In the end, technology is just a conduit for our own humanity. We complain that we’ve become addicted to glowing screens, but it’s less the screens themselves than what’s behind them: thousands upon thousands of other humans, all interacting with each other in degrees of real time, a mirror of society itself. I don’t believe that interacting with other people more makes me any less willing to reflect on how I fit in to this tapestry of lives.
You’ve heard me say many times that all the hand-wringing about technology’s pernicious effects on our souls is a disingenuous means of avoiding the harder questions about what it means to flourish as a human being, about how many different ways there are to do so. Likewise, taking for granted that an authentic life must contain ample amounts of reflective solitude is an exercise in question-begging, one which privileges the accomplishments of the intellect over the apprehensions of intuition. Contemplative stillness does not necessarily bring one closer to the “truth” of existence, and I say that as a devotee.