Do we depend on electronics too much? I can think of the following questions:
Can you sit alone without picking up your phone? Can you get through a day without using your computer? Must you know every hour of the day what the latest news is? Would you ever consider hand-writing an actual letter on paper to someone? Must you know what someone else’s opinion is, or do you just need to think a little more deeply? Can you walk with other people or sit in a restaurant without looking at your phone? Do you feel that you are actually, physically with others on a Zoom call or Facetime? After the computer is off and the phone is out of reach do you feel alone? Can you read the Bible on an electronic device without jumping from place to place, or worse, referring to a commentary? Would you even be reading this if not for a blog or Facebook?
When I was young (65 years ago):
There were no cell phones; only comic books or science fiction conceived of such things. The phone was connected by a wire to a telephone pole. Phones did not even have touch screens or buttons, nor did they yet have what were called "dials". (Do you know what a “dial” is?) To use the phone, you would pick it up and wait for the operator to ask you for the number you wanted. The phone company had what were called “private lines” and “party lines”.
As far as electronics go we at one time only had a Radio. We had 78 rpm record players which played vinyl records that sounded crappy. When we did get a TV, it was very large and had a small round screen. It only showed fuzzy black-and-white images. TV only broadcasted during limited, mostly daylight, hours. They showed “test patterns”; do you know what a “test pattern” is? There were no remotes. TV and radio news services made an earnest attempt at reporting news, not opinion. Opinion was identified as such. There were no personal computers, let alone laptop computers. There was no internet.
Yet, somehow, we survived without instantaneous, constant, invasive electronic connections. We are better off for electronic advances - - if we are careful how we control them privately and publicly. These days we need to resist being “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (Eph 4:14)
