When was the last time you’ve thought about your heating and air conditioning system? On a good day, when the weather is moderate and the AC is working, you probably don’t think about the system at all. But if you, like many people in the U.S. right now, are going through the coldest part of winter, you might be thinking about it a lot. If your heater isn’t working, it might be all you’re thinking about!
Most technologies are like this. When they’re doing their job, we don’t think about them. We don’t have to. When shoes fit well or cars start right away, we think less about them and more about where we’re going. However, when shoes are uncomfortable and cars break down, we have a hard time thinking about anything else.
Philosopher Mark Coeckelbergh explains it this way: “[I]n use, technologies are not visible…and we just use them without thinking. Only when something goes wrong or when we take a theoretical attitude do we become aware of them….” In other words, “We use technology but do not stand back and reflect on our use.”[1]
The problem is that typically something goes wrong much more often than we take a theoretical attitude.
I grew up during a flood of technological development. In my lifetime, we went from having a personal computer in the home to having several personal devices on us at all times. We’ve gone from dial-up internet to wi-fi everywhere. Social media has gone from a fun thing a few people do, to an expectation we have for everyone we meet.
Yet through it all, thoughtful consideration has been scarce. We didn’t think much about access to the internet until children started being exploited. We didn’t think much about personal devices until we realized how addicted we were to them. We didn’t think much about social media until it warped how we view the world and the people around us. We didn’t start thinking about any of it until there were problems. In my opinion, we still don’t think about it enough.
In the past year, we’ve seen a tidal wave of artificial intelligence. Companies have been tripping over themselves to keep up. Platforms and devices now come stocked with AI features. People in all sorts of occupations wonder what impact artificial intelligence will have long term. We haven’t had the time to think well about AI technology even if we wanted to. Most of us are simply hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
But here’s the thing: It’s never too late to do the right thing. I don’t know who said it first, but I believe it’s accurate. The right thing to do is to think well about technology.
A Reciprocal Relationship
Sherry Turkle is a MIT sociologist and has made a career of thinking about technology. She has written prolifically on the psychological and social impact technology has on us. In her work, there is a recurring theme: “We make our technologies, and they, in turn, shape us.”[2]
One of the most important things we need to understand about the technologies we use is the reciprocal nature of the relationship. Because of this relationship, I believe thinking well about technology should begin with two questions:
1. What kind of person should I be?
There is a debate among philosophers about whether technology is morally neutral. Are there good and bad technologies? Or are there just technologies that are used in good or bad ways? But regardless of what position you take, it seems clear that the kind of person using any given technology is immensely important.
As a Christian, I find that my spiritual formation is infinitely more important than any feature my technologies have. No screentime setting keeps from being addicted to my phone better than a genuine concern for whether my phone is becoming my idol. No internet filter works better than a Spirit-filled desire to be holy. Don’t get me wrong. Settings and filters certainly help, but only if I’m first determined to be the person God made me and saved me to be.
2. What kind of person is this technology making me?
Ever since television became a household feature, people have worried that our attention spans are shrinking.[3] But the worry that technology makes us less capable has a long history. In the 15th century, there were complaints that books being mass-produced and readily available would make students lazy. Centuries before that, Socrates told the story of an Egyptian god reprimanding the inventor of writing because it will cause people to rely less on their own memory.[4] This may seem far-fetched. But every time I hear someone say, “I’ve done my research,” I can’t help but hear King Thamus’ words: “[T]hey will imagine that they have come to know much while for the most part they will know nothing.”[5]
Self-examination a crucial part of a life well-lived. Frequently, the authors of the Bible call us to examine ourselves and give us the resources for doing so.[6] Before we do anything with a particular technology, we need to consider what it will do to us. For the technologies that have already become a part of our lives, we should consider what our lives have become.
If we don’t think about these questions, we won’t until there’s a problem.
[1] Mark Coeckelbergh, Introduction to Philosophy of Technology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2020), 4.
[2] Sherry Turkel, Alone Together: Why We e Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other (New York: Basic Books, 2011), 19.
[3] There is actually no substantial evidence for this by the way. See: Simon Maybin, “Busting the Attention Span Myth,” BBC News, March 10, 2017, sec. Health, https://www.bbc.com/news/health-38896790.
[4] See Plato’s Phaedrus, 274e-275b.
[5] Coeckelbergh, Introduction to Philosophy of Technology, 16.
[6] See for example 2 Corinthians 13:5 and 2 Peter 1:10-11.