I have never felt more alone than I did sitting in Steve’s Pub & Restaurant Art Gallery. This is a Wifi hotspot that Called to Greatness frequents in Port St. Johns, South Africa. I walked into the pub with 8 other people and we all sat down together and then suddenly and quite dramatically I was all alone. They were all absorbed into their technology; iPhone, iPads, Laptops, and I think 1 Samsung device. And there I was sitting in the middle of all of them with a dead laptop and a crushing sense of isolation in a group of people that I know love and respect me. It was that moment that I started to write this blog.
Now don’t dismiss me as some luddite how just hates technology and would be much happier living out in the wilderness away from technology. Technology is a fantastic resource that allows communication and information exchange that was science fiction 30 years ago. The fact that I can have a face to face conversation with my parents and my nieces is nothing short of miraculous. But, it comes with new dangers, pitfalls, and footholds for Satan to use to get into our lives.
Example, I am a 26-year-old man and 8 people around me absorbed into their technology working and communication with people back in the States reduced me to a 5-year-old child looking around to a group of people for someone to acknowledge my existence. I am a fairly intelligent man and can comprehend why my friends were doing this. So, imagine how much more painfully lonely and confusing that experience can be to an actual 5-year-old?
Between DVR, Cell phone games, Facebook, and countless other ‘advances’ that allow greater control over our entertainment experiences we have to be even more intentional with our choices about how we spend our time. I can think of many example when I choose my cellphone game over the people that were sitting in the room with me. How many Clash of Clans battles I choose over coloring with my nieces, how many Facebook conversations about nothing that I choose over actual conversations at the table with my parents, how many Netflix Binges I choose over being social or going out and having fun with my friends? I choose wrong with each those examples they were selfish and choices that were made easier by the ease with which technology makes it. Heck! Netflix actively tries to steal your time with that little count down wheel that if you ignore for 5 seconds starts a new episode.
I don’t know about you but I am done letting technology steal my time and slow and incrementally take over my life. I love movies and video games but they will no longer dictate my life to me. They are the Bacon bits at the salad bar of life, they add some flavor but by themselves they are not healthy. Those are choices that we have to make every time that we engage with technology.
