Lately I have been thinking about a book I read a long time ago. It is Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. It was published in 1970. This was before cell phones and iPads and the spread of computers. But one of the main themes of the book is to warn us to guard our humanity in the face of growing technology. The author suggests that the increased use of various forms of electronic and mechanical technology would have a negative effect on our ways of relating with each other.

If that was true in 1970, it would seem it would be even more true nowadays. I easily think of the image of so many people walking down the street staring at their cell phones, or people sitting around a table at a restaurant, not talking to each other but looking at their phones, checking emails and social communications sites. I think of young people spending so much time on electronic games. (Yes, speaking like an old person!)

Some years ago, television was referred to as a “wasteland” where people wasted so much time staring at the “boob tube,” as it was jokingly named. There may be a whole other kind of wasteland developing which involves the use of cell phones and other electronic gadgets.

What Alvin Toffler suggested as a way of counteracting the erosion of our humanity was to be careful to keep engaging with each other as human beings. He used the phrase “high tech-high touch.” In other words, as we engage more and more in technology, we ought to be careful to “touch” one another. This did not necessarily mean actual physical touching – though it could be that – but touching in the sensing of “keeping in touch.”

We might think of using our phones, not as a screen to stare at, searching out web sites and social media sites, but actually to call other people and have conversations. And, of course, going further than that would be to actually meet with people, sharing meals, taking walks together, doing actual face to face visiting.

And then, for ourselves as individuals, there is the choice of simply getting outside into nature, even such as to take walks in town as well as to visit parks and other areas where we can appreciate the world around us.

It would seem to me that our life of prayer and worship would also come into play in the area of expressing our humanity. People more and more easily decide that they don’t need church and community worship. We can easily become more and more individualistic in the way we spend our time. There is so much talk in church circles these days about “synodality,” different ways of getting together to discuss our life in the church, to really participate rather than to be only passive observers in the life of the church.

And then there is always private, personal prayer. That does not involve “touching” other people, but it does involve putting down our gadgets and getting in touch with our inner selves, to truly reflect on what is going on in our life of thoughts and feelings. In prayer we touch our own humanity and we become more aware of the presence of God.

As I think of the danger of becoming less human, I easily think of all the recent news of warfare, death and destruction. Humanity, indeed. The Holy Father has called for Christians to examine their consciences if they are indeed involved in the current war making. Is anyone listening?

There was some criticism of treating some of the combat as something like a video game, not admitting the actual human destruction that is done by bombs and missiles. How, in the face of all this mayhem, do we maintain our humanity?

Alvin Toffler warned a long time ago about the effects of all sorts of technology on our humanity. What has happened to people since he published that book in 1970? Has life become more or less humane? The electronic gadgets are not evil in themselves – as with so many things, what matters is how we use things. But in the matter of bombs and missiles, maybe those things are evil in themselves!

Individually, we can’t change world events. But we can look into our own humanity, our own use of our resources and examine what we might be doing to our own humanity. Maybe we can keep in mind Toffler’s short formula: High tech-high touch.

– Fr. Tom Zelinski, OFM Cap.