Being in the midst of the Information Age is tough, especially for someone like me that creates web applications for a living. It's great to have, but if (and when) it fails, will you be able to function without it? And if you allow it to, reliance on technology will make what used to be simple suddenly not so simple for the sake of using cool stuff. Where do you draw the line?
While I was in Philly, my cab driver spoke to me about his hatred for his hardly used GPS system in his car. He only uses it when absolutely necessary, due to his willingness to actually learn the streets of Philly for himself; otherwise, he'd be like lots of other cab drivers that would have no idea how to get to a side street if his GPS system were to malfunction. And though I must give that cab driver credit for his zeal, I would never discourage the use of technology to make life easier ... after all, it's what I do for a living. However, I think it would be ridiculous if you need a GPS to get to a street that's 2 miles away from your house, don't you?
At the same time, I can't (and will never) advocate to keep doing things the way they've always been done. I believe that technology (particularly the Internet) can be a great source of good in our lives; but where do you draw the line? In these times, I think it always good to follow after those that set a good example for you, like your church. My Church (the LDS Church) has embraced the Internet with full force with everything from scriptures, to reading our church magazines dating back to 1971, to providing me my entire lesson manual for the Sunday School I teach ... all online. Our newly ordained President of the Church even has his own website!
In light of these thoughts, I decided that there had to be a better way for a geek like me to improve my daily scripture reading. A short Google search helped me to find a site to do just that ... ReadTheScriptures.com. After setting up my free account and creating a reading schedule, I now get a chapter sent to my e-mail inbox every morning. Once I read my chapter, I can click a button from my e-mail message which updates my reading schedule online. It even has a way to mark scriptures from the site (which I haven't figured out how to do yet) and has a online journal for me to use, as well.
This has proved to be a great way to use the Internet for good in my life instead of a time waster. I am now encouraged to find other sites that will do the same for other aspects of my life that need improving. The Internet is truly powerful - but to not use it in a responsible way that add beneficial value to our lives would be unfortunate. Just because something's cool doesn't automatically mean that it's valuable. So there's the line ... does what you do on the Internet (or how you use it) improve your way of life, or stop your progress as an individual. I hope that this will be a question that all of us will ask ourselves with every site we visit moving forward, and that we'll seek out those sites that will support the good values that we seek to have in our lives.