Technology and the Deadly Sin of Envy

When did the queen become evil? She had already fallen into sin in the opening paragraphs of the fairy tale recorded by the Brothers Grimm. Before she tricked Snow White into biting the poisoned apple, before she ordered the huntsman to bring Snow White into the woods and kill her, she had already started down the path of evil:  she fell into the sin of envy. She envied her young stepdaughter when the magic mirror announced the fairest in the land was no longer the queen, but rather Snow White. Envy was the start of the queen’s malevolence.

In this article from my blog series on Technology and the Seven Deadly Sins, I take a look at the sin of envy. Envy is a feeling of discontent because someone else has something better -- better possessions, better looks, better friends, etc. Envy is dissatisfaction with one’s own lot in life when compared to others. Envy often starts out by admiring someone else or simply wanting something better. These are not bad things. Admiration and a desire to improve are good and even noble sentiments.

It is not wrong to admire someone else. Admiration is positive appreciation and respect. It may be the appreciation of beauty or respect for skill. However, admiration can devolve into contempt. We start to despise the person we formerly honored. We start to believe that we deserve something as much as they do. Admiration then becomes the sin of envy.

It is also not wrong to want something better for yourself. A homeless person is not wrong to wish for three meals a day. A student aspiring to a professional career is not wrong to wish for a good education, a well-compensated job, or a nice home. The drive and hard work towards self-improvement can be good. However, when that desire becomes self-centered dissatisfaction and discontent, often visible as heavy complaining, that desire becomes sin. Discontent driven from a sense of entitlement causes us to commit the sin of envy in jealousy of others whom we perceive are undeservedly entitled. 

How do the noble desires of respectful admiration and sincere self-improvement become corrupted into envy? Envy is subtle. We do not even notice our own envy, and even when we see it, we hardly consider it sin. We can nurse hidden discontentment until it becomes envy, settling in our bones until it rots into bitterness. All the while, people may not notice from the outside. This hidden, subtle sin lies just beneath the surface, robbing us of joy and dislodging our gratitude to God for what we have.

Envy is everywhere. Who is without envy? And most people
Are unaware or unashamed of being envious. 

    -- T.S. Eliot 

We may minimize envy, yet the Bible clearly labels envy and coveting as sins. It is clear in the Old Testament: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17) It is also clear in the New Testament: “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Galatians 5:26) “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy.” (1 Cor 13:4)

Envy is often a subtle part of a chain of sins. It can be caused by other sins, such as pride. If we are proud of our abilities or possessions, then we may become envious when someone surpasses us. Envy can take on specific forms. Jealousy is a form of envy, often coupled with a fear of being replaced. Coveting is a form of envy, where the object of our envy is something we could potentially take or steal from our neighbor, rather than an attribute we desire such as strength or beauty. Envy can cause other sins. When we are envious, we often try to tear down the object of our envy through gossip, insults, or worse.

Technology-driven Envy

In the modern world, tech gadgets are some of the more obvious of our neighbor’s possessions to covet. Granted, it doesn’t take technological devices to generate envy of our neighbor’s belongings. I might covet my neighbor’s beautiful sculpture or perfect lawn. However, technology is often a driver of envy. One of my neighbors has a bigger TV, another has brighter and more numerous Christmas lights, the next has a faster car. I don’t need to look far to find plenty to tempt me into envy. Even that perfect lawn is the result of technology, as short green grass in perfect uniformity is not naturally occurring, but manufactured from planting cultivated grass seed, applying chemical fertilizers and weed killer, and trimming regularly with a mechanical mower. When we become discontent, whining that the neighbor’s grass is greener or that their Christmas light display is bigger, we have fallen into the sin of envy.

We can also envy someone’s technological skill. Professionals working in technical domains have specialized knowledge. That knowledge represents power, in terms of career, influence, and more. Admiring another’s technical skills can be fine when that admiration produces encouragement toward self-improvement. Where it becomes discontent, admiration turns into envy.

Technology can tempt us into envy due to the frequent upgrade cycle of tech gadgets. Granted, technology is not the only product often marketed as the next “new thing” -- fashion, food, and many other products are often updated to provide a new experience that people flock to purchase. However, technology is inherently an inventive domain that produces the new and unusual as a matter of course. We covet our neighbor’s slightly newer smartphone or TV when ours is only a couple of years or even mere months older. Gadget envy leads to consumerism, materialism, and poor stewardship. We throw out perfectly satisfactory technology that would have lasted many more years, simply to surpass our neighbor.

