Faith Venture

Technology is supposed to make our lives better.

This has been true for thousands of years. A better plow. Figuring out how to use oxen to pull the plow. A simple pull cart leading thousands of years later to autonomous vehicles. Medicines.

Technology in just the last decade figured out better ways to blow people up, yet on the other hand better devices to replace those missing hands, arms, and legs. Better mobility for invalid people.

And yet—there is social media.

With all the problems in the world to solve, today’s prevalent technology mostly serves to spread hate, fear, anger, lies, division.

The latest issue of MIT Technology Review proclaims technology has let us down.

The thesis contains much truth. But it doesn’t have to.

Technologists could remember that they have a moral responsibility to make the world a better place. And, so could users of technology.

After all, the inscription on Pete Seeger’s banjo read, “This machine surrounds hate and forces it to surrender.”

We could, if we wish, develop and exercise our spiritual muscles and go on a “social media diet” and be mindful of our use.

Technology, and we ourselves, do not have to let society down. We can be the solution, not the problem.

This entry was posted on June 24, 2020 at 7:24 am and is filed under Disciplines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.