Don't be Afraid of the Mouse

I have a cousin who was a Safeway checker. She tells the story of a befuddled middle-aged woman who was using her debit card for the first time. After the woman had entered the PIN, the ATM machine waited for her to push the button for “cash back.” Not knowing what to do, my cousin told her “tell it [the ATM machine] you don’t want any cash back.” So the woman bent down toward the ATM machine, speaking loudly and clearly, said, “I don’t want any cash back.” It’s not really so funny as it is touching: have you forgotten when you first learned to use a mouse? (“Just point and click,” they said!)

Being intimidated by new gizmos and gadgets is nothing new. Since the invention of the printing press, horseless carriages, telephones and transistor radios, PCs and IPods, people have had to overcome their fear of change.

But more to the point, each of these ‘inventions’ resulted in far-reaching cultural changes. And now, in 2011, it is not only that we are looking down the barrel of huge cultural change, but it is the exponential acceleration of these changes. One has to wonder how much change the collective human psyche can endure.   With the exponential spread of technology, it seems we could reasonably conclude that the world is on the brink of an unprecedented cultural revolution. Could this be what Daniel meant when he said at “the time of the end… knowledge shall increase"? (12:4)