Net neutrality?
Another hidden and unexpected result of internet usage is the two fold erosion of professional boundaries and balance. Because email is ‘free’ – businesses rely upon them in their communications with their staff. In an economy where job security is not what it used to be, the subtle pressure is to ‘remain’ connected to work, long after the work day is over. That healthy boundary between work and lei-sure begins to erode, as we feel ‘tethered’ to our smart phones, at the whim of every form of text and tweet and email from our employers. The pressure is to be ‘always on’ – in terms of people being able to reach you. And suddenly, we don’t know what it is to be ‘off’.
And where do more and more people go to ‘relax’? To surfing the internet, of course. Studies show that the passive reception of materials that much of the internet is built up-on fosters fatigue and dullness, and lingers on, long after we have turned off the computer.
Finally, there is the addictive nature of the net. Internet Video gaming disease is now listed in the DSM-V. Like substance addiction, video gamers show increasing tolerance levels, withdrawal symptoms when they stop playing, and cravings when they are deprived of the ability to play. 90% of 8 to 16 year olds have viewed porn, with the average age of first exposure being 11. Because it stimulates the pleasure centers of the brain and the dopamine receptors, pornography is even more addictive than internet gaming.
When it is all said and done, whether intentionally or not, our electronic communications contribute to “the feverishness of life.” There is a frenetic pace that happens when we are ALWAYS connected. In that pace, there is little room for the interiority needed to possess our own sense of being and self worth. How can we ever give ourselves away in the self gift of service, of discipleship, of relationship, if we never have possessed a self to give away in the first place? If all our energy and attention is focused on what is without, when will we ever have time for the work of interiority – of trusting the still, small voice of God that whispers into our silences?
The education that is ours to do as church is precisely around the question of integration. St. Ignatius of Loyola says it best. Everything needs to be evaluated according to one foundational principle. Does this ______ activity/choice/path _____(fill in the blank) draw me closer to God and my path home to him, or does it draw me away from him? Once we have discerned this, then we are to choose accordingly.