iPodalatry

It has come upon us in an expected unexpected flash.  We are within its sphere of gravity. It is a world in which “everything” has become of paramount importance because every event is apparently “proximate” in what I call this world of the “new idolatry.”

And so we have become a world of gossipers and unwary exhibitionists upon these new articles of worship that presents us with social media outlets such as Facebook and Twitter.  The internet and satellite communications have presented to our faces the most horrific stories in graphic detail. The resulting chatter about those stories is firmly implanted in the palm of our hands. The mostly negative vibrations over time quickly desensitize us from the originating pain, suffering, trauma, and shock suffered by the now one dimensional “peeps”  inside the screen to which our eyes appear to be seamlessly mesmerized. New words have been invented such as “blogs”, “aps”, “peeps,” ‘flash mobs”, “tweeting”, “texting” and even “sexting.”  The brain no longer has time to formulate and discern the truth of the events around us in terms of relative importance.

In our seamless adoration of these “iPods”, and “droids,” we are close to every shooting, every robbery, every riot in the streets, and every decapitation simply because of the speed with which it reaches the “device.” The device, like a black hole, has captured the gravity of our attention. The device “flattens” the message from the original three dimensional realities into a potato chip version of the whole potato. So you see, that with the quickness that the picture has been received, it can quickly be discarded as the mind races voraciously for another flash of something new, something more colorful, something more gruesome to our already entertainment addictive desensitized minds. This is the brave new world of how today’s thoughts are engendered, cultivated, and seasoned, like fast food as we move through the drive through windows of our next set of cravings.

In such a world, our ideas about truth, justice, fairness, goodness, what is evil, and what we want to be when we grow up is collapsed by the ever increasing ferocity and velocity of our hunger for the sensational. As a result, our relative proximity to events that should not govern our day begin to take precedence over the real things of real proximate value and importance surrounding us – namely, our family, our friends, and our immediate life-surroundings. I am not saying that events far away from us geographically have a diminished value. However, the technology of today has presented us with a false idea that we should chime in, or have some say in these matters even if we are out of context. Our contextual rights to express ourselves are simply that, but when technology has given us the means to do so adding on the luring layer of an expectation that we actively participate immediately. We are given the options to “comment” in words, photographs or videos, or simply register our “like” for what glosses across the screen.

The result is that we then find ourselves among a virtual anarchy of equal competing voices squabbling as in a gaggle of geese demanding attention or madding storms of swallows vying for space as they undulate across the sky. This is certainly not the goal of democracies and certainly not republics. 

We even pray now, no longer opening treasured texts, those delicate onion-skinned pages spiced with the wisdom of the ages. Instead, we are spoon fed by these new found electronic tablets. We no longer have to use our fingers to turn the pages and move the colored ribbons that mark the proper pages. The device conveniently keeps you on the correct page. Therefore, we no longer have to spend any time preparing for the next day’s prayer. We no longer have to take the time to contemplate the sacredness of the time to be spent. Instead, we are “calendar-ized” and scheduled to the point that we eventually begin seeing everything we do in relation to the device, its settings, its aps, and most of all, our relationship to that device. We begin seeing our reflection in the device as though through a mirror.

And what does God say about all this? You will not find his voice in these tele screens. You will not hear him speak to you electronically. His voice is best heard “by still waters”, in the deep pages of scripture as rendered upon real books, and in the real eyes of real people that are right next to you at the kitchen table. Look up, put it down, and turn it off. Listen.  (776 words)