There is a connection crisis taking place in every country. This crisis stems from the advent and inclusion of technology into every facet of our daily lives. Formerly, we humans spent more time interacting with each other in conversation, in person, and bonding through experiences in the same room, nature setting, movie theater, and etc. Now due to technologies man and woman spend more time interacting over a computer, smartphone, tablet, and other devices. As a result more and more people becoming antisocial, in the sense they would rather stay in and watch Netflix or talk via text, than go out with people, and even should they have an outing, they end up on their phones, not relating to the same person next to them. This crisis is reaching cataclysmic levels, as people now are developing social disorders, called attachment defect disorder. While generally, this disorder is believed to begin in the formative years of children, there is evidence that it is effecting adults. Millennials and Generation Z in particular spend so much time on their smartphones and devices, that they seem apathetic, indifferent, and even psychopathic in response to other people. The lack of human interaction and interaction with the rest of God's creation has made people lose respect for one another, and for all creation.
The Apostle Paul spoke of this coming cataclysm, "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy (considering nothing sacred), without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people." (2 Timothy 3:1-5). We see that all of these bad character traits are in full bloom in society. Everyday we bear witness to in the news or via person experience how people love themselves (which includes the technology), love money (check the election, its about money), are boastful, abusive (especially verbally), slander, and consider nothing sacred (the church of Transfiguration in Israel was robbed recently). It is my belief that technology has been the trident of the devil to ensure these behaviors arise. Technology, expose to it in excess is terraforming, transforming, and even bioengineering people's brains to be different. Because people want to relate less to one another, and more through tech, look at the latest commercial that allows you to turn your voicemails into texts so you never have to hear a person's voice again on your phone if you don't want to!
Social media, apps, smartphones, Wi-Fi, 9G, HD, and so on has become part of transmuting the human race. The technology in excess is making people indifferent, self focused, and socially deficit. Technology is a Me centric way of relating, I choose what I want to be said perfectly, oppose to impromptu and exposing that I am not perfect. My facebook or Twitter or Instragram page is full of glossy, picturesque views of life that do not in anyway reflect the day to day struggles. Technology is transforming us, but not as we should be. The Apostle Paul says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect/Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:2, ESV and NLT). The Apostle is warning us to not conform to the patterns of the world, but to be transformed by God the Trinity. Technology is every much leading opposite transformation of people into human doings and human data, rather than the Image of God (Genesis 1:27). We are losing our capacity to connect, to actually "love one another as God loved us," (1 John 4:10, 1 John 4:19) and to "love our neighbor as ourselves." (Mark 12:31). Because technology is geared only on loving ourselves, oppose to God who says, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, this is the greatest commandment, the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself." (Matthew 22:36-40). Technology in excess distances us from God and people, even though it supplies us with unlimited access to Bible scholarship, history, knowledge, and even to people around the world, and of course this blog, in this regard it is useful for sharing, research, and encouragement, but it cannot substitute for bonding with God personally in prayer and with other people through experiences like playing volleyball.
They call this the information age, but information is not connection. Information alone cannot transform us. God gave us information in the Old Testament, the Law and yet it did not comfort or help us, in contrast Paul says, "It made us miserable, showed us we are sinful, this was its purpose, it could not save but makes us slaves." (Romans 7:7-35, Galatians 4:21-31, Paraphrased). But then God decided to go beyond just giving us more laws or information, He decided to habitat and dwell among us (John 1:14), to be physically in a body (John 1:1-15, 1 John 4:2) allow us to touch Him, spend time in his presence, and experience life with Him. The soul of man didn't need merely another teacher, Moses and Elijah were great teachers, no man needed a Savior, to be rescued from his fallen nature (sin) and to have the connection with God restored, and so Jesus Christ who is God came in a body and died on cross for that connection, to make it possible again to walk and talk with God and to defang sin and Satan, and to remove the threat of hell by Christ's blood and Resurrection from the dead. Sadly churches model the old testament, the give us information, great sermons, scholarship, and personalities like the stardom of Hollywood, but there is no bonding or closeness or connection. I use the Bird on the Wire analogy which I received from my Matriarch. The idea of birds on wire is this, the birds can land on warm wires of telephone electrical wires and receive comfort from this technology, but they cannot touch or they will be electrocuted and burned; thus the brides cannot cuddle and connect, they are at a distance, this is exactly what technology is doing, and how Church is acting in America specifically. You have this little comfort of warmth, of information, and electricity, but no connection, no bond. Alas, the connection crisis is in church as much as it is in the world abroad. Jesus realized man needed touch and to be loved. Mankind are going backwards, the technology is making us Old Testament, people want information rather than simply Immanuel (God with us, Matthew 1:23) and connection which is emphasized in New Testament.
We crave connection deep down, but it is surpassed by our pride and desire to control our lives. Technology has given us greater control and distance from others than ever, and allows us to have "a form of godliness, but deny its power." Jesus told us the greatest commandments were ones about connection, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself." (Luke 10:27). Love requires connecting, bonding, wanting to be together, being present not afar in your thoughts or via technology, it is powerful. In a new translation we might say Jesus said, "Love and connect with God in your heart, mind, and body, and love and connect with your neighbor as your connect with yourself." Alas, the technology take over is trumping people's desire to connect, and in Japan it has proven fatal, as native Japanese spend all their time on tech, and no longer bonding normally, and so sex as it is in most cultures is pleasure rather than pleasure + procreating + pair bonding (Genesis 1:28), so people today instead have sex and use birth control or have an abortion, and consider it only pleasure, and thus because of this belief sex is only pleasure in Japan they have machines, robots that look like humans to have sex with; if sex is perceived as pleasure only, then the need to breed is gone, and so the Japanese are going extinct (CBN News).
