Quote:
Originally Posted by Joe Terrazzini
150 years ago God, country, family and goodwill were center to the American way of life. Life was slower and less complicated. Hard work was honored and church and family were our leisure activities. When you have to wash clothes by hand, personally construct a majority of your everyday items, grow your own food, prepare all your meals from scratch and fetch water from the well it leaves little time for the type of leisure that we are so accustomed to. As our technology grew as did our free time. We were able to explore those things that were previously at the bottom of the wish list. As someone previously stated man has a self centered nature by default. Very few of us are satisfied with no activity during this newly found "down time". Some new and some old evils started popping up to fill the void. Prostitution, gambling, TV (Oh our beloved TV), pornography, movies, a variety of new sports and a whole slew of other distractions came to fill the void. The entertainment industry also rose to the occasion to do their part for America by offering distraction after distraction. Now it seems as though nothing is too risqué to show the American public. New reality shows like Survivor, The Littlest Groom, American Idol, Fear Factor, So You Want To Be A Millionaire and varied others give people the ability to explore with out getting up off the couch. And we haven't even touched the Internet. In a few moments I can summon up just about any conceivable thing I want to investigate. With all of this at our fingertips and a short-cut to everything we bore so easily and things and events hold less meaning than before. Life is becoming more and more meaningless for so many. Now I'm not anti-tech but we delved into this new arena with out thought to the consequence. We spend more time in isolation than ever before. People who live next to each other for years don't and have never even spoken. Community service has dwindled to a trickle. And family time is spent stuffing our face in front of the boob tube. What's our national goal? Do we even have one anymore? Where are we going with this? These texts I write are more more of a exploratory narrative that a concrete exclamation. There's obviously an issue here I'm sure we can all agree with that. My hope is if we can expose it to the light and air we can figure our the problem an begin to heal.
If anything Americans are good at that.
Unplug your TV!
|
I do not entirely disagree with this assessment. There are certain tangible downsides to our technological society. But there are many upsides, too.
For example, you mention we don't know our next door neighbors any more. This is true. But it is now possible for everyone to know people all over the world! And we do. We are doing it right now! And we talk to them and care about them as much as the guy next door. Through these global associations, and the information access you decry, we also know a lot more about the world than we did in the past. I find that nothing less than amazing and a net positive.
I agree that community service is important to escape from self-interest, and in light of that, I started a charitable organization a few years ago in my town that has helped hundreds of people get through difficult times. We have helped victims of house fires, cancer, unemployment, starvation, and many other social maladies, and we have done it as anonymously as possible.
While there are many evils around us, there were many evils in the past. Exploitation of women and minorities and minors springs immediately to mind. We have greatly improved the social conditions of these people and that goes a long way.
We are less ignorant, less abusive, more educated, and materially better off. Has this come at the expense of our spirtual well-being? Perhaps. But then again, we see the information age has permitted evangelicism to expand its boundaries as well.
Spiritual bankruptcy has always been with us. Look how quickly the Israelites sank into degeneracy during the absence of their spiritual leader. This problem is nothing new.