Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Is Technology Evil?

Much has been made of the perils of technology in our age.  Douglas Wilson wisely points out though, that the problem is not the technology, but the way we use it.  Twitter, facebook, and the internet in general certainly can encourage narcissism, laziness and superficiality.  Ultimately, though, they are not the problem and need not be cast as such.  As Wilson puts it, we needn't fear Google making us stupid:
Don't mistake me. Google does make many of us stupid, but only in the same way that libraries have made us stupid for many centuries. Libraries make a handful of people really wise, and provide many others with artificial props for their footnotes.
By virtue of the fact that I have a blog and can be found on facebook, you've probably figured out that I agree  that we ought not fear "technology" as an evil.  We need to be aware that technology can be used for evil purposes and guard against that (David Murray has some great thoughts on this), but we need to realize that the problem ultimately isn't the technology.  Wilson puts it this way:
The constant and ever present temptation in the Church is the gnostic temptation of locating sin in the stuff, sin in the matter, sin in the wealth, sin in the technology . . . instead of locating it where it belongs, in the heart of man.
A truly "Christian" response to technology is to use that technology (over which Christ is sovereign) to the glory of God...which is exactly the idea behind this blog.  You can read Wilson's whole post here.

2 comments:

jbboren said...

Agreed.

Someone at church this past Sunday asked me why I blogged. I told her it was part of my ministry.

I can't think of a better reason to blog, or tweet, or whatever else they call the use of these new media.

Pete Scribner said...

Indeed. I also liked this quote from Wilson's post: "If your use of Twitter is limited to informing all your followers that you are rummaging in the fridge for some Dr. Pepper at two a.m., then sure, quit that. But suppose you tell your followers that poverty and shame come to the one who refuses instruction, what now? How is that an abuse? It is a godly word."

It's all in how we use it.