1000 percent agreement! Postman’s Technopoly in particular raises disturbing questions not easily answered. It set me on the path of inquiry about a decade ago.

It’s funny actually: I found myself reacting to your Postman series in particular because of time we’ve spent interacting with some other evangelicals who had uncritically adopted Postman’s views. I apologize if I allowed you to get caught in the virtual crossfire :)

I’m glad for the writing you’re doing. It’s very encouraging to me — I have so much that needs to be written (vs the workshops and presentations we’ve done over the last several years), and am just getting started!

I think you’re right to note that some of the “negative” effects of technology are really the result of human human depravity misusing technology, rather than any fault of the technology itself.

Postman might not be right in every case, but he does a good job of showing how technology influences society in ways we aren’t always aware of or which were unintended.

Would we say God’s character is always a Trade-Off?

I believe technology can be of God, created to be good, reflecting His character.

Thus, ideally, technology need not involve trade-off of good vs bad.

The problem is not that technology involves trade-offs, but that we do not submit its creation and use to God.

Did you ask God for insight in how to best use your new projector? Did you ask Him how to avoid its mis-use? Perhaps you would have seen in advance that “easy” is not always a good purpose for technology… that a projector can enrich, but simply shoving verses on the screen mostly makes the audience more passive.

Is our fast pace due to clocks or a desire for “efficiency”?

Do personal bibles actually decrease community? In other cultures, people find it unthinkable to read anything important in isolation. They read in community. [There's still the important question of multimedia (or "oral") culture vs literary culture.]

Is the problem with the travel-enabling, or with our desire to be in control of life? [I agree: many technologies empower the temptation to check-out from hard situations, whether near or far.]

I have a hard time believing that microphones (available for more than a hundred years, and cheap for more than 40) were significant in the onset of impersonal big-church. After all, we’ve had cathedrals with amazing acoustics for many centuries. [At the same time, literally deafening sound levels can cause great harm to young and old alike. How many churches are careful with sound levels?]

My point: we must be careful when assigning blame :)

There are some numbers I refuse to enter into my cell phone because I have noticed that the more I adopt certain technologies the more my memory stinks. It’s a small practice, I know.

I sometimes think that’s what happened in the projector story. Instead of individual Bible reading where each kid had his own Bible, we sort of returned to a communal reading of the Scriptures (albeit on screen) like the church before the printing press.

So I definitely don’t mean to be anti-technology, just thoughtfully so… especially since I get to connect to cool people like you and then meet in person!

I’ve had my fair share of jumping on tech stuff to early in my ministry experience, thinking it would help things, change things…and I was wrong.

I do like that technology is helping lead the way in some areas of the church…or rather bringing us back to places we need to be…I know, sounds vague what I’m saying. But I think there are some things that technology, social media is doing right, that we as a Church body can learn a lot from….

We should hang out sometime…would love to meet and hang out here in Dallas.

Rhett