If this internet highway were to end today and you could no longer do business or communicate with your daily connections or businesses, where would you be?
What would you do? Would you panic?
Would you hibernate in a corner of your world frantically worrying over it?
Technology is a wonderful tool and as I see it, if used to it's potential, it will rule the world. We depend on this way of living and it can be a time saver, but I also see it is becoming our "savior".
Now that's where this topic really is leading too. The way I am viewing this equation of the situation that has become a problem or will become an albatross in some people's lives, brings to mind is this old saying: Divide and Conquer. Why? Well, I reflected on my obsession of this grand informational highway at my fingertips and reviewed the steps it has taken since the technology boom was born.
My oldest son is now 30 years old and it was through his introduction to a computer class in his seventh year of schooling that the doors of this new horizon was introduced to me. I was intimidated, confused, inferior to these brilliant students eagerly awaiting to tap onto the keyboards and go into an unknown world through the intellectually pieced hardware of pixels and bytes and rams and processors.
As I became accustomed to this box that buzzed and hummed and opened up windows to a world I never knew and knowing that I would probably never get to actually travel to see in my lifetime, much less actually talk to someone on the other side of the world, I became mesmerized and attached to an inanimate object that was breathing and talking to me in whatever form it was designed to communicate. When my children were learning, I was yearning.
Then the days became nights and I was neglecting my environment, my family, mySelf. I had replaced my world with this internet highway. Not intentionally, it just evolved and blossomed into a "love affair". I stopped being social with friends, I replaced precious time with my family to be on this contraption of fantasy and fiction, deciphered truths and world views. So I got creative and encouraged my family to join me in this new world. "Let's stay connected", "We can use this for emergency updates" and the list goes on for reasons for me to stay attached to "MY COMPUTER". I see where it now became a possession of my obsession and I didn't want to share it and I didn't want to let it go, oh no....not "My Computer!!! My life is in this monitor and in my processor. I did my business, correspondence, endless games and my music, my writings my WORLD!!! were in this box. How can I give this up???
Well, about a year and half ago, my husband and I had to give up our "obsession of possession" because of a drastic change in our life. We both had to give up our "WORLD" of slavery as I see it now. We moved to a part of the world that didn't have access to the internet or cell phones or digital cable and yes, there are places in our own country that do exist that does not have these "bondages" as I call them today.
For over a year and half, I had to get back to the basics of my life. I learned that I could still call someone and actually talk to them and have a meaningful conversation and what a feeling it was to HEAR a laugh, or a cry instead of using emoticons. I learned that I still knew how to actually write a letter and take it to the post office. I had to re-learn to schedule payments by mail again and that was comforting because I wasn't living in panic of questioning if they got my payments or not. I actually cooked good meals and sat at the table and enjoyed the time of fellowship with the family. I played games at the table with family members instead of some "user name" person on the screen of my monitor. But I must say, it was not a transition without some cleansing of my soul.
My focus had to be changed because I was losing my center of My Self. I had gotten caught up in the illusion of that internet world and became a "zombie" to my own world around me. Then God intervened with life's reality of what really matters and showed us what was "necessary" and "important" in our lives. So if I don't seem to be "active" in this box or you don't see my "online" light blinking, it's because I refuse to let this world take over my life. I respect it now, much more than I ever did. But I respect myself even more and I know what my priorities are now and to think I just about lost that thought of "basic self". I found my purpose for this technology age of world communication. It is through the knowledge and wisdom of my Creator and knowing that He is my main source of "gathering" and not letting the Divide and Conquerors of the world prevail in my life.
Where would you be?
Rainbow
ht of many colors filled with
