At a recent gathering, one of the major dialogs that precipitated the greatest amount of “intense exchanges” was the tension between “technology” and “presence.”
It seems that in a world that’s becoming increasingly technological, to the point of being bound to our PDA’s and cell phones, the idea of being “physically present and fully engaged” is becoming lost.
It doesn’t take a great deal of discernment to realize that many people are sitting through meetings spending half of their time scrolling on their cell phones and PDAs rather than fully engaging with the speaker. It also isn’t hard to see that people will quickly send an email telling someone that they’ve been thinking about them than literally going to share the same “space.”
I want to talk about this more in coming days because I think it’s a critical issue in our culture.
Jesus came to be among us for a reason and that same “incarnational” value needs to be returned and restored in every one of our lives.
Blessings,
Dr. Jay
Amen! I am absolutely guilty of texting while with friends during our get togethers. Thank you for sharing these thoughts as I will do better to be "present" in the future!
ReplyDeleteExcited to hear more about this in the posts to come...
Those devices (PDA's, cell phones etc.) make it easier for us to not be "present" when we are supposed to be but even Jesus when He was speaking to a crowd said "He who has ears, let him hear"...while everyone in the crowd had a pair of ears attached to the sides of their heads, obviously that didn't necessarily mean that they were all "present" to Him and His message. It's amazing that churches have a slide in the pre-service overheads that exhort people to ...."please turn off your cell phones"
ReplyDeleteThis has been on my heart a lot lately..seems so innocent but I have noticed it robs me and who ever I am with of all my attention.
ReplyDeleteI would love to hear more about this topic in upcoming days as you mentioned. I've also found that online social networking communities can have a tendancy to be superficial (ie who has the most "friends") and open up doors for people to feel hurt. There is often little to no filter on what people will say as well.
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right! The thing about these devices is that they were meant to help us out in our daily lives, NOT consume our daily lives! You see on commercials, families sitting around the dinner table and either the cell phones are ringing or they are texting. Everyone laughs, but I find it quite sad. There is a time and a place for these items and it certainly isn't during family time! Let's turn them off and get back to our families!!!
ReplyDelete