Watch where you’re going
A few weeks ago I made my way from my home in Southwestern Ontario to an airport in Detroit, Michigan. I would say that this was a relatively uncomplicated journey - it certainly seemed that way - but to tell you the truth I really have no idea.
A few years ago I would have embarked with a more exhaustive knowledge of where I was headed and the space in between. I would have studied maps and made notes about the major highways and exits I needed to take to ensure that I made it to the correct airport and made it there on time.
As it was, I did none of these things. Instead I did something you probably do in similar situations - I plugged in a GPS, locked in the coordinates of the airport and started driving. This was unthinkable even a decade ago when paper maps were still essential and we asked more experienced travellers for advice on major routes and which ones were best at which times of the day according to surface quality and traffic congestion.
“Here" and “There"
Almost none of this matters anymore. There is only knowing where “here" and “there" are. We let technology worry about the “in between." We no longer need to grasp the geography of our surroundings to make our way to a destination. We know how to get to places but we've lost the ability to navigate.
The same thing is happening to our knowledge of the geography of Scripture. Our technological literacy is at an all-time high; the same can certainly not be said for biblical literacy. Much hope has been placed in new technologies to reverse this trend, but our eager and uncritical adoption and use of every new technology may very well be making the problem worse.
We now approach Scripture the same way we approach travel: we know where we want to go but we let technology worry about the “in between."
“Google" and ye shall find
When I remember a certain verse that might be applicable to a sermon I'm preparing, rarely do I spend time leafing through the pages of my Bible looking for those words. I simply punch them into a search engine and within seconds I'm directed to the exact place in the Bible where the words are found.
Computing technology has extended our ability to search Scripture, but it has diminished our ability to see it as a whole. This is an important ability to possess if we are to properly understand those many snippets we are now able to collect via keyword searches. Search technology can help us find what we're looking but it can rob us of the opportunity to learn from the wisdom of context.
We have, in essence, outsourced that actual searching part; we simply enter a search term and consume the results of the search. We no longer search Scripture - Google or some other search engine searches it for us. But Google (contrary to some conspiracy theories) is not a conscious mind and therefore derives no benefit from this searching.
The human mind, on the other hand, does derive benefit from this search. The search is part of the study and the study is crucial to our spiritual and intellectual growth. We've outsourced the means of growth to an entity that has no capacity to derive benefit from it. We are using technology to impoverish our souls.
It's all good, right?
Positive assumptions about technology are widespread. The very fact that technology extends a human ability leads people to believe that all technologies are inherently good. In our haste to adopt every new technology, we often fail to ask the tough questions. In our rush to be trailblazers we neglect to discern just where this trail we're blazing is actually headed.
One thing that is often overlooked is that while technology allows for the extension of human ability, it does not provide for the expansion of human capacity. We cannot actually “do more" with our time; we can simply choose to do some things rather than others. It's the old conundrum: technology seems to make our lives easier and enable us to do things more efficiently, but it then offers us endless new things to fill up the time we've saved. So are we really better off?
The Bible is a book and books demand consumption. But to move beyond mere consumption, to move from information consumed to knowledge possessed, we must engage in meditation, and meditation - the time-consuming process of reflecting and contemplating - is a lost value in the digital age. After all, what is the purpose of setting into memory information that can easily be stored on other external physical media? Why know the geography of Scripture when what you're looking for is so easily searchable by keyword?
Reconnecting
If our GPS unit were to die in the middle of a journey, we would suddenly find ourselves lost without a clue, scouring the next service station for a map and some friendly advice from a local - both of which, you might notice, would require unmediated human interaction.
We know how to get to places but we've lost the ability to navigate. In the absence of technology we would find ourselves getting better acquainted with the geography of our surroundings - we would know something about not just the “here" and the “there" but also about the “in between." We would get better acquainted with the interconnectedness of our journey.
The loss of connection to the geography that lies between origin and destination is of arguable value; the loss of connection to the geography of Scripture comes at a great cost.
Our job as Christ-followers who are also users of technology is first to understand new technologies and then to apply biblical standards of discernment. To do this we must be neither blind adopters nor constant naysayers of new technologies.
Of course we want to consume Scripture as often as possible in any way available, but embracing a fragment consumption strategy will not reverse the sad state of biblical literacy. But this is what new technologies are pushing us toward. Fragments of Scripture cannot be understood in isolation since each passage and verse needs to be understood in the context of the whole.
By all means, use search technology to compliment the long and difficult work of Scripture study and meditation, but be wary of the siren call of technology to get lost in endless distractions and abstractions that eventually add up to almost nothing. It's great to have the entirety of Scripture at our fingertips and searchable in endless ways, but God means for it to be hidden in our hearts as well. To do that, we'll need to go beyond small intermittent bites, commit to entire meals and leave time for digestion.
Recommended Reading:
The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion, Tim Challies (Zondervan, April 2011)
The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr (W.W. Norton and Company, June 2010)
Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age, Quentin J. Schultze (Baker Academic, June 2004)
Michael Krahn is a husband, father, pastor, writer and recording artist who enjoys books, theology, technology and the Ottawa Senators. Read more at www.michaelkrahn.com/blog.
Dear Readers:
ChristianWeek relies on your generous support. please take a minute and donate to help give voice to stories that inform, encourage and inspire.
Donations of $20 or more will receive a charitable receipt.Thank you, from Christianweek.
