Down in the iClouds

With the Internet becoming an almost indispensable communicating and transacting vehicle, more and more people are storing data –both personal and professional– in the web. Today, this growing container of mankind’s digital databank is call the Cloud.

There is no one institution that holds a monopoly over the Cloud. Although there are some big players providing greater storage space for a price, the Cloud is the sum of all cyberspace entities (private and public) providing any form of data storage over the Net.

One can only imagine what’s up in the Cloud! Documents, contacts, photos, movies, applications and everything that can be digitally converted. People find this lucratively convenient because they can access their personal data anywhere. All they need is a Wi-Fi hotspot and they could continue working, reading and transacting.

As people upload more things into the Cloud, they become more dependent on it, as well as on the intermediary means to access data like their smartphones and tablets. Internet connectivity has therefore become an indispensable socio-professional tool that gives one a sense of security and productivity.

This idea of storing up things in the Cloud echoed to me something that our Lord said. Except, that Jesus was talking about Heaven and not the Internet. I tried imagining how people would react if they heard or read the following verse from Scripture: “Store up treasures in Heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor hackers break in and steal.”

Jesus had originally used the word ‘thieves’ but perhaps, today He would have included hackers because they are the modern version of thieves who break in, steal and may even leave a trail of destruction when they attack network systems of governments and business institutions.

People today are indeed storing up their ‘digital treasures’ in the Cloud. In fact, many are showing a certain anxiety and paranoia when they do not have any access to the Internet. What would happen one day, if the Internet came crashing down? In fact, a preview of this are the recent attacks on some major sites by hackers who ‘broke in and stole’  sensitive data about users.

The Cloud can indeed be a wonderful tool, but if it becomes our ‘security zone’, then we could literally be tied to it. Instead of storing things up in Heaven, we are shackled down to a cloud that enslaves us here on earth. I’m not proposing that we shouldn’t use the Internet and its many helpful tools. I’m only reminding ourselves of the need to exercise a refined personal prudence, detachment and temperance in using it, as with any other earthly tool.

We observe prudence when we discern what we should store and send over the Internet. There is no need to upload everything we catch and clip. We don’t have to comment on and like every status that we find in Facebook or see and hear every video or MTV that comes out, and we need to be more selective in what we read and search for in cyberspace.

Detachment and temperance are important virtues, especially when access to the Net is so easy and cheap. We can’t simply give in to whims and comforts in the manner of resting and finding leisure in what is easier. We have to set our own timetables on when and where to use the Internet, so that it will not interfere with more important events like family meals together, conversations and even prayer.

If we strive to be constantly aware of and live these important virtues in using the Internet, we will not only avoid storing useless ‘digital stuff’ in the Cloud, but we will not get trapped by being caught up down by the Cloud. Instead, we will have the capacity to raise our entire being and all our activities, to the cloud that is Heaven, and there indeed store the treasures that truly matter: prayers, sacrifices, joy and peace. Heaven, the place “where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor hackers break in and steal.”