If It Makes You Feel All Right

i had a conversation with a friend yesterday about the complications that our reliance on technology has caused us.  we don't think we can go anywhere without our cell phones.  we believe that we need to have our questions answered immediately by looking up information on the internet.  we watch 24-hour news channels that bring us the latest happenings instantly.  along with this instant access to information and to other people via our phones have come myriad problems.  we have difficulty functioning in our daily lives when we can't access the internet.  we spend large portions of our income on internet access and to have huge numbers of channels on our televisions.

as our conversation continued, my friend and i both longed for the days when we had to wait for the evening news on tv when walter cronkite or huntley and brinkley would inform us about what had happened earlier in the day.  we didn't spend our days seeking the most recent news and worrying about the implications of that news.  we were not instantly accessible to whomever wanted to talk to us.  if someone called and we were not at home, they couldn't even leave a message.  they had to call again later.  we had to go to the library and pull the appropriate volume of an encyclopedia or a book on the subject off the shelf when we needed an authoritative answer to a question.

of course, there was a great deal of inconvenience to the "old way" of doing things.  we couldn't always go to the library at the time we needed an answer to a question.  we couldn't reach someone in an emergency.  we couldn't even leave a message if someone we needed to talk to was unavailable.  we couldn't let another know if we were going to be late for an appointment.  events that had a major impact on our lives couldn't be forseen and prepared for as readily.  

in many respects, the reliance on technology that began with the industrial revolution and continues through the innovations of today's information revolution has made our lives more convenient and less physically demanding, but we pay a price for that convenience.  we become less healthy if we spend much of our time seated in front of one screen or another.  we are more stressed as we try to figure out how to make our new technologically advanced gadgets work and as we are constantly available to whomever calls us.  of course, the solution to these problems is to control the technology rather than allowing it to control us.  no one forces us to sit with our computers, cell phones, and televisions staring back at us.  we don't have to answer the phone every time it rings with a call, text, or email.

may we learn to use what technology has given us responsibly.  may we control the technology rather than allowing it to control us.  may we weigh the advantages these advances have brought us against the harm they may do to us if we are too reliant on them.  may people always be more important than technology.  may we use whatever tools are at our disposal to make our lives and the lives of others better.  shalom.