A Brief Review Of A Christian Worldview Of Technology

Today people live in an era of unparalleled change brought about by rapidly developing technologies. It is estimated that human information and knowledge doubles about every 13 months (Schilling, 2013). The speed at which technology and information changes and increases leaves little room for reflection and thorough study let alone ethical and moral response. To many times technological progress has been perceived as fundamentally good and necessary but people throughout history have had to deal with both the benefits and the consequences of technological progressions. Technology, in several instances, can be looked at as a double-edged sword. In one area it is extremely beneficial but at the cost of something else. Many times that something

The worldview of the person has drastic implications on what is ethical and what is not. Many may look at technology in a physicalistic way where something like biotechnology seems practical and ethically sound when applied to saving someone’s life. Where someone who is more idealistic would think there are major ethical questions to be asked. Another example, if looking through the lens of a Christian worldview, does this technology continue to take and apply the creation mandate from God to subdue and have dominion over the earth (Gen 1:28 ESV) or does it fall prey to creating an idol or taking sacred life. Just a simple technology like social media has huge ethical questions for a Christian world view. Does the premise of social media make people idols and instead of worshiping God, people then worship themselves and the lives of others? The beliefs of the people the technology affects will always play a huge part in asking the ethical questions. This is what makes piecing out the ethics of technology so difficult. Adding the speed at which different forms of technology is rolling out makes it practically impossible to keep up. Because of these challenges, society has had to modify value systems to account for such changes. Many times this leads to a wait and see, ignorant approach or in other words if there is no

Over the past decade, social media has emerged as one of the fastest growing and accepted technologies in the world. The marriage of social media and other technologies, like smart phones and tablets, has created a booming online network. With 1.4 billion active users (Statista, 2015), the social media network site Facebook, if a country, would be equivalent to being the fourth largest country in the world (Harf & Lombardi, 2013, p. 207). It is safe to argue that social media has impacted the global society but because it has happened so quickly, no one a definitive analysis of its impact, yet. Social media at its core is forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information and build relationships (social media, 2015). Though social media’s goal is to connect people that before couldn’t connect regularly, more and more people attribute loneliness and the lack of social skills to this exploding technology (O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). This perfectly displays the double-edged sword rapid developing technologies