Technology--Reading History Backward!

I often feel guilty for failing to stay in closer touch with family and friends. Perhaps there is something to be learned about this lack from young people—and perhaps not. Try reading the following, beginning now and going backward in history.

1. (These days)

If you run across three kids, two of them will probably be texting; faces glued to their phones, thumbs going a mile a minute. Teachers report that about half of their students will be secretly texting during class. Police report that traffic accidents often occur when young drivers are texting. If the adult world stays fixated on e-mail, the children have discovered the delights of texting.

2. (Go back five years)

The fascination now is THE SOCIAL MEDIA. There is FACEBOOK, TWITTER and who knows what else. Kids spend hour after hour at it. At least it has gotten them off their phones. Maybe it’s just a passing fad, but in the good old days nobody had to worry about being consumed by the “social media.”

3. (Go back another few years)

At least we’ve gotten the family’s landline back. Now the kids have their own mobile phones, and may even be sitting side-by-side phoning each other. What are they talking about? They tell me, “other kids!” At least in the good old days nobody had to worry about these mobile gadgets.

4. (Go back a couple decades)

Why did we ever get that landline installed? Every time I want to use it, one of the kids will be jabbering away. They can spend more time talking about nothing than it takes for them to shower—which is forever. What are they talking about? Each other! At least in the good old days they didn’t take over the family phone.
5. (Go back a generation)

It’s called a typewriter. I guess it does a good job with schoolwork, but try having a conversation while they are pecking away? At least it keeps them around the house.

6. (Go back a hundred years)

Have you noticed how kids these days are spending much of their time writing long letters? They may hardly ever see each other, but will spend hour after hour with their quills and ink, going on and on. When I was that age we would walk miles just for conversation.

7. (Now leap back a few eons)

I don’t understand what’s going on with kids these days. All they want to do is sit by themselves in the forest and talk to their friends on those darn drums.

What may we have learned? —Certainly that youngsters in every generation are much readier to accept new ideas—in this case new technologies—than are we greybeards. If it were up to us we would still be using spinning wheels for making cloth and sundials for telling the time.

BUT—there is something about how young people are recently using these new technologies. What seems to be lacking is any sense of community. From today’s fascination with texting on back, these communication gadgets are cocoons woven around the users. What is lacking is any sense of a common spirit. Talking to someone by text or phone who may be six feet away—or a thousand miles—remains a solitary exercise.

Hillary was correct. It takes a village to raise a child. Our best decisions are made in group encounters. Our New England forebears were on to something with their town meetings. We were born in families and nurtured with others in classrooms. One wonders what will be the end product of these isolated forms of communication. I do not even know who I am or what I believe until I see it reflected in the eyes and lives of my colleagues. While the current forms of individual spirituality may be personally valuable, perhaps advocates still may need things like churches. No one does a good job dealing with alcoholism by themselves. It takes AA and incessant group meetings. Even monks need monasteries.