While watching the news last night I learned about another use for the Internet: confessing your sins. I was dumbfounded; I stared at the television for several minutes wondering if what I just heard was real. It was. I found several sites, one such example: ivescrewedup.com, which supported the newscast. I even found a blog from 2007.
Twenty-four hours later, I am still unsettled with this news.
I was raised in a catholic home. I followed the rules implemented by the church and my parents, until I was old enough to make my own decisions.
While I do not agree with confessing sins to another sinner, even though it is a priest, in “God’s house,” I am not quite sure I agree doing it on the Internet is any better.
Is God really reading the confessions? How is the sinner repenting? Do they just choose the number of Hail Mary’s and Our Father’s that they feel is necessary to be forgiven? Is it just more “instantly gratifying? Or is this a “new” way to clear a guilty conscious?
At what point do we draw the line and stick with the “real world?” The deeper people fall into the techno world, the less emotionally connected they will become. How will this lack of emotion affect the jobs of PR professionals? How will we connect with humans? Will we turn to psychologists to understand how specific types of humans are hard-wired? Will we have to tap into their psyche or will we have to focus on some type of subliminal messaging?
My fear: Human emotion will be erased from the physical world and people will become humanoids. Humans will not have to speak directly to one another, look at one another (face-to-face) or interact with one another. Humans will become so consumed in, and by their own world they will forget what bonds them as humans.
This is my futuristic look at technology and how it could impact human emotion. I see it happening all around me, everyday, and I am guilty of it too.
Example 1: I love my iPod shuffle, so much so, I decided to listen to my music while I was grocery shopping. What I discovered, shopping in my own world: I didn’t pay attention to the people around me. I blocked the isles, something I am very conscious of – normally. And I couldn’t remember anything that happened while I was shopping, not that anything exciting ever happens while I am grocery shopping, but I felt isolated and disoriented. I couldn’t tell you if there were more women then man shopping, or if the store was filled with bodies. That was the first and only time I ever shopped with my iPod.
Example 2: While leaving the Kent campus one night, a girl on her cell phone stepped off the curb, right in front of my car. She wasn’t paying attention to anything going on around her. I screeched to a stop; she just kept walking like I wasn’t even there. She never acknowledged the car or on coming traffic. If she did, she did it subconsciously.
Two common examples of how technology takes people out of the real world and places them into their own world.
2 Comments
April 1, 2008 at 12:18 am
– 4give me father, mother, angelic spirit, mother nature, allah,
buddha, god, jesus, shaman, zeus, rabbi, deacon, reverend, monsignor 4 i
have sinned.
— my last confession was Easter of 1983.
— graciously 4give me 4 everything stupid i have ever done from 1983-
2008. that should pretty much cover it. if u need any more info u can
text me.
– oh, i was wondering.. instead of saying 5 hail mary’s could i just make
a donation by paypal 2 this web site?
– r u kidng this web site confession thgz grt!! no need 2 confess in
person face 2 face, don’t have 2 forgive myself or make peace with those
i have hurt….no one breathing down my neck 2 say prayers.. no need 2
reflect on my moronic episodes.
–plz let me no when they come up with a web site 4 web cam bday
parties, weddings, christenings, 50th anniversaries, graduations, births 2
cut cost on xpenses………thx
April 24, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Confession on the internet? The idea is mind boggling and I find it even harder to believe it really does exist. I do not come from a religious background but the idea of confessing online is rediculous. We are destroying face to face communication which is the most effective form of communication and we are isolating ourselves from one another, I agree that we get so wrapped up in technology that we already act as if we are robots. People texting while they are driving, listening to iPods while jogging down the street or walking across the parking lots, technology is like outter space it literally allows the victim to escape the world around them and become completely oblivious to social or physical interaction with others. Technology consumes people it becomes their world, you just live in it. It’s rude, obnoxious behavior that are generation has created with the unquenchable use of the latest technology 24 hours a day 7 days a week, it’s an addiction. It’s out of control.