I’ve been interested recently in technology, faith, and art. Post-Internet, it seems all three are in a constant state of flux. I don’t plan on retreating from culture, but I often wonder how uncritical use of computers and screens has affected our faith and artmaking.
Right now I have five tabs open, and each one takes me to a different task, sensory stimulation, or communication.
It’s no secret that the ‘wide net’ the Internet helps us cast often keeps us in shallow waters. The more I click around, the less I focus, the less I wonder deeply, and the less I ingest knowledge.
Mystics and artists seem to share the same prerequisite for the spiritual and creative journey: attention. The inner journey can only begin when one has a vigilant awareness that the ‘inner depths’ exist. Likewise, artmaking can only begin when one is deeply sensitive to one’s experience in the world. In both paths, having one’s attention formed by texts and tweet-sized bytes of information seems to keep us from even taking the first step. If, as the saying goes, God is in the details, then what happens when our use of technologies distract us from the holy and hidden minutiae of our lives? In the post-Internet world, what is the cost of paying attention?