Check out this idea for a science-fiction film: people build these hi-tech machines to serve humankind… The machines make life so much easier that people surrender more and more of their wills to the automations without even realizing it… Craftily, before anyone realizes how dependant they have become on this new technology, the machines turn the tables on humankind... Instead of the machines serving human beings, the human beings have now become enslaved to the machines… Now I don't seriously expect my childhood friend turned movie producer, Steve Niver, to come around begging to buy this idea for his next movie. Frankly, variations on this theme have already been done dozens of times down through the years. The other reason is that science-fiction concerns itself with the future. The scenario I shared is already happening very much today.
Don't believe me? Look around and observe. You won't see robots with laser guns holding sway over the city, but you will see plenty of cell-phones, laptop computers, Mp3 players, etc. Notice how you behave with your technology for a day or two. Notice what others do. Do these devices that make our lives easier ever get distracting? Do they ever get in-between the people or things in front of us?
This confession by Nick Bilton in the 1/1/12 edition of the New York Times really nails it: "Last week, I drove to Pacifica, a beach community just south of San Francisco, where I climbed a large rocky hill as the sun descended on the horizon. It painted a typically astounding California sunset across the Pacific Ocean. What did I do next? …I pulled out my iPhone and began snapping pictures to share on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. I spent 10 minutes trying to compose the perfect shot, moving my phone from side to side, adjusting light settings and picking the perfect filter. Then, I stopped. Here I was, watching this magnificent sunset, and all I could do is peer at it through a tiny four-inch screen. 'What’s wrong with me?' I thought. 'I can’t seem to enjoy anything without trying to digitally capture it or spew it onto the Internet.'"
I empathize with Bilton. The use of technology has become so habitual that it gets in the way. There are pleasures in life, such as a magnificent sunset, that are simply to be enjoyed in the present. Composing a Facebook status won't make it any more enjoyable. Most likely the distraction may actually make it less pleasurable. The same goes for carrying on two conversations at once—one with the person in front of you and the other via text message. A walk isn't necessarily going to be improved by headphones and a musical soundtrack. Productivity isn't improved by continually checking email, text messages, voicemail and the Internet.
Pico Iyer, in his Joy of Quiet op-ed piece for the New York Times, writes, "In barely one generation we’ve moved from exulting in the time-saving devices that have so expanded our lives to trying to get away from them--often in order to make more time. The more ways we have to connect, the more many of us seem desperate to unplug. Like teenagers, we appear to have gone from knowing nothing about the world to knowing too much all but overnight."
Whoever nicknamed the Internet "the web" had it right. It seems we are all caught in its sticky mess in varying degrees these days. But extricating ourselves seems to be easier said than done. And let's face it: there is no turning back the clock on technology. So how can people set sane boundaries that keep them connected and plugged-in without having their entire lives taken over? That's what we'll ponder next Monday in part two.
Ian Eastman, M.A., is the Youth Ministries Coordinator for the Southwestern New York Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. He also coordinates the Shared Lutheran Youth Ministry on behalf of four area churches and is a youth minister in the pastoral care department of a residential youth home. He is a student at the Institute for Youth Ministry at Princeton Theological Seminary.
This article originally ran in a slightly modified form in the Feb. 4 edition of the Times Observer.
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