Smart devices in the confessional

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Anyone else worry about taking them in with you like having your phone in your pocket? I’ve accidentally triggered Hey Siri many times - I find that it is triggered with a sound similar to it and they need to fix that- and I worry about doing that during a confession and it actually gets logged somewhere…
 
You can disable the “smart” features on your phone, or you can turn it to off or silent, or you can leave it in the car.
I put mine on silent mode and turn off my voice mode before I get out of the car.
 
I often use mine in the confessional as my reference for what I want to confess (my list). I know of several priests that use theirs in the confessional as well. You can adjust how these features respond.
 
Funny story, DH came into the Church years after I did. We have always been early adapters of tech, so, that was when the little HP handheld “palmtops” were very new and phones were dumb.

DH was making his first confession at a Lenten Penance Service. There were several lines and I went to one line, he to another. A bit later I feel a tug on my purse, DH was digging for his HP device as he’d made his list on that and thrown it in my bag.

I knew he was in the line of an elderly priest, I whispered “If you come in with a database of sins, you might give Fr B a heart attack!”
 
I can’t believe anyone uses the voice operating of these things.

Call me paranoid, but I refuse to carry an open mic with me anywhere.
 
I never take my phone into church. I’m just not that important, sought after or connected that I would need it while there.
 
Simple solution: Turn the phone off during confession. Or, don’t bring it in with you.

Personally, I dislike smart phones and won’t have them. We can’t get any cell signal where we live, anyway, and our land line is plenty sufficient. We have a simple Trac phone for emergencies on the road, and that’s it.

I feel there’s too much of this kind of stuff out there, already.
 
When i attended retreat years ago, the priest told us NOT to use a smartphone for your sins because you might forget to delete them and that would be very bad if another party saw them.
 
The activities on smart phones can be tracked, including by the government. Common sense says don’t take them into confession. They could be distracting, anyway, should they ring or someone texts.
 
I have my cellphone AND my Kindle (because I’ve been reading the Fathers while waiting in line), and Father has his iPad. Our devices go off into a corner and play poker while Father and I discuss my sins.

Voice activation on my phone? I’m not ready for that, not in this space-time continuum.

D
 
Yeah… Facebook creeped me out once with an ad that seemed to be related to something I’d just said in Confession, so now I take it out if my pocket beforehand.
 
You really need to turn your smartphone entirely OFF when you go to confession. If possible, leave the smartphone in the car.

Many times I have accidentally dialed my phone when I thought it was locked — fumbling around in my pocket, sitting on something that activated it — and taken it out of my pocket, realizing that anything I was saying, was being heard by someone on the other end of the line. That is not something you want to have happen in confession.

I know some people benefit from it, but I really have to recommend against “making a list” (whether paper or electronic notepad) for confession, least of all keeping a list of one’s sins in between confessions. If you have any kind of obsessiveness at all, this could easily lead to scrupulosity. I recommend being calm, neither too critical of oneself, nor too superficial. Very often, you have 20-30 minutes in line at the confessional. This is plenty of time to review oneself. If you have a besetting sin, or a particular fault in life, you will know this without having to write it down. And least of all, if you do make a list, don’t keep the list after you are done. Our Lord is said to forget your sins as soon as He forgives them. Follow His example.
 
HomeschoolDad said:
You really need to turn your smartphone entirely OFF when you go to confession. If possible, leave the smartphone in the car.
Click to expand...
Don’t forget, just because you told it to turn off the mic doesn’t mean it actually did.

If you have a phone turned on, expect it to be listening.
 
I hate it when Siri or Alexa listen to my confession and store my sins in the cloud.

I don’t even have a smart phone, and I turn off my flip phone whenever I go to dinner with other people or don’t want to be interrupted. I can only hope that priests do not take their smartphones into the confessional. Siri wants to know all about you.
 
I take mine into the church with me (ringer muted, voice mode off) and use it to help me take notes prior to confession. I open a draft email, start typing what I’ve done wrong, DON’T address it to anyone. Since my wife and I share phone data, if we entered our confession lists into our phone notes, we could see what the other’s typed. This way I have a list and when I leave the confessional I delete it.
 
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melonhead said:
I open a draft email, start typing what I’ve done wrong, DON’T address it to anyone. Now I have a list
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So you have a draft email just waiting for an accidental button press to send it God only knows where.

If you must, I would recommend an app that cannot accidentally send anything anywhere.
 
vz71 said:
You really need to turn your smartphone entirely OFF when you go to confession. If possible, leave the smartphone in the car.
Click to expand...
No, I mean completely off, as in pressing the switch or button, and powering it down entirely.

You could also remove the battery (unless it’s an Apple device).

When I go to Mass (as opposed to confession), I leave my phone on, with the ringer set to silent vibrate, as I have family responsibilities that could force me to answer a call immediately, or even to leave Mass and return home at once. For the same reasons, I always try to sit on the end of the pew, outer edge of the nave, fairly near a door. I would wait until I am outside to answer or return the call.
Click to expand...
 
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