Quentin Schultze is not exactly wrong in much of what he writes in Habits of the High Tech Heart. There is certainly a danger to human community in unquestioned adoption of high-tech values. From where I stand, I consider my call to be in the area of working toward "redemptive technology". To use a suggestion Schultze offers on p. 72 (in the Chapter Seeking Wisdom in Tradition):
Ultimately, we should hold all our high-tech endeavors to this test: Do they foster the joy and harmony of shalom, or do they sustain alienation, conflict, unhappiness, and injustice? Seeking shalom helps us to see our informational pursuits as part of a responsible vocation, not merely as instrumental tasks or selfish leisure pursuits.
If only this thought had been expanded and more space devoted to what this might look like. I guess this is what I had expected to find at least a little of when I saw the subtitle: Living Virtuously in the Information Age, but the answer which seems to be advanced is to "get offline to find virtue", because you won't find it online, and if you do, it's probably a scam. The very next paragraph after the above quote returns to the theme of how unfit online technologies are for carrying any semblance, any sign, of human community, and it is this "dark view" that I rail against. It's not deception on Schultze's part, it's just not telling the whole story. Maybe that's the only part he wishes to emphasize. There's value in that , I suppose, but it leaves me saying "Yeah, but.... I guess it's up to others (like me?) to do so, and that is what I've been trying to do for the past 12 years, back when I was calling my vision "A Compuserve For the Church".
4:18:01 PM 
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