The Internet's Missing Link — Human Contact
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin Articles
In a recent article by Newsweek technology writer, Clifford Stall, entitled, “The Internet? Bah!,” Mr. Stall lists several reasons why the Internet will never live up to the expectations of some folks in being a “utopia,” or as Mr. Stall writes, “Why cyberspace isn’t, and will never be, nirvana.”
One of the problems of cyberspace that Mr. Stall lists is:
“Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don’t know what to ignore and what’s worth reading.”
Another good point that Mr. Stall makes is:
“We’re promised instant catalog shopping — just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet — which there isn’t — the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.”
The most important point and observation that Mt. Stall makes in his article is this:
“What’s missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who’d prefer cybersex to the real thing? While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this non-place lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where — in the holy names of Education and Progress — important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued.”
Similar to Mr. Stall‘s view regarding cyberspace, there’s no question in this writer’s mind that we live in what I call a “fractured” society — an isolated society that very rarely interacts or communicates with one another on a personal plane, or “face-to-face” interaction.
What’s the point of all the above observations? That the best method of teaching others the saving gospel of Christ is still the “one-on-one” method that Jesus used in the first century, as He interacted with people “face-to-face” and “eyeball to eyeball” (note the word “taught” or “teaching” in Matthew 5:1-2; Matthew 7:28-29; Matthew 13:53-54; Mark 1:22; Mark 2:13; Mark 4:1-2; Mark 9:30-31; Mark 10:1; Mark 11:15-17; John 8:1-2).