Technology at the Awkward Age

I'm at that awkward age.  I'm not old, at least not if you measure old by Social Security age or something similar.  But I'm not young, either.  I'm really not even middle-aged, unless I plan to live to be a hundred and nine.  Actually, I do plan to live to be a hundred and nine, but the plan involves hitching a ride on the TARDIS and absorbing some of the energy of the space-time vortex, so there's a chance it may not actually happen.

Anyway, when you get to be my age, it gets hard to keep up with current technology.  Part of the problem is simply time.  There are job responsibilities, there are family responsibilities, there are community responsibilities, and there just isn't as much time as there used to be to keep up with stuff.  There's another thing that happens, though.  At my age, not only do you have less time to keep up with current technology, you lose your desire to do so.

See, when you're young and something new comes along, you're reaction is one of excitement.  You say, “Wow!  Look at that!  That's cool!  I've got to have one of those!  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet, and I'm not sure how useful it'll be, but who cares?  It's awesome!  I'm sure I'll figure out something I can do with it.”  And you get it, and most of the time you do figure out something you can do with it.

When you're my age, though, and something new comes along, you're reaction is one of skepticism and suspicion.  You say, “What do I want with that?  What good is that going to do me?  Why can't I just keep doing things the way I've been doing them?  The way I've been doing things works just fine.  I'm used to it.  There's nothing I can do with that thing that I can't do the old-fashioned way.  Why should I change?”  And so you don't get it, and you fall behind.

The problem with falling behind, of course, is that once you fall behind, you keep getting farther and farther behind.  Another new thing comes out, and then another, and then another.  And you feel like society has passed you by.

Understand, this is not something we make a conscious choice about.  No one wakes up one morning and says, “I think I'll start being suspicious of modern technology today.”  It's something that just kind of happens to us as we get older.  It happens very gradually.  It happens without us even realizing it.

Understand, too, that I'm not making a value judgment here.  There's no sin or virtue involved. I'm just saying this is the way things are.

If you've decided not to keep up with modern technology, that's your choice, and you're free to make it.  If you want to be the guy who still loves his old cassette player when the world has gone past CDs and is now all digital, that's fine.  If you want to be the person who stays home to watch their favorite TV show because they won't learn how to record shows, there's nothing wrong with that.  But understand the consequences of the choice you're making.  We can make a decision to step out of the modern world, but the world will not stop for us.  The world will keep on going.  We can choose not to be part of it, but we can't stop it.

So, I've decided to at least try to keep up.  I've been on twitter for some time.  I've got a smart phone now.  I haven't figured out what all I can do with it yet, but I'm going to learn.  At least, I'm going to try.

If we want to be relevant in today's world, we need to use today's technology.  So does the church.  It doesn't make us better or more virtuous or more holy.  But it does make it easier for us to relate to people.  And if the church wants to reach people, it needs to be able to relate to them.