When black and white televisions began populating America’s homes in the 1950’s a great concern arose that society was becoming reclusive as people abandoned their front porches where neighbors had once gathered on summer evenings and retreated to their living rooms to be entertained by these new electronic picture tubes. Yet here it is almost sixty years later and people in our society appear to be as social as ever if not more so. In fact, the advancement of cell phones and the internet technology seem to have accelerated social interaction rather than diminish it.
Today computers and cell phones are as common among households as televisions. In fact, if you are reading this message you are most likely either in front of a computer monitor or staring at some sort of a smart phone or other hand-held device. Besides, if it were not for modern technology I probably would not have bothered to write it in the first place given the otherwise limited options for getting it published and distributed to an audience of readers. Now I can do it myself and the whole world has access.
Just as there was with the advent of television, though, there seems to be some concern that the world is turning into e-everything, that the younger generations have become reclusive and will continue to be more so. True, their eyes do seem to be glued to their electronic devices just as ours have been with the TV, but humans are social beings and always have been. Technology is simply a tool for social interaction not a replacement of it. People still desire face to face contact as they always have. Starbucks has successfully proven that by creating modern day public houses, neighborhood gathering places that are bustling with people at all hours engaged in social interaction.
Technology has certainly transformed the world in many ways, brought us closer together as a global society, provided innovative ways to communicate and express ourselves, opened up new markets for commerce and efficient ways to transact business. But it is only a tool, a tool created by man, and no matter how advanced computers become they will never replace human beings, who were created by God in His own image. And man, even the brightest and best among us, will never be able to out create God.