How Will This Gadget.....?

The alarm clock rang at 2:55am last night.  I woke up, removed the cat from my head, went downstairs, opened my computer, got online, and ordered a Verizon iphone. (For those of you who aren’t up on the latest technology news, many of us have been waiting years for Verizon and iphone to come together. The demand is expected to be huge, so they were offering the phone online before it arrived in stores.) 

Some of you right now are thinking that getting up at 2:55am to order a phone is about the dumbest thing you have ever heard.  And you may be right.  But almost all of us are on the “how much technology do I need and what is its role in my life?” spectrum.  Clearly our global society has changed with regard to technology and most of us are trying to figure out much we will join in. 

For example: 

*We use Skype in our family to let our children see and talk with their grandparents in Florida.

*A graduate school professor friend of mine has banned laptops in one of her classes.  “We are going to practice being more present to one another.,” she says.

*In the blogosphere, an argument is raging about how important social media is to the current protests in Egypt.

*A recent article in the NY Times entitled “Who’s the Boss, You or Your Gadget?” tells stories of technology either helping people balance their life, or driving them to workaholism.  

How is all of this related to whole life call?  Here are a few questions that emerge for me: 

1. Whole Life Call is about doing our work in the world well.  How will this gadget or that help me do my job better?
2. Whole Life Call is about, well, our whole life. Will this gadget or that help me navigate the various roles and responsibilities I care about?  How will it help me be more present to the commitments I care most deeply about?
3. Whole Life Call is quality relationships (not quantity).   How will this gadget or that deepen my relationships?
4. Whole Life Call is about our Spiritual life.  How will this gadget or that impact my spiritual life? 

Remember the story a few years ago about the pilots who overshot their destination because they were on their laptops?  It is a metaphor worth thinking about….

Doug Wysockey-Johnson

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