August 1, 2002 == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Forgive Calvin professor Quentin Schultze if he sounds anti-technology in his
forthcoming book, Habits of the High-Tech Heart. He's not. But he is sounding
a warning about society's fascination (he might even call it a fixation) with
technology, especially when it comes to communication. His concerns are plain
in the preface.
"This book is partly a personal journey," he says, "to find my way in an era
when many human beings seem, like me, to have wandered off the trail that leads
to what Socrates called the 'good life.' I enjoy the Internet and other
communication and informational technologies, but I must admit that they do not
satisfy my need for moral coherence and spiritual direction. If anything, such
machines seem to divert my attention from the central concerns of life, such as
love, gratitude and responsibility, to relatively trivial pursuits with little
redeeming value. Moreover, as I talk with colleagues, students,
relatives and neighbors, I find that they generally feel a similar tyranny of
the informationally urgent. My own uneasiness about the information age seems
to reflect a widespread disquiet about the technologizing of everyday life."
Strong words from a man who not only has his own polished website
(http://www.calvin.edu/~schu/) and humming e-mail accounts on a high-speed
cable modem, but who is also one of the founders of the Gospel Communications
Network (http://www.gospelcom.net/), the most popular religious website in the
world. "Helping to build that alliance of over 300 ministries has been one of
the joys of my life," he admits. "Gospelcom.net has a good worthy purpose,
which you cannot say about a lot the noise and nonsense that masquerades as
evidence of the so-called 'information revolution'."
He has seen first-hand the power of wise use of the web to touch and change
lives. Yet, he worries if truly authentic communication is increasingly rare in
today's high-tech world. His new book is a working out of that wondering. And
he concludes that authentic communication is still possible. But it will take
some effort and some new ways of looking at technology and communication, new
ways that have their foundation in the old ways of such thinkers as Alexis de
Tocqueville, Václav Havel and St. Augustine, to name only a few.
"My goal" in this book, he says, "is not so much to discard database and
messaging technologies as much as to adapt them to venerable ways of life
anchored in age-old virtues. History shows that every technological advance
also delivers us to new moral quandaries. If we do not address such moral
dilemmas, we will lose our capacity to act responsibly."
Schultze says new technologies like the Internet and cell phones can provide
communication bridges among people, but often they simultaneously weaken the
moral fabric of existing relationships. He believes that cyberspace is no
substitute for face-to-face interaction, even though the medium purports to be
and we often attempt to make it so. "There is no online equivalent to Sunday
dinner among friends and families," he suggests. "Nor can cell phones magically
revive the decline of hospitality and neighborliness in our communities,"
Schultze warns. "In most cases, distance education is a poor substitute for
classroom learning or even living-room and café learning."
Schultze approaches the issue from his perspective as a Christian, but says
that his book cuts across religious boundaries in its recommendations for
appropriate use of technology (the book's subtitle is "living virtuously in the
information age"). "My biases flow from my commitment to the wisdom found in
the Hebrew and Christian traditions, which speak volumes about the important of
living virtuously rather than technologically. Silicon Valley is something like
the ancient Tower of Babel: an enormous and elaborate arena where overly
self-confident people are trying to make a name for themselves through
intellect, wealth and acclaim. Sooner or later it had to start unraveling under
the strain of its own arrogance."
"I believe," he says, "that God made us to be primarily face-to-face
communicators. We use speech to forge bonds of intimacy and trust and our
online communication can supplement this 'communion,' but it can't substitute
effectively for it. Excessive technological pursuits will weaken our
communities, congregations, business and families. Dialogue, especially
listening to each other, infuses our relationships with empathy, compassion and
civility."
Schultze says such in-person communication is increasingly difficult to foster
in the information age. We need strong, non-technological relationships as
moral leaven for our high-tech endeavors. That's one of the reasons Schultze
sees problems with things like weblogs (blogs).
"Years from now," he recently told FaithWorks (the magazine of Associated
Baptist Press), "anthropologists will probably conclude that our society was
media-rich and communication-poor. No society ever had more means of
communication, yet no members of a society ever felt so out of touch with one
another. Blogging, like personal web pages and live web cams, is one way that
individuals can speak out and feel like they matter in this impersonal world."
The solution, Schultze argues, is not to dismantle our growing technologies but
to pay more attention to what de Tocqueville called the "habits of the heart."
Schultze's book emphasizes six such habits (discernment, moderation, wisdom,
humility, authenticity, and diversity) as particularly important in the
information age.
"These habits, which embody the wisdom of the past and the virtue and morality
of the Hebrew and Christian traditions, must reshape our understanding of
digital technology," he says. "Otherwise we all will see ourselves more and
more like machines rather than like responsible creatures made in the image and
likeness of God to be caretakers of the Creation."
Apparently Schultze's book is already hitting a chord with a wide range of
observers of contemporary culture. U-Cal Berkeley physicist Clifford Stoll say,
"What a delight. On every page I found insight, depth and compelling thought."
Theologian Lew Smedes says that the book "is likely to be one of the most
important published in the year 2002." Calvin College has already tapped
Schultze to lead off the January Series in 2003.
The book will be available in August 2002 from Baker Book House.
Contact Quentin Schultze at 616-957-6290 or schu@calvin.edu
-end-
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