TECHNOLOGY’S DOWNSIDE

The telephone rang on Maundy Thursday afternoon. Arlena answered it before I could get to it. I was distracted by whatever it was that I was doing at the time and it was only an hour or so later that I finally asked, “Who called?” “You did,” she said. It was my “robo” call that I had pre-recorded a month ago that was used to call all parishioners to remind about signing up for the pictorial directory.

 “Robo” calls are nothing new, especially during this election season. I have yet to meet anyone who likes them, appreciates them or who does not almost immediately hang up on them. Yet they persist because they obviously work well enough that they are worthwhile to those who employ them. As much as I disliked the idea even for our directory, I hope the call worked and that those who had not already signed-up finally did because of the call.

 Technology is with us to stay and it is only going to get better, the technology that is. Whether it is better for us as a people let alone as individuals is something to consider. There is much upside to technology. As much as I regale my grandchildren with “when I was your age” stories about three television stations, no remote control, no video games or email or – well, the list is endless, I still enjoy the fruits of all that technology and do not want to go back to three channels and no remote control.

 And yet there is a downside to all this technology that is more costly than the cost of the technology itself. Two of our grandsons, Zach and Tyler, were with us for most of Holy Week. Zach, almost 15, spent a lot of time in Arlena’s sewing room on the computer playing games with his friend in Baltimore. While that still amazes me and while he enjoys it, I know there is an experience he is missing that was so important and valuable to me and which I still cherish today: being physically with the person or persons with whom I am playing games.

 While technology does bring us closer than ever – I can Skype my daughters and talk with them on the phone and see them as we are conversing – it does keep us further and further apart as well. Nothing will ever replace the one-on-one, physical contact that is so vital to our lives as human beings. Nothing. That is the real downside of technology. I have 150 or so “friends” on Facebook. All were and some still are face-to-face friends, people I hugged as a friend.

 Yes, Facebook may help keep in touch but there is no real touching going on. We need that as human beings. We need to be physically present one with another. That need is part of our DNA and when that physical presence is absent, we are diminished as a person. No amount of technology will ever replace it even as technology is making it easier and easier to do without it.

 One of the real blessings of a faith community, a church, is that we come together to press the flesh, if you will. In this growing age of technology we will need our church now more than ever and will need it even more in the days and years to come.