I’ve been arguing that modern technology brings us many marvelous comforts and capabilities but also erodes traditional culture’s benefits. When people use technology to solve all their problems, culture becomes irrelevant. Let me go over some of the things lost.
Culture provides guidance in social relationships. Technology focuses on overcoming our natural human limitations. It regards concern for social relationships as an obstacle to efficient problem-solving.
Culture provides wisdom from the past that affects our decisions about the future. It takes a broad look at sustaining the community. Technology offers vast information but no deep thought on how to use It. It primarily focuses on the present, dismissing past experiences or future expectations. When Franz and I followed up our work on online communities ten years later, everyone we studied was gone.
Culture considers how everything is related to everything else. Technology is a form of reductionism that seeks the most efficient way to solve a problem, often disregarding how this affects other people and the environment we share.
Culture moves slowly when it comes to change. It takes time to think through the broad issues. Technology features incredible speed. Many years ago, a friend in finance reported that at least 85% of stock transactions back then were done automatically before humans could begin to act. I wonder if anything is left to human decision nowadays.
Culture attempts to answer deeper questions that involve the heart as well as the mind. Coping in life involves emotional and spiritual as well as mental responses Understanding what is true, good, and beautiful depends on intuitive as much as rational thought. Technology operates only on a rational level. For instance, artificial intelligence analyzes vast amounts of data by finding patterns.
As the list grows, and it does, you realize losing cultural meaning and values that bound us together and gave guidance for everyday living has left many in a state of anxiety. We feel helpless when confronted with deciding for ourselves what is true, good, and beautiful. Without culture promoting co-operation with others, we feel alone in a hostile world. Often we think some vague “they” is out to get us. Donald Trump has taken advantage of this fear by headlining his home page for years with this: “In reality, they are not after me. They are after you. I am only standing in the way.”
Sadly, the “they” is the opposition in our modern cultural wars. And to our embarrassment ,this might be a different Christian culture. You would hope Christians used modern technology to build a caring community. However, that will not always be choosing the most efficient way to achieve this. At least, not as the world defines efficient. Taking into consideration how decisions affect other people and the biosphere take priority. And sometimes this necessitates a self denial that suffers to care for others. That includes the “they” who are not one of us.
