THOUGHTS ON TECHNOLOGY David Henry and Phil Hall tackle some tough comparisons between the pros and cons of technology.
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ake one stream of tech change; rock to wood then papyrus to parchment. Followed by quill, paper, pen, typewriter, keyboard and finally oral dictation directly to a machine. This is technology – constantly moving, changing the boundaries, reinventing, and making the impossible possible. This is the age of the A380, PS3, Xbox360, smartphone, High Definition, $20 Chinese drills and kettles, SMS, instant news, bit torrent. We’re the beneficiaries of thousands of years of learning, of getting smarter, and of knowing more. But we still eat Macdonald’s and we still read the Sun-Herald and we still sunbake between 11 and 3. Technology has brought us Kyle and JackieO. It’s obviously not all good. Your parents have probably warned you about the dangers of some of the technological things you use. Or maybe they haven’t. Maybe they don’t even know the dangers because it’s all still so new – and we’ll discover the problems of today’s tech over the coming years (like iPods causing hearing damage). I have a gripe against mobiles, myspace, and facebook. Maybe I’m an old fuddy-duddy! The latter two especially seem designed to make you think friendship is happening and seem to encourage an accumulation of “friends.” I don’t understand how that can be when you’re typing to a screen. Relationships occur with flesh and blood. I look at them as isolationist vehicles. It’s relationships via proxy. Remember to communicate with people who don’t have access to these things. And remember to be patient with us older people who do struggle with some of these new communications systems. Chat rooms, forums and email can be very disheartening and very open to misinterpretation. The media gladly points out the flaws of current tech – mobile phone bills, pornography on the Internet, how-to-build-a-bomb manuals… 7
THE VINE
Pornography is one of the BIG, bad things. Learning about women (or men) by looking at this stuff has led a lot of people to have a really flawed idea of what is normal or acceptable in a relationship. Looking or reading about pornography is rarely a controlled glance. It quickly becomes habitual and often subsides into detrimental behaviour. The actor, Yul Bryner, who died of lung cancer caused by smoking used to front an anti-smoking ad and say ‘Just don’t do it.’ The same can be said of pornography. TV, the dying medium, is under the control for better or worse, of a censorship board and classification system. You and your parents can determine what’s OK to watch because of the ratings – but the Internet has no control. You and your conscience have to decide to not watch, read or listen. The celebration of mediocrity, sensationalism, stupidity and vapid, vapid Hollywood ‘stars’ should be ignored but it’s becoming harder. Look for pure and beautiful things to fill up your time in this world. We can place videos on YouTube about God’s promises and His love and about Christadelphians. Maybe look at the Internet as this giant free advertising space. From your backyard in suburban Sydney you can reach out and affect change! Make DVD’s and CD’s to send to ecclesias that have few speakers. Send talks and lectures and music and singing. For those who do speak now – there are opportunities to enhance what is said with PowerPoint, Keynote and video projectors. Try it every now and then. Even make it a group effort to knock people’s socks off! Technology has allowed us to travel fairly cheaply. When we do make it an imperative to contact the wonderful Christadelphian family that we belong to. It is our relationships, our contact with each other, standing eye-to-eye, which surpasses any technological improvements in this world. David Henry
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wouldn’t exactly class myself as someone who keeps up with ‘the latest.’ A downside of technology is that it leaves some people behind, like me. And your grandma! So I intend to look at the possible advantages of not having technology, or maybe more importantly the advantages of choosing not to use it in some situations. Functional Technology Latest products, appliances & gadgets
This includes anything from new cars to a new toaster. Imagine how great it would be without constantly wishing you had a better car or a new toaster. Ok, maybe the toaster is a bit hard to understand, but some of us have simple tastes. Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t exactly avoid having these things around in your everyday life. But do you ever wish you could just be content with the way things are right now? This is what God tells us is a more satisfying way to live life. ‘If you love money, you will never be satisfied; if you long to be rich, you will never get all you want. It is useless,’ Eccl 5:10. If we take his advice and try to turn our attention elsewhere we can avoid getting stuck in the never-ending cycle of wanting bigger and better. ‘You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as… greed (for greed is a form of idolatry),’ Col 3:5. Communication Technology Internet, email & mobile phone
Without a doubt, technology plays a useful role in communication locally and globally. When my girlfriend Leesh was in South Africa I could keep in contact with her by mobile. Likewise I can easily and inexpensively keep in touch with family in South Oz and NZ. However, what happens in situations where conventional methods are possible? If we didn’t have technology we may be forced to actually go and visit people to talk rather than simply sending a txt, or sit down and write a letter to someone – I think I’ve written less then five in my lifetime! The question I guess I’m asking is would we have better personal communication skills if we chose not to use technology all the time? Might we actually meet someone for the first time at youth group as opposed to on Facebook?
Communicating through technology such as Facebook has its good points but it can also encourage gossip. It can invade personal communication by allowing anyone to ‘listen in’ on a conversation and cause the feeling of exclusion to those who are aware of but not involved in what everyone else is doing! Entertainment Music, video & games
Instant entertainment at the click of a button can be a great way to wind down after a long day or allow for a momentary escape from reality but it can also be mindless time-wasting and can very easily become addictive. How many of you share this experience with me; coming home from a long day at work or uni to plonk yourself on the couch and before you know it the night is gone. That list of things you thought you would get done that evening isn’t any shorter at all! Or you could even get as far as sitting down at your computer to get something important done and find you end up surfing the net looking for a new car to buy, watching videos or just chatting to people! Having just finished a degree at university, I look back now and wonder how much time I would have had to do things I really wanted or needed to do if there wasn’t a TV in our house. Could I have got better marks? Could I have done the things with friends that I said no to at the time? Could I have avoided bad days at work, making mistakes or forgetting things the day after staying up late cramming – a result of procrastination? Could I have been more active instead of vegging out too often? How much more time could I have given God?? With technology, as with most things in life, it all comes down to personal limitation and choosing how best to spend our time and where better to give our attention. ‘There is a right time and a right way to do everything,’ Eccl 8:6. Phil Hall