Technological gluttony

This past week I ran across that jarring phrase. Those words came at the end of a paragraph in Richard Foster's book Sanctuary of the Soul where he describes how people complain about our wired world while utilizing all the gadgets at their disposal. He states that the Internet culture is symbolic of a fundamental problem, namely, distraction. We will do anything to fill time, to feel busy, to believe we are connected and engaged. Later on he quotes Blaise Pascal, "The sole cause of man's unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room."

Since buying my iPad seven weeks ago my room is now seldom 'quiet.' I enjoy doing puzzles, playing dominos and a few card games. These I usually do while the TV is on in the background. While some might call it overlapping, Foster might call it distraction. I call it the inability to stay focused on one thing. That's part of my Myers-Briggs profile. I'm a high P and can easily flit from one interesting thing to another. Give me two to deal with at the same time and it might seem that I should thrive. But, actually, I'm getting worn out.

Someone recently mentioned that there is only one facility focused on technological addiction and that the waiting list is two years long. Part of me gets it. Once I didn't go to the health club because I had forgotten my MP3 player. How could I be on the treadmill without my story/distraction? At the office we wonder what to do when the server goes down. even though there is plenty of paperwork, planning, and simply thinking to be done.

Just like in everything else, technologically there are the haves and the have nots. There is a technological divide and there are technological deserts. I might be late to the table of phone and pad, but drawn in nevertheless because I live in a place where that is possible. Meanwhile schools around the world struggle for access to information. There are places where people still go to bed when it gets dark. Here we live in a society where we fight sleep in order to finish the movie or chapter or until we get to the next level of a game.

Even as I am grateful for the small mobile screen and separate keyboard that allows me to write, search, and play, and for all of the good that technology does, I shudder at the electronic speed of life today and its accompanying lack of need to sit quietly in a room. One goal for this week is to take a breather from the technological gluttony of my life and see if I can sit quietly in my room just for a little while. You up for the same challenge?

Marilyn