IPHONE IDOLATRY
(Posted 2011-08-24 17:54:05 by ArchPaladin)

Interesting to see a new article [
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/08/forget-dagon-baal-and-asherah-smartphones-are-the-new-idols.ars
] [arstechnica.com] from Ars Technica stating that iPhones have become the
idols of the modern generation.

Not that it's untrue, just that you don't expect that kind of frank
perspective about technology from a tech website.

Conversations of this nature often forget that technology is only a tool. 
We happened to have designed it to the point where it immerses all our
attention, because that's what we demanded it do.  This does not mean that
technology serves no other purpose, or that its utility is somehow
diminished or compromised because we became so involved with it or enamored
by it.

The article that Ars Technica references bemoans the demands of
disconnecting from technology in order to better communicate with people. 
This is certainly one way in which the use of technology can impede our
spiritual lives and growth.  And from a communal perspective, it's huge,
and a major problem for churches everywhere.  How best to reach people who
are experts at hiding away in their own little circles, fueled by their
smartphones?

But societal withdrawl is not the only way we idolize technology.  We do it
every time we say that the advances of human society and understanding will
solve all our problems.  I have yet to see a tech site admit that statement
is a falsehood.

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