know the rules of the road, yet road rage can provoke us into breaking those rules to strike back at the driver that cut us off. The automobile -- intended for individualized mid-range transportation with climate-controlled comfort -- suddenly becomes a two-ton bat that we swing at our adversary, a deadly projectile that we fire their way. In our irrational fury, it matters little that we are sitting inside the very weapon we wield, risking our own lives as well as others.
Anger is empowered not only by physical technology but also by virtual. In the early days of the Internet, a conversation on Usenet newsgroups that escalated into the trading of crude insults was known as a flame war. Today, social media sites like Facebook or Twitter make it all too easy to troll, bully, or post hate speech dripping with venom.
Technology Induces Anger
In our anger, we might reach for technology, but technology can also feed our temper in the first place. Technology has taught us impatience, which leads to anger. Modern electronic technology provides instant responses so that a delay of only seconds can frustrate us. It is not only high-tech smartphones or laptops that induce this lack of patience. The simple cooking technology of the microwave delivers meals in times measured in seconds or minutes at the most. When we are habitually impatient, we are primed to become angry.
Technology has also made it easier to become angry because we empathize less. Long-distance communication dating as far back as the telegraph has also reduced empathy by enabling impersonal interaction and creating psychological distance between us. It is easier to stereotype someone we don’t know well. When we empathize less, we are quick to take offense, becoming angry.
Some technologies make us both impatient and unempathetic. The automobile enabled workers to live further from their jobs, thus making suburbs possible. Today, we cocoon ourselves away from neighbors, no longer knowing them well. Thus empathy is reduced. At the same time, the automobile reduces patience: we can jump in the car and drive immediately to wherever we wish. We no longer count technological convenience as a blessing -- we treat it as a birthright. When our perceived rights are not served, we feel slighted and become angry. Although technology easily empowers and engenders anger, scripture gives us ancient wisdom about cooling one’s temper.
Biblical Wisdom for Modern Anger
Pride may have been the first sin when Adam and Eve sought to be like God, but the second story of sin we read in Genesis is about anger.
So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:5-7)
Cain’s ire is not yet fratricidal sin at this point, but God warns that if he does not exert self-control, anger will take control of him, turning into sin. The New Testament makes this distinction as well: “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” (Ephesians 4:26) The emotion of anger does not start as sin, but if we are not vigilant it becomes sin.
The apostle Paul goes on to tell the church in Ephesus that anger and the like must be eliminated in favor of their opposites: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:31-32) Anger produces sin, not the fruit that God desires of us: “... human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:20). Clearly, the Bible calls us to stop anger before it produces sin -- but that is easier said than done. Let’s now look at some ways we might go about overcoming anger, particularly when technology is involved.
Practical Tips to Turn Aside Anger
How do we prevent the emotion of anger from becoming sinful action? First, take time to understand the underlying sources of anger for yourself. We don’t all get angry for the same reasons, but self-preservation is often our hidden (perhaps even subconscious) purpose. In reality, we are avoiding the raw feelings of fear, sadness, and shame. The world comes at us unexpectedly, hurting us so badly that we react in anger. If we can recognize this cycle before it turns to anger, we may be able to exert some self-control before things get out of hand. “A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man holds it in check.” (Proverbs 29:11) Even so, it is not easy to face fear, sadness, and shame. Our minds would rather ignore that pain and turn it into anger. But there is good news: we need not face them alone. Jesus gives us grace. He takes away our naked shame and dresses us with his own righteousness. Even if fear and shame sometimes are too much for us -- turning to anger and then to sin -- we have forgiveness through Christ’s blood.
Second, while we can prevent anger by understanding the underlying emotions that drive it, we can also prevent it by understanding the physical conditions that trigger it. It is much easier to become angry if stressed. My wife and I have learned that shopping together goes more smoothly if I get a snack mid-way through. Otherwise, I don’t realize that I am getting tired or frustrated. I do not even realize I am hungry yet, but my body is priming me to become “hangry”. Hunger is not the only stressor -- exhaustion can leave us vulnerable as well. We need to take care of our physical needs so that we are better prepared to handle the little bumps in the road of life. Take care of yourself by eating right, sleeping right, taking breaks from long stretches of work, and so forth.
Third, don’t let technology stress you out. You must control it, lest it control you. For all the convenience tech gadgets offer, we often find ourselves busier with technology than without it. For example, we feel time pressure when we over-regulate our lives with time-keeping, planning, and communication technologies. Alarms, to-do lists, calendars, and project planners are all fine technologies when used wisely, but they can also overwhelm you if you use them to assign a task to every waking minute.
Technology can also stress you out due to its distracting nature. Humans are not very good at multitasking, so allowing too many notifications on your phone or computer can be a huge interruption to your workflow, causing eventual stress because you get behind. We can even lose sleep due to this distraction when we peek at our smartphones one more time as we retire for the evening and get drawn into endless emails and Facebook posts.
Fourth, besides stress-inducing tech, we should also avoid tech that empowers too quickly or easily. Much of technology is geared toward instant satisfaction, but it is possible to find technology that provides a slight barrier to unwise actions. For example, the safety lock on a gun prevents unintentional discharge, but also creates a psychological barrier that forces a slight pause before using firearms. Virtual technology can also have a built-in “safety lock”. Some email programs let you set up a small delay between the time you click on the Send button and the time it is actually delivered, allowing you to take it back before you regret it. One can also use so-called tone detector software that will analyze a message and flag text that appears to exhibit a negative or even hostile attitude.
Fifth, back away from anger. Sometimes we fail to notice anger boiling up. A situation catches us unaware until we feel our blood starting to boil and a knot forming in our stomach. “A hot-tempered man stirs up conflict, but a man slow to anger calms strife.” (Proverbs 15:18) Even at this moment when sin is crouching at the door, we can break the cycle and calm down. Take a breath, count to ten, slow yourself down, walk away, or do whatever it takes to de-escalate your rising anger. With practice, you can learn to recognize anger before it gets out of hand.
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Unchecked, the emotion of anger becomes deadly sin. Holding on to anger results in hurting yourself emotionally and even physically, as constant bitterness can produce health problems. As Christians, we are called to let go of anger, even if we have been unjustly wronged. We are called to turn the other cheek, to love the perpetrator of that injustice. Let go of your anger and let God take away the anxiety, the hurt, the shame. Trade them in for joy, by the grace of God.
If you are a Christian professional designing new technology, be on the lookout for ways you can creatively enhance your product to prevent use in anger. Include a “safety lock” that helps prevent the careless use of your device. Design a video game that teaches the virtue of patience through the challenges it provides. Enhance a communication technology to help users become more empathetic. In doing so, by the grace of God, you can be the redemptive agent that helps your users trade anger for joy.
