Are We Getting Nowhere Fast?

I have a new car. I have always wanted a new car. Now I have a new car I am not so sure that it is a good thing! I took it in for a service recently and got a phone call asking me if I wanted the pollen filter changed? I didn’t even know it had a pollen filter…or that a pollen filter was a default issue in cars driven by those who don’t have too much of a hay fever issue!! The new car has an auto park function. Unfortunately I cannot say ‘Alexa, park the car,’ it has buttons to push and after nine months I still haven’t worked out what ones to push. Thank God, my driving instructor at the time taught me how to park a car manually.

I listened to a popular Catholic podcast recently whereby an interview was being conducted with someone who was a bit of an expert in the ethics of technology. He made some interesting points about how technology and technological development was accelerating at a pace which seemed to be for its own sake and not for the necessary benefit of humanity itself. Simple things such as the way Google can resolve a dispute on certain facts in an instant. Gone are the days of extended arguments and a trip to the library to look up a book and get the facts. Those ‘extended arguments’ were, what might come to be seen as, cherished human contact. Google maps has stopped us opening the window and asking for directions, let alone the development of our ability to form maps in our heads and a more acute awareness of our surroundings. This expert went as far as to say that the car itself had destroyed human interaction. This came to my mind when I recently saw a ‘then and now’ photo of a street in Southampton. The modern car filled photo saw the street empty of people. In the old photo people were walking in the middle of the street talking to each other.

Whilst I haven’t gone full Luddite (yet!) with regard to technology, I really am beginning to sense that we need to put the breaks on, reflect and decide is this really what we want. Is this really what will lead to our happiness and flourishing.

I had to do this recently with a student of mine who was struggling with reading. A colleague recommended an app for our class ipads. With this app, you can point the ipad camera at a book and it will read it for you. At first I was amazed and wowed by the inventiveness of it. Then I tried it and was disappointed with its level of accuracy. This gave me the all import time to reflect and not jump headlong into something. Did I want my student to be encouraged to spend more time on their computer tablet? Was it not better to retain and encourage more of the human to human paired reading? Are we handing over our human relationships to robots?

Things are moving so fast that if you don’t keep up you get left behind. Anyone who has taken a break from their chosen career will realise this when they try to return. Up until fairly recently you learnt skills and were trained in a particular field. These skills would last you most of your working life. Nowadays it is about continuously upskilling and ‘updating’ what you were initially taught. Change is so incessant that we can’t seem to get into any rhythm of continuity. Little is now used for an extended period of time before it is replaced. Covid restrictions, for all the negatives they brought, gave us all a chance to slow down and reflect. How many people took that chance I wonder. The build up to this recent Christmas season saw a return to a manic rushing around trying to consume as much as possible. How many stopped to reflect on the simplicity and calm reflected in the appearance of almighty God 2,000 years ago as a small vulnerable child. The one who can lead us out of this mess. The one in whom our restless hearts can rest.

Our restless desire for change I hope has reached something of a peak. It is like painting your sitting room a certain colour and within a few days of it drying, putting up wall paper…and when the wall paper is up, tear it down and put up wallpaper with flashing lights!

Let us listen to the call of our God every Christmas time…

Silent night! Holy night!
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child!
Holy infant, so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!