Issue link: https://discover.cph.org/i/1466964
Little has had a more dynamic impact on contemporary culture than electronic technology. I would argue that electronic technology is our feeble human attempt to copy God's astonishing creation of our capability to communicate who and whose we are. This creative package includes the brain and its extended nervous system components, including the eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and communication modifiers—memory, emo- tions, and body posture, to name a few. Electronic technology has afforded us fascinating ways to store and organize knowledge, access facts and fig- ures with a finger touch or voice command, and make wildly rapid computations unthinkably easy. We can even communicate what we are about without being in the same space as our neighbor, looking into their eyes or heart, or reading their body language to see if they understand our message. One could wonder if we will need a brain at all someday. Let Alexa do it! Clearly, and especially for our children, technology has gone from an informational instrument to an essential part of not just how they function but who they are. We are living in the days of "Generation Swipe." Swip- ing down an iPad has become a core physical charac- teristic in children as young as 2. I've seen it in my two preschool-age grandchildren. It's scary. Not only do I think we are losing cursive and spelling proficiency, but I also wonder how long it will be before our children can barely write their name by hand. Electronic signature, please. My concern extends beyond a lack of physiological devel- opment to the very heart of our young people's perception of identity. From the point we bring our children to the baptismal font, we pray by faith that the Spirit would contin- ue to mature their identity as children of God. Yet even within the Christian household, we are realizing that electronic media is often profoundly channel- ing our youth into negative or inaccurate understandings of self-image: Am I pretty enough? thin enough? tall enough? smart enough? handsome enough? Idealized or photoshopped imagery provides exceedingly false expectations. Much of this effect is because our teens are Influencing Children's Identity through Electronic Technology BY JOHN ECKRICH, MD 16 Lutheran Life