November 2011 Archives

     Sherry Turkle wrote a book about the effect that technology has on relationships, entitled Alone Together. Turkle starts out the book by talking about robots. She focuses on robots aimed at children and the elderly that demand nurturing and attention, such as Furbies and Paros. In the second half of the book, Turkle talks about technological communications, like texting and social networking sites. Turkle makes the point that the way people are interacting with technology is cheapening human relationships. Robots a Facebook "friends" have changed the definition of friendship. Computers program to respond to a person and texting have changed the definition of a conversation.

     The way in which the world is interconnected is changing. People are connecting to more people than was previously possible, but the connections are mostly very shallow. What it looks like to be human is also changing. People interact in different ways than previously and what is considered valuable has changed. Christians need to evaluate whether these changes are good or bad. It needs to be determined whether this new interconnectivity helps people support and interact with each other in a Biblically good way or is doing the opposite. Evaluation, instead of blindly accepting, is necessary.

     I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. The psychologist perspective was very interesting and engaging. I liked the way that the book approached the issue with case studies. Hearing the opinions of all those people really enriched my understanding of the issue. I found myself relating to a number of the people, particularly in the second half of the book. At one point Turkle was writing about how people are reluctant to make phone calls to each other, because it feels intrusive. I have this problem as well. I also could relate to those who use technology regularly, but do not want it to be that way forever. Face to face trumps Facebook. Talking in person trumps texting. We need real personal interactions. It's part of being human. 

     On November 16, Concordia held a convocation entitled Social Media: The Rise of Strategic Authenticity & Transparency. This convocation was led by Jason DeBoer-Moran. The convocation started out on an interestingly lighthearted note. Jason was introduced with some random facts found from his Facebook, then with some slightly true facts in a roast-like fashion. Jason then went on to talk about how social media can be used to advance a company, using strategic authenticity and transparency. Companies in this time, in order to be successful, need people to like them first in order to do business. They therefore need to come across as authentic, and need to have a smart level of transparency.

     Many of the things discussed in this convocation can apply to people, not just companies. Authenticity and transparency are necessary for relationships. At the same time, this does not mean that a person has to share all their secrets and everything about them to have a relationship. With both companies and people, strategic authenticity and transparency can be extremely useful. This applies especially to being a Christian as well, because authenticity and transparency are absolutely necessary to proper witnessing. Witnessing is about relationship, and witnessing is most effective from vulnerability. If a Christian is not authentic or is not transparent enough to show their imperfections, they are doing more harm than good. The world is an interconnected one, so authenticity and transparency are important to ensure healthy connections.

     It was very interesting to learn more about how companies use social media. I enjoyed the informal nature of this convocation. It did bother me, however, that in the presentation authenticity was spelled "athenticy." It was made by a person, so mistakes do happen, which is acceptable, but it was a little distracting. I think that I should strive to be a little more transparent in my life. This convocation helped a bit in figuring out some ways I could do this. Weakness connects people in a way that strength never could. I should, therefore, not be afraid of showing weakness. A reasonable level of transparency is a good thing.   

     The Honors class recently finished reading the book The Shallows by Nicholas Carr. The book is about how technology and the internet have changed the way people think and the way brains work. In arguing its case, it explains the way other advances have shaped the brain throughout history, like the clock and the book. The author discusses how perceived value has switched from deep thought to multi-tasking with the rise of the internet. With the instant access of information that the internet provides, the author argues, people no longer feel the need to know information themselves: knowing where to find the information is enough.

     This book is most easily relatable to being human. This book is all about how what it means to be human has changed and is changing. More specifically the measurement of intelligence in humans has changed, is changing, and will change. Some people would probably argue that the change from deep thinking to multitasking would hurt the way Christians read and understand the Bible. Also, if most people stop reading books, then that could leave most Christians declaring faith in a book they've never read. They could, however, find it on the internet. There is not too much concern over, though, because there have always been people who claim to be Christians who don't really know the Bible, and there have always been Christians who study it and attempt to understand it. There will always be some of both. This also relates to being in an interconnected world, because that's what the internet is. The internet connects people to scads of information and other people with minimal effort. This book is very related to the honors course.

      Although Carr makes some good points, and gives interesting descriptions of historic shifts in thinking, we cannot blame technology and the internet for our problems. It is simple to say that it's because of the internet that we cannot concentrate or read for long periods of time, but it's not that easy. We are not free from the responsibility for our actions and thoughts. If the internet is changing the way I think, I am responsible for evaluating the change and acting accordingly. If I cannot concentrate it is my responsibility to figure out how to counteract that and concentrate anyways. I am responsible for my own actions. My concern over this book is that people will read it and think, "Oh, this is happening. There is nothing I can do about it. It is the internet's fault so I will just accept it." This is unacceptable. If something needs to change, I am responsible for changing it. If something needs to be kept from changing, I am responsible for protecting it. I cannot passively accept this internet-induced though change as truth. I am responsible for my own actions. 

     Monday night, the Honors class had a guest lecturer: Dr. Leslie. The main topics that were discussed were wellness, illness, aging, and death. Dr. Leslie challenged the students to consider what it really meant to be well. He talked about how wellness is a more recent topic of discussion and was not something people thought about 50+ years ago. Illness was then discussed, especially how much of difference there is between illnesses that kill people now and what killed people 100 years ago. Then, the class was challenged to define old. After that, Dr. Leslie taught about what happens to the body when it ages. The discussion was ended with a brief discussion of death.

     This discussion was very interesting in the way it brought together being human and Christian. It was all about being human and some of the physical and emotional things that come with that, but it was from a Christian perspective. Illness, aging, and death do not have to be feared so much, because God is in control. The final destination is heaven. Dr. Leslie also discussed his philosophy on how to be a Christian doctor. He keeps three focus points: encouragement, hope, and respect. These can apply not only to being a Christian doctor, but also to being a Christian human. Christians should treat others and themselves with encouragement, hope, and respect.

     One particular thing that resonated with me from this class period was said at the very beginning. Dr. Leslie said, regarding medicine and the medical community, "Whatever your perspectives are now, they are going to change." This is something I have found to be true in almost all of life. At the beginning of this semester I found myself repeating something similar to this. The first few weeks of school have very little to do with the rest of the year. This statement is true everywhere. My perspectives on a lot of things have changed recently, so it is very valuable for me to remember that they will change again, and that is ok.