Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age

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Schultze Preface | Intro: Identifying the Techno-Moral Crisis

Habits of the High-Tech Heart: Living Virtuously in the Information Age
by Quentin Schultze

Schultze wrote the earliest book I can remember on the theological issues surrounding the Internet.  I wrote a review of the book,  to which he quickly linked to his site for the book, Internet for Christians.  What I read in the few sections which I skimmed seems that his approach this time is that of a contrarian.   Clifford Stoll reccommends the book (one of the early "Internet Contrarions", who wrote a book in the early 90's called Silicon Snake Oil),  whom I regularly quoted and then picked apart in my early papers about the Internet and the Church).  I will be looking more closely at this book in the days ahead,  mostly because he addresses issues that I think are important theological perspectives on the Internet,  most of which I will have many opposing views.  I usually find such books stimulating in that it gives me a basis to make some points to clarify and usually combat the misunderstandings I feel are being perpetuated. 

I have no doubts that some of the warnings Schultze seems to be sounding are valid.  But he sometimes does not venture far enough into the positive possibilities for the online community in the areas which he addresses.  And he regularly utilizes many arguments -- or arguments he perceives being made by these --- being written on by various writers I consider to be my favorites (like Howard Rheingold and Sherry Turkle --- whatever happened to Sherry Turkle?  I haven't heard from her on the subject of online psychology in quite a while.......anybody seen or read anything?)--- and does so in a way which seems to unjustly cast them in the role of "techno-utopians". 

This is however,  a surface reading (based on some of my initial impressions).  As I did with his early book,  I will no doubt find many tasty morsels,  both positive and negative,  on which to base an entirely new set of rants on this weblog.  That's one of the beauties of weblogs for me:  the open season for dialogue that ideas represent.

A comment from Publisher's Weekly: He proposes six habits of the heart discernment, moderation, wisdom, humility, authenticity and diversity and contends that these habits require organic community life rather than the virtual community of the Internet.

I read the above comment on the Amazon site,  and it illustrates how Schultze's proposals srt up a "Real" vs "Virtual" Community dichotomy that I am continually speaking out against.  There are elements of the real and the "unreal" in both face-to-face AND in online interaction. 

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Schultze Preface| Intro: Identifying the Techno-Moral Crisis

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