The brave new world, where life is measured in bandwidth and gigabyte limits from your internet provider. We talk to our loved one's via the web and the handiest little program in the world called Skype. We buy Christmas presents, anniversary presents, and birthday presents, all via the web. We communicate through email about a 1000 times for frequently than through snail mail. We are able to "keep up" with American football, via iTunes and our weekly dosage of "NFL Game Day". I even took photos from my iPhotos program, created a photo book on the computer and then uploaded it to Apple, and they (for a fee of course) printed out the photos that I uploaded and placed them in the correct place in the book that I had created and then mailed them to our family just in time for Christmas. All of this happens via the web/internet.
It has changed the very manner in which we live, and I would generally consider most of the previous paragraph, positive things in our lives. We are much closer to family, and more importantly in much tighter contact with them, than before the web became such a part of our lives. I am what is known as an "early adopter" and this often leads me (us, we) to a richer fuller life. We are not interesting in going any other direction than toward more and better technology.
On the other hand, there is a potentially terrible price to pay for this online life. You can actually miss all the relationships that are right next to you. You can substitute talking to real people by maintaining online relationships and life. I don't really know people who do this on a regular basis, but I frequently caution myself in this area. Virtual living could easily become too much the real life, rather than real life being the real life. So I make a serious and honest effort, to close the computer, go outside and take a walk and breath real air, and talk to real people and live a real life. Virtual life is far too dangerous, because it is scriptable, and not nearly volatile enough to stretch and grow me as a person.
Soooooo . . . I'll see you later, it's time to take a walk outside.
1 comment:
Great post David. You really seem to balance your life well in this area. I think you show that it's possible to be a missionary, and an earlier technology adopter and a guy with good soft skills.
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