By Joseph J. Mazzella
With the ever increasing speed of change in today’s world I have to admit that for the first time I am beginning to feel my age. When I was a boy being online meant helping my mom hang up my jeans on the clothesline behind our house. Twitter was what you heard from the birds in the trees. There was no Facebook although I often had my face in a book. A smart phone was one with a long cord so you could walk around while you talked to someone. A mouse was something our cat chased. And a computer was the strange thing with the blinking lights I saw on the science fiction television shows.
These days I have learned how to work a desktop computer and I am grateful every day that I took a typing class sin high school. Yet, it seems like there is always a message on my screen asking me to update my software and I am concerned that as soon as I learn the new system it will already be out of date. My daughter can work her smart phone with the skill of a concert violinist. Whenever I need the answer to something fast I ask her, she asks her phone, and we have the answer. Still, I am thankful that she turns it off from time to time. Every day I see teenagers with their heads permanently bent to their phones while life passes them by.
I am not worried about where this technological trip is taking us, though. I know that all roads lead to the same place. We are children of eternity and eventually we all must return to God and his love. Our smart phones and social media won’t be making the trip with us, either. The only things we can take with us are what we have learned and the love we have shared. The only computer we will be carrying into the next life is the software of our souls.
Don’t give your life over to technology then. Instead use technology to help you share your love, shine your light, and spread your joy. Use it to help others and make this world a better place. Use it in a way that makes God smile and the angels sing. And then after you are done turn it off. Remember, what is essential is inside of you. You may be a child of technology today but you are a child of eternity, forever!
