Lately, I have grown less patient with the neck bend. The lowered eyes disconnected, engrossed, and the completely mindless scrolling of those around me—especially my family members.
I once took a Cultural Geography class in college, and I recall the professor saying that we are at the peek of the computer age…that there really isn’t much more that can be done with the desktops of our time. Yet, nobody had experienced the smartphone, the platforms of social corruption—aka social media—nor the newest craze—AI.
I think we were in the glory days of technology back in the 20th century. It’s maybe taken a dangerous slip down a slope of steep proportions.
Scary stats are sprouting.
Consequences of our technological advances are beginning to emerge, and the social travesty of our constant worship of progress and pixels will surely become one for the history books. There is hope, as some are beginning to take steps toward limiting the exposure, especially in children. But too many adults are reckless, and as I look back, I am guilty by my own gifting of devices to my children at far too young an age. Sorrow overwhelms me knowing I have completely caved to indoctrinating my own with smartphone idolatry. The possession of a device fuels wildfire. Once the screen is touched, the person is never truly satiated again.
They will always go back for more.
And this is my greatest regret as a parent. I am certain, that conforming to the cultural norm of smartphones is the origin of my kids’ casted-off books and prayers and concentration and devotion.
That pesky scroll. And they are hooked. Rarely looking up in a roomful of people. Hardly ever craving a book. Never considering the soul they are shrinking.
Never considering the damage done.
But I do.
And I am completely undone by knowing it. This quote twists my gut because I am well acquainted with the cunning distraction:
“The most dreadful enemy created by post-industrial culture, the culture of information technology and the image, is cunning distraction. Swamped by millions of images and a host of different situations on television and in the media in general, people lose their peace of mind, their self-control, their powers of contemplation and reflection and turn outwards, becoming strangers to themselves, in a word mindless, impervious to the dictates of their intelligence.In the industrial era, people became consumers and slaves to things produced. In post-industrial society, they are also becoming consumers and slaves to images and information, which fill their lives.[…]I have realized that the destruction of man lies in the abundance of material goods, because it prevents him from experiencing the presence of God and appreciating His benevolence. If you want to take someone away from God, give him plenty of material goods. He will instantly forget Him forever.” —Archimandrite Aimilianos, the Abbot of the Holy Monastery of Simonos Petras
angie dicken 