I’ve spent the larger part of the last 18 months doing long sporadic bouts of digital abstinence. During this time I engaged in deep reflection, research and reading with the intention of understanding the great technologically driven social changes we are experiencing and the impacts of these changes on society, culture, people, and especially myself.

I want to be a conscious, informed and intentional consumer of all things that I allow into my physical, mental and spiritual space. I want safety. I want healthy. I want truth. I want wisdom. I want guidance to all that is good and pleasing to God.

I truly fear that the time we are in is causing a massive and intrusive shift away from the anciently sacred and a violent catapulting into the worldly mundane and perverse.

“There is no escaping from ourselves. The human dilemma is as it has always been, and it is a delusion to believe that the technological changes of our era have rendered irrelevant the wisdom of the ages and the sages.” Neil Postman

At the end of the 20th century and shortly before his death in 2003, American author and educator Neil Postman spoke and wrote prolifically about 5 ideas derived from his study of the history of technological change:

First Idea: “We always pay a price for technology — the greater the technology, the greater the price.”

Second Idea: “There are always winners and losers, and winners always try to persuade the losers that they are really winners.”

Third Idea: “Every technology has a prejudice. Like language itself, it predisposes us to favor and value certain perspectives and accomplishments.”

Fourth Idea: “Technological change is not additive; it changes everything.”

Fifth Idea: “Technology tends to become mythic, perceived as part of the natural order of things.”

We would be foolish to assume that any technological advancement would come without any negative repercussions and side effects to the hearts, minds and spirits of the masses.

Stay alert friends. Tread and consume with caution.