Is Technology Changing Who We Are?

With the advent of telecommunications and so many new forms of electronic communication and information sharing so many of us are potentially able to talk to people from all over the world with the push of a button.  Lots of people have talked about how this is changing the ways that we think, how we relate to one another (or not), and how churches are doing the "business" of communicating and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the world.  But today I'm pondering a different sort of question.  I'm asking, "What significance do these changes have for the kind of people we are - and are becoming?"

I am, of course, assuming that electronic media are not wholly value neutral.  There are "value statements" and even "faith statements" implicit in the creation of technologies - like Twitter and Facebook, for example.  Regardless of whether the creators / facilitators of these new forms of technology explicitly stated it, the existence and sustained success of tools like Facebook and Twitter either assume or imply that quick electronic communication is a "good" or even "necessary" aspect of what it means to be human.  I'm not sure if this implication comes from the creators, the technology itself or - and this is why I'm writing this post - from those people who use and enjoy these tools and subsequently discover that they cannot function long without them.

The same, it seems, is true of Christians who become accustomed to particular ways of organizing their day-to-day lives of faith.  For example, as a Christian who is used to praying using "fixed-hour prayer" at least twice a day, to go without such prayer for a day feels odd.  Or take the example of Christians who are accustomed to worshiping using "praise bands" and video projectors.  To attend the small, traditional Episcopal congregation in which I began my vocational ministry would be quite a shock for someone who'd never known church that wasn't entertaining and visually (over)stimulating.

The reason I'm thinking about these things is that, as a youth minister, I must say that I am quite deeply troubled when I look around a room filled with twenty or so young people with their faces glued to their cell phone screens sending text messages to people sitting right next to them.  Or how about the night I told them that youth group would consist of a time of quiet reflection and prayer?  Five kids' parents literally said that they were too afraid to leave their kids (at church) without their cell phones so they took them home rather than allow them to experience prayer, silence, stillness and listening for God's voice.  My wife, who is a youth minister at another church, once told me that the first time she told one of her students that he couldn't use his cell phone at a church camp, he had a panic attack that took about 20 minutes to subside.  Is this troubling to anyone else?

Electronic communication is changing, I think, not only the way that we communicate with other people but also what we're afraid of.  More people today, it seems, are afraid of being alone, being quiet and being still.  What's more, we are far more willing to shell out hundreds of dollars a month on cell phones, home internet, and television, upwards of $500.00 on the latest technologically advanced cell phones, and thousands more on the most up-to-date computers and software packages yet so few of us are willing to spend an additional $45.00 a month to help feed, clothe and educate a child in need.  I'm not sure if all these advances in the ways that we communicate have changed our ontology but I do believe that we have become far too dependent on them and that - far too often - these things take up space in our lives better suited for silence, prayer, and real conversations and communion with others and with God.

Of course, there is a bit of duplicity involved in writing a blog post about these things (a post about which I'll soon post a twitter message that will also update my Facebook profile).  I guess what concerns me most is that our communication has changed to the point that what we do daily revolves so much around ourselves and not around what's happening in the world outside of our own isolation.  It's about the right use (and, more importantly, pausing from the use) of technology and how overuse and addiction can affect who we are - and maybe what we're capable of becoming.  Does anybody else feel this way?