Mom Convicted After Locking Son Out of Facebook (Responce)

Facebook is not only making headlines about privacy or technological progress. Dan Fletcher from Time Magazine writes about an surprisingly strange occurrence. A mom "was convicted on a misdemeanor harassment charge, receiving a $435 fine and mandatory parenting and anger-management classes, according to the Associated Press, as well as a 30-day suspended jail sentence to be served only if she violates provisions in her year-long probation." What was the reason for all this?
Was it some serious crime? No, it was for the simple act of locking her son out of his Facebook account. Granted that neither mother nor son acted  Biblically (see Associated press version); this court ruling is a sad reflection on our society's loss of parental authority. Parents have Biblical mandate to bring their kids up in the fear of the Lord, and children are commanded to obey their parents.This is God's clear and simple design -- which sinful humans have managed to corrupt for centuries, but never to such an extent.

¹But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. ²For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents,  ungrateful, unholy . . . ¹³But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. ¹⁴You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them
- 2 Tim. 3:1-2, 13-14 (NASB emphasis added)

May these kind of articles encourage us to think about the coming of our Lord, and to pray for the salvation of sinners before that glorious day.

Tecnology and our Illiterate society

Its no doubt that technology is changing the very way we live and exist. The last decades have experienced an exponential growth in technological expansion. From the way we wake up, to the way we communicate, almost every aspect of our life is in some way affected by technology.

Technology in an of itself is not sinful or bad, but  it is a mixed blessing. We should consider the effects of technology, just like we look at the symptoms and benefits of medication. While bringing imminence convenience to our world, technology is almost certainly making us(humans) dumber. Our society is becoming increasingly dependent on images rather than text.

A look at the progression of operating systems(OS) makes this point very clear. The newest operating systems feature a myriad of icons and images over the traditional text buttons. We are bombarded with commercials boasting of simpler and easier to use OS. This move to "easier more and convenient" looks like a great leap backward. In their studies scientist have found that monkeys can understand and respond to symbols. If the monkey presses the banana button he gets a banana. This is the case in most modern operating systems, "press the picture to get what you want." Another great example of this is ancient cave pictures and hieroglyphics. Before writing this was the main way to record information. Is technology leading us to a less literate society?

It sure looks like it is. This is easily seen by comparing the way we write to the past. Language is getting simpler as we know it. The lengthy eloquent conversations of the past have been replaced with short blurbs of abbreviations and half words. Just look at any one persons text messages, im, or twitter. Our society is encouraging, perhaps unintentionally, that we express ourselves with as little effort as possible.

This is a dangerous thing. As Christians we are called to examine ourselves 2 Corinthians 13:5, a practice that obviously requires a fair amount of thinking. Christians should strive to be more literate. After all the Bible is a book and not a set of images.

Relearning to read(and write) with you,
-Roman