Technology gives us more neighbors to envy. Due to social media, our neighborhood seems to include not only the couple next door but the brightest pop stars in the world. Today we not only need to keep up with the Joneses but also the Kardashians. Today we not only need to keep up with the other parents at our own child’s school but with the thousands of parents posting idyllic images of their children on Instagram and Facebook. The global crowdsourcing popularity contest of “likes” results in daily encounters with the creme de la creme: the most beautiful, talented, influential, smartest, wealthiest people on the planet. Technology has connected us globally, and thus our discontent can easily find so many more people to envy.

There is another side to that coin of envy. I may inadvertently stoke sin in others by presenting a false version of myself. I may feel pressured to present my best life -- not my real life -- when posting on social media, carefully curating a life story that is seen through rose-colored glasses. I polish my image literally and figuratively to make myself seem better, purer, and more successful. That is not the real me. It is an illusion. I leave out the real-life grit and struggle. I leave out the full picture that admits my foibles and faults. If I was more honest with my friends they would have less to envy, but perhaps more to love.

Scripture clearly warns us about the dangers of envy. Jealousy drives Joseph’s brothers to nearly kill him, but greed overcomes their jealousy at the last moment, selling him into slavery. Jealousy led Cain all the way to murdering Abel. Ahab envied Naboth’s vineyard. When Naboth would not sell it to him, Jezebel hatched a scheme to have him falsely accused and stoned to death. Even King David was guilty of this sin. He coveted the wife of Uriah. David slept with her while Uriah was away at war and Bathsheba became pregnant. David arranged for Uriah to return from the front lines to report on the war’s progress, as a ruse to create an opportunity for Uriah to sleep with his wife, thus obscuring the child’s true paternity. But the ruse did not work. Uriah would not return home in honor of his fellow warriors who remained on the front lines. David then resorted to directing Joab, the commander of his army, to arrange for Uriah to be left exposed during the fighting, so that he was killed.

Scripture also warns us that envy is insatiable. We keep thinking that if only we had this or that, we would be satisfied. The problem is that we will never have enough. The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence simply because it is something we don’t have. Even when we attain something, our wandering eyes fix on yet another thing we don’t have. “Death and Destruction are never satisfied, and neither are human eyes.” (Proverbs 27:20)  

Finding Contentment

While scripture consistently describes envy, jealousy, and coveting as sinful, it also describes the cure for envy: contentment. For example, Jesus prescribes contentment with one’s salary: “Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” (Luke 3:14)  We can be content because God is with us: “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’” (Hebrews 13:5) Whatever our circumstances, we can find strength and contentment through Christ: “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.“ (Philippians 4:12-13)  Trusting in God leaves us free from worry and discontent: “The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble.” (Proverbs 19:23)

One side note: contentment does not justify laziness. Look at contentment with one’s pay as an example. On the one hand, we should not resort to illicit means of gain, such as cheating, bribery, extortion, or embezzlement. We must work honestly. However, we must also work earnestly. The reason we can be satisfied is that we have worked hard enough to provide for ourselves. “A sluggard’s appetite is never filled, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied.” (Proverbs 13:4) Our contentment comes in part because we have labored sufficiently to legitimately enjoy the fruits of that labor. 

God’s call for contentment may still seem unrealistic in a world filled with technology and a culture hooked on constant upgrades. When the next gadget comes out with better specs than last year’s model, it can be hard to resist. My wife and I recently purchased new smartphones, though I was definitely more excited than she was about the new and better features. With much of our personal data now on our phones, it took a couple of days before we really had everything in place. Even with much of the data transferred automatically, along with a password manager to easily coordinate the logins that wouldn’t transfer from the old phone to the new, we still had several settings to be adjusted and several apps that had to be reloaded. My wife observed: “This was why I wasn’t in a hurry to upgrade.” She was more content than I was -- at least when it came to our smartphones. We did moderate our consumption a little. Rather than buying each generation of phone as it comes along, we skip some models before upgrading, waiting for significant and substantive improvements rather than minor upgrades and cosmetic updates. Even so, it is easy to fall prey to the upgrade cycle. Most of us could use a little more discernment here.

In closing, recognize that technology shows us more people in the world who appear to be better off in some way, and thus someone to envy. At the same time, technology can also show us the great diversity of humans, so that we realize there are plenty of people just like us and plenty of people less well off than us. Realizing this, we can be grateful for what we have; we can be content.

This article is part of a series on Technology & the Seven Deadly Sins 

Lust  Greed Gluttony Sloth Anger Envy Pride