Dreamscrolling

https://odb.org/2025/11/12/beyond-dreamscrolling

1 Peter 1:3–9 (NIV): 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Each fall in my youth, my grandmother got the JCPenney Christmas catalog. With a zealous delight, I spirited it away to ponder its marvelous images.

These days, those images show up on our smartphones daily—the algorithmic distillation of our hopes and dreams, a personalized feed tailored to us. It’s easy to get lost in them. Recently, experts have named this digital phenomenon dreamscrolling. A survey conducted by OnePoll indicates that the average U.S. smartphone user dreamscrolls more than two hours a day! The images that tantalize our hearts invite us to hope, to believe, that if we just had this one thing, it would all be good. (Adam Holtz, Our Daily Bread 12th November 2025)

I think “dreamsrolling” is not harmful if done moderately, like most things. Looking at things and aspiring to own them one day is something that gives us hope as well as joy. Perhaps we want a nicer watch or a better car. Or a more trendy pair of shoes. Or just an aspirational Polo Ralph Lauren shirt or other high fashion branded clothes. As for me, I like to look at camping gear in the hope that one day when I have more time in hand, I could go exploring some campsites in Malaysia. Or maybe do some long distance travelling. Things I will struggle to do when holding a full-time job. I feel that dreamscrolling is OK since it gives us hope and joy to take us away albeit momentarily from the issues of life that we face at home or at work. It’s a temporary distraction for relief from the struggles of the world.

Yet if we are obsessed in dreamscrolling, we risk wasting lots of time doing something unproductive. For example, the time could be spent praying or reading the Word or just doing housework, instead of “dreaming”. Of course it’s most dangerous if we are pulled into those things such that we get disappointed and depressed because we are nowhere near our dreams in reality. Instead of striving us to work harder, we may end up playing victim, blaming ourselves for our perceived “failures” which can be really ironical when we are actually doing relatively well in life. It is a tragedy if our dreams make us perceive ourselves as failures. Fundamentally because in the process we forgot to be grateful for God’s blessings for our lives.

1 Peter 1:3-9 speaks of an inheritance that awaits us in heaven that can never perish, spoil or fade. It speaks of a time when we may need to endure some hardship to test the genuineness of our faith, which is of greater worth than gold. We have not seen Him but we love and believe in Him. We are filled with inexplicable joy and rejoice in knowing Him because in the end we will receive the salvation for our souls.

Someone once taught, and I agree with him, it’s not wrong to have dreams but it is better if we sanctify and align our dreams with God’s plans and purposes for our lives. This is to help us not to be seduced by the bright lights of the world that promote materialism lest we get carried away chasing after such things and compromising our faith.