Intensity is focus is prayer; prayer is focused intensity; prayers is a way of willing meaning into being, even if you don’t believe in anything higher. This much I believe. If we do not speak inwardly in tones of devotion, our inner-life is dormant or dead. I see little different between the absolute atheist and a supercomputer — between a clever person and a person-like smartphone.
I saw a young mother today, waiting for the train, cradling her baby, while staring at a music video. Is this motherhood? Or is it just possession of a baby? There is no devotion to life in someone who would sacrifice a single second of connection with their infant for connection with a two-dimensional screen. Yet I have to be honest: I sacrifice my own devotional time for screen time; if I had a child, I’m sure I would be tempted to look at something stupid instead of simply being with my child. There is a case to be made that technology — going back to television — is destroying the very fabric of human communities: the bonds between parent and child.
Should we protest? Should we say something? Should we telling each other to wake up? Do we have a duty to demand ethical technology use from one another — even in public? even among strangers?
