Earlier this week Michael Jensen shared a strongly worded quote from theologian John Milbank:
“Computers ... in so far as they impose the reign of information, are the enemies of truth and democracy. Our gaze at their screens is the constitution through watching and receiving of inherently violent transactions which in the end, when we step through their looking-glass, always involve real physical violence.”
You can read the full quote, plus Michael’s reflection at ‘Clubbing each other to death’. Michael concluded that:
“Whatever the case, it is true as it has always been that 'the medium is the message'; but it is the medium of which we are always least conscious. And few media have ever been as engaging as the personal computer.”
This was a helpful reminder that we need to evaluate the benefits and dangers of the technology that we use. The benefits to using technology are often obvious (at least to me!), the dangers are usually more subtle. Over at Don’t Eat the Fruit I came across this interview with Bishop N.T. Wright:
Wright touches on a number of important topics, but the big take home point I have been left reflecting on is the danger of dehumanizing our communication.
On this website and many others, Christians engage with one another - often with people they have never met in person. There are many benefits to this, and I have made friends, and since met up with people who I first engaged with online.
However, most of us have seen, experienced, or even been hurt (or hurt others) by the dehumanizing aspects of our online communication.
- Online written communication (often blog posts and blog comments) are easily misunderstood and taken out of context.
- Assertions and accusations are made against blog authors or other commentors that would never have been made (at least with the same bluntness) if both people were sitting down over coffee, face to face.
As N.T. Wright puts it, when we communicate online, we don’t get the benefits of body language, facial expressions, smells, tones of voice. All we are left with are words, and it’s too easy to forget that the words belong to a person.
In his article ‘On visiting Saddleback Church’, blogger Tim Challies reflects on the time that he met Rick Warren. Before the meeting he felt concerned when he considered the things that he had written online, about Warren’s work. After meeting Warren he reflected:
“Somehow just meeting Warren reinforced in my mind the challenge we face as we reconcile ourselves to a fast-paced, digital world in which a person can quickly dash off a missive that can severely impact another person on the other side of the continent. It seems that ethics and morality have been a bit slow to catch up to ability in this new digital world.”
This has been a helpful reminder to me, and perhaps others too, of the need to remember that everyone we write about and engage with online is a person who needs to be loved as carefully and thoughtfully as we love ourselves.
