The Tyranny of Technology!

Have you ever read Tyranny of the Urgent? (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/087784092X/qid=1114699922/sr=2-2/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_2/103-5351052-3691839) It may be one of the best $1.50 you ever spent. It is a great little book about priorities in a world gone mad with busyness. Why are we so busy? I blame technology.

I was dragged into this new blog world as a great new communication technology. Like all other technology it is supposed to be faster and make life so much better. Part of a blog is apparently to simply send off a purposeless tirade against your object or person of choice. So, I'll give that a try...

Technology's Temptation: I'll admit that I have been seen drooling in a CompUSA store. The eyes grow wide with the newest gotta have gadget. It's a shortcut. It will make life so much easier. It will save so much time! I don't know about you but that has gotta be one of the greatest lies of all time. We all desire shortcuts and want life to be easier but don't try to convince me technology is not possessed. "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People... having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." 2 Tim. 3:1,5. Flee from technologies powerful form of godliness - sounds like good avice to me.

Technology's Tyranny: I know that is not good exegesis, but hey I'm in a tirade here. We pursue technology and all of a sudden are trapped by it. When I was born there were no computers other than at NASA where it filled a very large room. Now the power of that computer can be on a handheld computer. Televisions which used to be a luxury are often found not only in every room of a house, but in the car as well. The phonograph was replaced with an 8-track then a CD, then DVD, then MP3, then IPod and honestly I can't keep up. In the office there are all these new programs to combine information in one place, allow desktop publishing, and every other manner of convenience. My phone can't just be a phone anymore. I used to have to carry a small suitcase sized battery along with a large phone in my car and that was a "mobile phone"; then cell phones became popular and then they became smaller and then they became more convenient - it now can surf the Internet, beam information, track contacts, even take pictures, it tracks calendars, finances, directions, games and the list is endless (mine has the Bible on it as well so I guess that's a great advance)! And we just have to have all these things.

And this is a worldwide phenomenon. Helen (my wife) and I were in Egypt a few years ago and walking down a poor area on dusty road we hear a ringing and wouldn't you know a muslim woman wrapped all in black so you can barely see her eyes reaches somewhere under those garments and whips out a cell phone and starts talking. Technology is inescapable.

Technology's Trick: The real problem I have with all these advances is how it doesn't seem to simplify my life at all. I waste more time trying to figure out how to use this technology that is supposed to save me time, than I think I could possibly ever save and the time I do save is simply sucked up by more technology that seems to invade every area of life.

Technology's Truth: Honestly there is nothing wrong with technology in and of itself. It can be a tool for good or evil and has been used for both. The real truth is that technology can push us into the Tyranny of the Urgent and detract from what is most important - God, family and community. That desire in our heart to want life to be better and simpler is a good desire it is simply wrong to demand that technology fill that desire. Technology can become an idol and from that we should flee. The other lesson of technology is that it can save time and make things easier but only by spending time to fully learn the ins and outs of how it works. In that way it mirrors life. There are no shortcuts. Relationships take time and work and this is especially true in our most important relationship with the creator of all things - even technology!

I see many people at Administer Justice who are disillusioned. They thought when they accepted Christ everything was going to be instantly better. They could push a prayer button and everything would work perfectly. The promise of Christ is peace but that peace is only fully experienced by spending a lot of time reading the manual (Bible), using the on-line help (Holy Spirit) and learning by talking with and watching experts (mature believers).

Okay so maybe this pointless tirade had a point after all.