I might not be too far wrong to say technology takes a bum rap in many venues today. Then along comes Steven Johnson's critique of the digital experience in Time Magazine titled, "Don't Fear the Digital" Read Johnson's article here.
Start with the costs he says,
"Is all this screen time diminishing the kids' face-to-face social skills? Hardly. Remember, the total number of hours spent in front of a screen has not increased over the past 10 years. Teenagers are irrepressibly social animals; it's in their DNA. They're not using the technology to replace their real-world social life; they're using technology to augment it."
Johnson believes the digital participation is sharpening the minds of our youth. He says,
"The skills they're developing are not trivial. They're learning to analyze complex systems with many interacting variables, to master new interfaces, to find and validate information in vast databases, to build and maintain extensive social networks crossing both virtual and real-world environments, to adapt existing technology to new uses. And they're learning all this in their spare time--for fun!"
What insights will Johnson's critiques bring to our ministry and work? I can't help but believe that if we don't take advantage of the benefits of technology we'll find ourselves left behind.
Thanks to JP Rangaswami, over at Confused of Calcutta for pointing to this article.