Technology is killing us, it is killing our connection with people, our connection with Christ, and our species. Films like Terminator and The Matrix had it right, but they were wrong about how the machines destroy us. The machines don't need phase plasma rifles or us plugged into tubes like batteries, we are commenting suicide through machines without them self aware or having A.I. Artificial Intelligence. We are the architects of our extinction by machines, for we in this moral diaspora turned procreation into only pleasure, prefer machines over other men and women to hang out with, and have given most jobs to machines to mass produce every product from food to furnishings. The Machines are winning the war because of us, they don't have red eyes and programming to kill us, we are programming them to kill us because we misuse them, abuse them, and have fallen away from connecting with our God Christ and other humans. We are aiming the rifle of technology at ourselves, the Terminators our us not the iPhones, Laptops, Drones, and etc.; they obey our commands and only effect us if we use them in excess. We have control, but people are on self destruction path, substituting human bonding with HP (Hewlett Packard Computers) bonding. There is nothing wrong with using technology to learn, to do research, to contact people, to read blogs, and etc.; the problem is when we let it take over and transform us into cyborgs that cannot function without it and who prefer it to friendship in person. A member of a club at my Alma Mater said, "We are cyborgs. Think about it, can you function without a computer, a cellphone, or technology of any kind? If there is no electricity or water can you function? A cyborg by definition is organic matter that needs technology to live or operate, and look at how phones are almost connect at our hips, we need computers to pay bills, write essays to get an education, and to do plethora of other important activities." (Jesse).
I want to share a person story apart from the facts about the dangers of technology and how it can transform us. I have nephew, he is bright, tender, and kind. I have known him his whole life, and he always radiated a tenderness along with cleverness. He use to connect easily and even craved what is called "quality time" (which means talking, hanging out, doing activities like camping or playing outside; bonding) in the The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman. I noticed however when he played video games for a couple of hours his empathy ended, his patience was purged, and he became violent. I will address video games and their impact on brain, which is now proven to be like Crack Cocaine in another post. So I weaned my nephew off video games and he went back to normal. Recently, he has been tablet (iPad) bound, and watches videos and plays games all day, he now can barely carry a conversation, he has no tenderness, he is cold and indifferent, and cannot tolerate waiting for anything, and he also acts like someone on drugs, jittery and wanting instant gratification and enjoyment without a second to spare. This disturbs me, for I knew when he was much younger that if he watched too many movies in a row he seemed turned off socially, as if an EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) had hit his emotions and ability to connect through conversation, body language, and interaction through play imaginary games like Knights on Crusade, and other outside sports. I myself had to cease playing Video Games altogether because it ruined my empathy, patience, and tolerance for hours. Another account I wish to share is when I was in South Africa. The people in bush had no technology, they had to be community that helped one another with even the most basic necessities, and as a result there was such a wellspring of love I became overcome and jealousy that in America we did not have this. Even a African gentleman and friend named Kibble said, "I envy you Americas, you have nice things and technology." To this I responded, "yes we have things, but you have an unconditional love (at the time I didn't think to say and community) that is absent in America; here I feel immediately loved and accepted, even called family, but in America you have to prove yourself over time to be merely a friend (exceptions in the South like Tennessee and etc. I know, but this was generalization and comparison)."
Technology really has not advanced us. We claim, I can access any book or information, but do we retain it? Victorians and Germans in 16th Century consumed books and could quote them, and recite paragraphs and pages, especially the Bible! Today we need an APP for that and Wikipedia. We say writing is easier, surely Word Doc and even this blog is better than the Printing Press, and even Papyrus! Yes, but it has less interaction. Before I would have to meet people to pass the scroll of God's Word around and interact at Printing Press, now I can stay alone in my ponderosa and never talk to another person; yes we gained ease of access but at the expense of more human interaction. Well another may say, technology has advanced our condition, our food is purer! Um, actually Organic is such a craze because its natural and lacks the antibiotic (engineering and technology) being put in animals that make people ill and have allergies, examples GMOs, Gluten, and etc. Surely, our building structures are more advanced than before with the new technology. Really? Do you marvel at Skyscrapers of today as you do St. Peter's Basilica in Rome? Can the modern and rather archaic structures of today compare with the cathedrals, pyramids, and older skyscrapers like the Empire State Building? Certainly technology (digital) has improved our stress life, we can find out better cures for ailments, new information, and cool ideas for recopies. Actually, the technology is proving to cause greater stress, facebook has created a facebook depression syndrome where people feel depressed at looking at their friends and the their 'perceived' prefect advancing life, and the amount of misinformation on the internet is making people nuts who look up something on what they are learning, have heard, or are curious about and find themselves about to kill over from panic, fear, and terror. As for recipes, Grandma's original one hundred year recipe from scratch without computers always trumps the synthetic and generic replicate recipes of most books today. Surely products are better made right? Nope, cars once were all steel and could take an accident, refrigerators never needed new parts fore twenty years (now they need new plastic shelves replaced every three years, those shelves were metal long ago), and computers themselves lasted twenty years, now they last about two years.
Like the birds on wire, it fine to warm your feet for a little while, but return to the social trees and talk, cuddle, and spend time with other birds. Technology can be used for good, but in excess it has proven to transform us into cyborg zombies that cannot stand waiting for instance gratification and pleasure. We must seek Jesus Christ to teach us (Matthew 23:10) how to balance this volatile force in everyday life. It can be used for good, and for our benefit, this blog is an example as is when you use technology to bond rather than a substitute for bonding. So beware my brothers and sisters in Christ, too much time on the wire will fry your feelings of friendship, faithfulness, and fun bonding with God and people.
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