Wednesday, December 3, 2008

The Opportunity Cost of Convenience

Would you have the guts (would I have the guts) to leave technology behind and "rough it?"  No laptop, no blackberry/Treo/PSP/PDA/GPS, iPod, iPhone - you name it.  I feel like my existence is being swallowed up by the need for immediacy.  It is becoming an addiction of American culture.  I want everything right now.  I am finding myself feeling impatient about how "long" shipments take to reach me.  These little gems of technological joy that I have had the misfortune to order online instead of purchase in-store.  "Snail Mail" takes too long.  Even UPS and FedEx take "too long."

You can post your minute-by minute activities to the Internet with a few keystrokes and high speed or 3G connectivity.  I almost feel nauseous with the online overload I've been experiencing lately.  I am afraid that humans are beginning to depend on the Internet for sanity and comfort.  It is like another member of the family.  We have built this machine, and it is slowly occupying every second of our time and every detail of our attentions.

This is all a pretty extreme view of technology and one I don't always think about - and I realize this is a personal thing that not everyone deals with... I think maybe I am beginning to lose my balance on the ledge of progress and this is my way to step back for a minute and take a breath, or to "Be still and know that I am God."









1 comment:

Matt said...

I try to have 30 straight minutes of absolute silence at least once a week (hopefully more) during which time I read the Bible and/or pray. No sound. No music. No TV. No Internet. Only God. At first, it was really hard. My brain would wander, but the more I did it; the more intentional I was, the more obvious that the more I searched for God in the winds of life, the less I found Him, and the more I realized that He is the wind (He is life..and sometimes silence is the sound He makes), the more I heard Him.

On another note: Becky and I no longer have cable or the Internet. My iPod has been broken for quite some time. My XBox doesn't work and I have no intention of replacing it. It is incredible how quickly your brain adjusts to reading books (on paper) and talking more.