I’ll admit that I’m part of the growing Apple cult. Eve took a bite out of the Apple and the whole world fell. Steve Jobs is the new age guru that will bring salvation through portable electronics. The new 3G iPhone will not only have GPS it will also have ESP. All of this is of course sarcasm. But there seems to be a growing infatuation with glitzy digital devices. I’ll admit that I’m seduced.
I’m all for technology. I think that Christians need to be on the cutting edge of new technologies to reach new generations of people. But one of the questions we have to ask is, “Technology for what end?”
From one perspective technology makes our lives easier. So we can be more easily in touch with the people around us. The internet gives us a world of information at our fingertips.
But technology can also complicate our lives. So we get the iphone but are we actually communicating better with people? Is it really saving us any time on our Blackberry or are we needlessly checking our e-mail more often? Are these new technologies saving our time or consuming more of our time? A lot of technologies become ends in themselves instead of means to an end (productivity, connectivity, communication). It becomes one more thing that distracts us from more ultimate things.
Technology far from connecting us can also distance us from people. So we have iPod zombies walking around in their own worlds. Conversations are interrupted as people check their Blackberries. There is an awkward silence as people type seemingly random characters into a magic box. And they seek to find their way back into the conversation saying, “Now where were we?”
Now I’m not saying let’s all get back to our rotary phones. I’m saying let’s think thoughtfully about the integration of technology into our lives. In the meantime I’m waiting for the new iPhone to come out…
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