The Internet Is Down!

The Internet is down! Have you ever heard this statement? It can bring a wave of panic to flow over a teenager or even a web addicted adult. What am I going to do, no web surfing, no Hulu, no online gaming, Twitter, etc. These are some things that we do all the time, many people do not want to even go to the bathroom without bringing their phone with them.

A while back I watched an online ad for a product that I am not sure is even real, the pepper grinder that will turn off the internet and cable to all devices in the house. This is a way to make sure that everyone puts down the devices and shuts off the TV so that everyone can eat together without their phones or other devices in their hands.

We are a society that has constant communication ability, but we are losing the ability to communicate face to face. I see my nieces often texting each other when they are in the same room as each other and that is an issue sometimes with classrooms, it is the equivalent of passing the note to a friend. I read a study a while back in which they took cell phones away from teenagers for two weeks, and in the study, they realized that a good percentage of young people actually had withdrawal symptoms the same way an alcohol or drug addict would. We even do not seem to want to put the phone down when it is dangerous to look at it, just look around when you are driving and see how many people cannot seem to not be texting while they are driving.

A few years ago, during the “Back to the Future” day at St. Malachy school, the students created a time capsule and one of the things they put in it was a sample of writing and in cursive even, because they feel that in the next 30 years people will not be writing and cursive will be stopped first. In restaurants, I often see both the adults and children with a tablet or a phone and headphones in their ears with no one talking to each other.

We are an Internet and device addicted society, but we can help to change that. While I do like having the convenience of being able to pick up my phone and look something up, or use a prayer app on my phone because it is something that I almost always carry with me, I also need to keep reminding myself that I need to unplug for a while and spend some time with God, as well as with other people, because we are social people and we do need to have contact with others, and not just through a phone. Take some time away from the constant but impersonal contact that we have and spend some peaceful and prayerful time with our Heavenly Father in prayer so that we can use that peace to give to others.

God bless,
Fr. Ken