In our present digital age, there is great concern –more like an exaggerated condition to worry about and be insecure of– for connectivity. We can’t help but keep glancing at our phones, responding to the minutest notifications, checking the Internet for updated threaded status of friends and colleagues in Facebook or Google+, etc. We become restless when ‘missing out’ on something, even though it’s a trivial Tweet because not being connected is like forgetting to breathe.
Being connected is very vital for today’s lifestyle. But cell phones, like everything in life, have their high and low points. Although they are useful for communicating, they are also known to sometimes disrupt or interfere with other devices and engagements. For example, how irritating it is to hear someone’s phone blaring inside a movie or musical theatre, during an important presentation you’re giving at the office or even in between family conversations.
We are also told that gadgets may have hazardous effects that can send undesired signals which could ignite gas, disrupt or jam sophisticated flight gadgets. These prudent restrictions can really upset us but we understand why it’s necessary to abide because we don’t want to take the risk of their unknown interferences. Thus, we reluctantly turn them OFF in areas such as gas stations and when riding a plane.
I read an article in the science section of The Economist explaining the disruption caused by a hundred or so cell phones inside a flying plane. The real interference happens in ground communication cell sites. These somehow ‘get jammed or overloaded’ when receiving sudden simultaneous signals from 200 to 300 phones from a passing plane.
In some countries, the same article concluded, there are already planes fitted with ‘transmitting’ devices so that airborne cell phones will no longer need to jump down and jam a site below just to send a message or to make a call. While this technological development is not yet perfectly addressed, it is still wise to continue complying with aviation warnings.
* * *
If we readily comply with the techno-social norms in the proper use of our smart-phones why don’t we bother to care for the profound vital spiritual spaces of connectivity with God such as in prayer, the Holy Mass, and other liturgical celebrations?
Pope Francis in a recent audience said, “We know how important it is, in the most difficult moments, to be able to count on the suggestions of wise persons who love us.” He continues saying that it is in and through prayer that we are able to receive guidance from God: in prayer we learn to “put aside our personal logic, dictated most often by our closures, our prejudices and our ambitions,” and we “learn to ask the Lord: what is your desire? What is your will? What pleases you?” The Pope concludes that by asking these questions in prayer a “profound attunement matures in us.”
If prayer, as well as other irreplaceable spiritual engagements, helps us to ‘tune ourselves in’ with God and receive something that nothing in the world can offer, how can we afford to casually entertain distractions through our electronic devices while praying, attending Mass or fulfilling our family devotions?
Unfortunately, people are being dominated by their gadgets, tablets and phablets. Instead of soaring to the heights of the spiritual life and discipleship they are now running aground because of a thousand of digital interruptions. How sad (and distracting) it is to witness people during Mass casually sending text messages, receiving calls, surfing the net and even taking selfies.
Worse of all, is for people to see us priests succumbing to the same behavior during solemn liturgical celebrations.
Our worse thing is not so much how these electronic devices can control us, but rather how ‘we easily allow them to enslave us’ through the slightest digital impulse. When we cede to this form of digital domination, we allow one of the greatest enemies, sometimes more dangerous than mortal sin, to seep into the spiritual edifice: mediocrity.
Thus, people find it more difficult to ‘fine tune into’ God’s signals to them. Instead of achieving high flight, many are content to simply glide above low earthly realities and expose themselves to the danger of losing spiritual altitude and crashing in the end. It is no surprise that many become easily disappointed in their struggle and are unable to personally fathom the richness of our faith and Church.
Only through the exercise of a firm moderation in the use of such communicating means –and never as ends– will they properly serve their true purpose. Ironically, they work best when they are turned OFF, so that they do not disrupt or interrupt our high flight towards Heaven.