Some Thoughts on Modern Technology

This was posted in a Traditional Catholic group to which I belong on Facebook. The author, Mr Oliver J. Olinger, obviously has given some thought to this matter. I can only say that I share his optimism. Posted with the author's gracious permission.

[There is a poignant (I hope) Catholic message at the end of this, so bear with me...]

It occurred to me today that the definition of the phrase "I was present for that" is likely to change considerably over the next 10, 20, 30 years. Several companies are already working on incorporating Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) into social media. One startup is actually making a social network entirely based in a VR environment. It will allow users to sit on a beach together and just chat, face-to-face.

Even employment is happening less and less at an actual workplace. They're calling remote workers, like myself, a "distributed workforce." Employers are jumping on the idea because they are no longer limited to possibly inadequate local laborers. They can search for, and find, exactly who they want and need to fill a position. I predict that this phenomenon will only become more common.

Someday soon, the phrase "I was present for that" might mean, I was holographically there when that event took place. As it stands, social media is somewhat isolating, especially within the Millennial and Gen Z generations. And after the novelty of hanging out with friends in a visual, virtual environment when in reality you're actually all sitting in living rooms hundreds or even thousands of miles apart wears off, I predict that to be physically present, in body, with others will become popular again.

But it will no longer be necessary. Outside of bars and coffee shops, "hanging out" in person will practically go extinct. But people will yearn for it. And there's one place (other than bars and coffee shops) where being physically present will continue to be absolutely necessary... Catholic Mass. You can't transmit a consecrated host via fiber lines. You actually have to be there to receive it.

We're coming back in a big way! Just be patient and hopeful!

To which another member of the group replied,

I have little hope for the future of humanity. American millennials are incapable of conversing in person and Japanese millennial men prefer masturbating to porn than intimate relationships with women.
I think that what I consider technological wonders; cell phones, pc’s, iPads etc are incredibly addictive and have harmful consequences to minds that don’t predate their existence.

Mr Olinger expanded on his thoughts answering the comment. 

Somebody might have said the same thing about cars when they first came out, or radio. Tools can be used well or poorly. Right now, in today's climate, most people are using tools like the internet poorly. But the technology isn't going away. And just look at the traction the trad movement has gained via social media. We're in a transitional phase. But certain concepts and beliefs are suddenly popping up again that have been dormant since probably the WWII era.

I know a super liberal atheist who can't get enough Chesterton... whom he calls his favorite writer of all time. We have extremely influential people like Jordan Peterson drudging up old Catholic concepts that the world has all but forgotten (granted, he is not a Catholic and decidedly subjectivist in many ways, but he's intelligent and he's finding truth in Catholic teachings and sharing it with his followers). The idea of the Latin Mass is growing in popularity in diocese everywhere, especially among the young, who haven't been snowed by the off-target trendiness of the N.O.

We can't be beat. Even the Fatima message spoke of a resurgence of the Church that will be more glorious than anything that came before it. This whole Revolutionary Movement and Modernism thing just had to run its course. We're basically going through some tremendous growing pains right now. About 100 year ago, the world suddenly became much smaller. Suddenly, the next town was 5 minutes away. Then airplanes made a cross-Earth trip possible to accomplish in the span of a week.

Then, just a few decades later, the world suddenly became a lot BIGGER. TV, media, the internet, communications... local problems started to pale next to national and world-wide issues. People who previously only took interest in their local society suddenly started taking an interest in civilization in its entirety.

All this happened in a century. How could we not experience growing pains the likes of which have never been known? It'll all settle and after it settles, the Church will still be standing, just as it always has. All of these trendy political hiccups, like identity politics for example, will just fizzle out.