For some time now I’ve been interested in how technology impacts the way we spend our time, communicate, think, and even relate to others and to God. If you are old enough, try to imagine it is 1989 and someone sends you 20 years in the future. What would you think about the fact that everyone you see in public seems to have a phone stuck in their ear? What would you think about being able to do most of your shopping online? What would you think about Facebook or Twitter? It would be quite a shock, even though it would only be 20 years in the future.

My main concerns about these technologies revolve around how they subtly change our behavior. For example, people live in a bubble while in public now because they are consumed by their phone or ipod or handheld gaming device. How often do we ignore the person at the checkout counter because we are too busy with whatever device we have handy?

But there are other dangers as well – specifically the control these new technologies can give institutions such as governments and corporations over our lives. For example, recently Amazon got in hot water because they reached into users’ Kindles without authorization and deleted content ^[1] that a publisher had decided should not be on the ebook device (Amazon did refund the purchase price). They claim they will not do it again, but the idea that one’s whole library in the future could be monitored and controlled by a corporation or a government is cause for serious concern.

Oh, the book that Amazon deleted? George Orwell’s 1984. Somewhere an irony-meter exploded.