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7 Bitter Takes About Technology

7 Bitter Takes About Technology

It's February and I hate Everything, Why Not This Too

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Anne Kennedy
Feb 21, 2025
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Demotivations With Anne
7 Bitter Takes About Technology
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I’m going to chat about it on Read the Comments this morning, but there’s some back and forth going on in my com box about technology and conservatism that I thought I would just have one or two—or seven—thoughts about.

a typewriter with a bunch of flowers on top of it
Photo by Fiona Murray-deGraaff on Unsplash

one

Reepicheep writes

I’m eternally flummoxed how we conservatives on the one hand claim that mankind has been broken since the fall, and on the other hand claim that families were working just fine until technology came along. What leads us to make these cognitively dissonant claims? It’s not gadgets or dishwashers or factories we need saving from, friends. It’s hating God.

I’m not sure if I am one of the “we conservatives” that Reepicheep is annoyed with. I do love complaining about technology, the washing machine and the cell phone in particular. It’s one of my favorite pastimes. And one reason I love to complain about it is that some of my formative years were spent with no electricity and running water. The water had to be pulled out of the well, the lamps had to be lit in the evening. My parents collected language data on little cards that they kept in shoe boxes so that, years later, when a computer program was developed, it was called “Shoe Box.” We had a propane-powered fridge and a battery-powered radio, and a moped at first, and later a car. The night was so dark, that the band of the Milky Way seemed quite near. It was very romantic, and physically and emotionally taxing.

The small village where we lived was full to the brim of generational sin the way that every community around the world is. Untangling who was related to who by which mother took years and years. Who hated who, who had been poisoned, which wife was the favorite, which person had put a curse on whom—the dysfunction was practically Biblical. One of my favorite things in life, even now, is to hear the news from the village, if ever it can be got, for that place is not safe for foreigners anymore. I don’t know if I will ever get back there, and if I do, it won’t be the same anyway because everyone moved to the road and has electricity and a cell phone. In fact, my parents are still able to keep up the work of collecting language data because of WhatsApp.

two

There’s no cognitive dissonance, for me anyway, because I’ve never ever claimed that families were “working just fine” in the past, and now it’s all spoiled because of technology. No, what I’m observing is that certain kinds of technologies are creeping in closer and closer, even going past the barrier of the flesh, like some sort of anti-Holy Spirit, and that these are being embraced, in many cases thoughtlessly, like the way I was so happy when I got a smartphone, little knowing how much I would hate being so bound to it a decade later.

The shifting of the world’s populations from villages into cities and towns to do atomized work in factories, the taking of fathers and then later, mothers, out of the home—all of these things happen to communities so quickly that many people don’t have time to reflect or consider what would be a good way of life. And because we are adaptable, we make it work. We form new ways of communicating. We accept that the computer changes to the tablet, that the floppy disk changes to a thumb drive, that there is something called a ‘cyber world,’ that the car should hook up to the phone and the two together should be able to instruct you as to which way to go because they have learned your habits. Suddenly, the intimacy of your thoughts and prayers to God is broken because Siri is upset that you tried to go a different way, and then, when you get there—wherever it is you happen to go—you have to listen to stupid music pipped in and no way to turn it off.

And the very worst thing about it is that all these technologies promise to make people happy and functional.

three

One advantage people had in the past is that they did not expect to be happy. They expected to live for a while and then die because that is the human condition. A lot of people in the past knew that they ought to do their duty and worship God and they tried to do it, however ineffectually. They didn’t have to question basic existential realities, like what a woman is, or a man, and how children should be brought up.

Again, having grown up in a place where people’s expectations were aligned with reality, for the most part, there was a low-grade kind of contentment that is the property of most mortal creatures. There was only one crazy person for miles. When a child died, there was enormous grief. When the rains didn’t come, it was catastrophic. But on the whole, people mucked along. If you asked them if they were happy, they might not understand the question. Everyone, as the years went by, decided they wanted to go to America and get rich. Fortunately, most people had no means to do that.

In Western countries today lots and lots of people are unhinged and depressed at levels I have not seen before. One problem with so many of the devices we have is that they trick us into desiring a world that does not exist. They gaslight us. They make us feel sad so that we scroll a little more to try to cope.

four

One thing that makes me really miserable is Grammarly and, also, co-pilot which for some reason is on the dumb machine I am typing on right now. I didn’t ask for either of these “interventions.” They intrude on me. They try to anticipate what I’m going to say. They correct my tone. They don’t let me think for myself. And yet, because I am so unable to spell, I am afraid to throw them away. Also, I don’t know how to get rid of co-pilot because I am functionally computer illiterate.

five

In other words, the thing that’s stupid about the furious pace of technological “advance” is that it promises one thing and delivers another. And most ordinary people—me included—aren’t philosophically and theologically equipped to make wise choices, and to get some emotional and intellectual space from their use. We endure being lectured about the need to “unplug” but the world is not equipped for such a choice. I would love to turn off the lights and have candles, but I would freeze to death. I would love to throw my phone into the Susquehannah but I wouldn’t be able to communicate with anyone. I am being drug along against my will, against my natural inclinations.

six

There are some redeemed uses of technology, of course. Many of us have found dear friends across the cyber waves whom we can chat with instantaneously, should the need or desire arise. People’s lives are saved because of technology. People are pulled out of the prison of poverty because of so many modern conveniences. Christians can sort out problems with each other over vast geographical distances because of WhatsApp. The ancient practice of the Daily Office is renewed because of the App and because people can stay in their houses and pray over Zoom. In the Kingdom of God, you make use of unrighteous technologies, being as shrewd at least as the children of this dark hour. But none of that means that I am not allowed at least one lengthy post complaining about it all at least once a quarter.

seven

Observe how I have saved myself from finding any links about anything this morning. Read the comments below the line! Have a lovely Friday and hopefully see you all on Sunday.

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