Living in the World
Technology Famine

It is truly amazing how we see Olympic events from Beijing and other venues in China live. As we have commented many times, however, technology is not a zero sum game. It has taken a toll on individuals and cultures. Technopoly by the late Neil Postman is a great read from that standpoint. As you watch the Olympics and text you friends about the amazing competition, keep in mind this quote from Albert Borgmann from Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology:

Telephone and television are the technological devices that have weakened literacy and impoverished the culture of the word. Electronic machines have disburdened us of the demands of reading and writing. Once we had to impact our worlds through the work of writing or telling, and we had to gather our worlds laboriously from the promptings of writing and our fund of experiences and recollections. Now information is handed to us as readily available sights and sounds. Engagement with the world has been yielding to the consumption of news and entertainment commodities.

So, take a break from the events and write to your aunt [not e-mail, a hand written note] and read a good book. The written word written and read word will nourish you in an image sated world of entertainment.