The introduction of new technology into a culture often has ramifications beyond what the developers expect or predict.

 

Guttenberg could not have expected his printing press to erode the authority of the Roman Catholic Church by ushering in the Protestant Reformation. But the fact is that new technologies affect the balance of culture in both positive and negative ways. And these are not merely additive changes; they are transformative. The introduction of social media platforms and digital communication technologies is no exception.

 

Among the areas these technologies impact is our interpersonal relationships. After more than a decade of social media influence on our culture, we can now begin to see some of the unintended consequences.

 

Interpersonal Distance

While promising greater social connection, these technologies often lead to greater interpersonal distance. Of course, social media platforms allow us to network efficiently with more people, but that doesn’t always translate to greater intimacy.

 

Author Sherry Turkle argues that we are losing a skill that has traditionally allowed us to connect with other humans — conversation. In her book, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, Turkle writes: “insecure in our relationships and anxious about intimacy, we look to technology for ways to be in relationships and protect ourselves at the same time… We bend to the inanimate with new solicitude. We fear the risks and disappointments of relationships with our fellow humans. We expect more from technology and less from each other.”

If these changes are detrimental to our spiritual development, how should we respond?

 

The late philosopher Jacques Ellul expressed a similar sentiment decades earlier. In Perspectives on Our Age, he said: “Men become accustomed to listening to machines and talking to machines, as, for example, with telephones and dictaphones. No more face-to-face encounters, no more dialogue. In a perpetual monologue by means of which he escapes the anguish of silence and the inconvenience of neighbors, man finds refuge in the lap of technique, which envelops him in solitude and at the same time reassures him with all its hoaxes.”

 

We must acknowledge what technology can and cannot do. Electronic communication platforms do well at transmitting information but are poor at fostering intimacy. Why is this? Because digital content cannot effectively communicate the emotions of a person and the meta-messages in our conversations — the meanings beyond the words.

 

A significant amount of human communication comes through non-verbal channels (tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, etc.). Image-based digital technologies primarily convey words, leaving out the non-verbal content. And though emoticons attempt to resolve this obstacle, a teary-face emoji can never completely convey the sadness and hurt of our loved ones. That type of nonverbal communication can only happen in face-to-face encounters.

 

Electronic communication can transmit information effectively and efficiently, but intimacy comes through the presence of another person. Social media platforms limit that presence. As a result, they limit intimacy.

 

Lack of Empathy

In creating greater interpersonal distance, digital technologies also prevent human empathy.

 

Empathy is the ability to imagine the internal state of someone else and even experience another’s person’s feelings. Empathy draws our attention to the needs of others so we can express compassion. But before we can experience empathy, we must see others as people and not objects. Existential philosopher Martin Buber observed that we must see the other person as a “Thou” and not an “It.”

 

By obstructing our relational intimacy, digital technology creates an environment ripe for objectification. Internet trolling exemplifies this. The digital platform presents us with a faceless object instead of a person. This distance gives trolls freedom to say things to another person that they would never say in a face-to-face exchange.

 

The Gyges Effect, a disinhibition in communication, is linked to anonymity and the facelessness of the other. In this context, digital platforms serve as an obstacle to the conditions necessary for empathy to develop and grow.

 

Greater Division

By distancing people from one another and preventing human empathy, these digital platforms contribute to greater cultural division. An unbiased glance reveals the deep divisions that exist today. How is this connected to digital technologies?

 

Douglas Rushkoff, a media theorist, claims a “digital logic” creates a bias of distinction that trickles into society from the digital platforms and apps that our culture regularly uses. He says: “digital networks break up our messages into tiny packets, and reassemble them on the other end. Computer programs all boil down to a series of 1’s and 0’s, on or off.”

 

According to Rushkoff, this distinction — a polar opposite bias — creates an environment of pronounced tribalism and nationalism (or what he calls in a separate interview “anti-globalism”). I believe today’s culture also exhibits a more contentious partisanship.

 

After a decade-plus of influence on our culture, it is no longer a question of whether these technologies are changing us. The question is how they are changing us. And if these changes are detrimental to our spiritual development, how should we respond? We will consider possible answers in the second installment of this two-part series.