Do we own our technology or does our technology own us?

from On faith...

Over the weekend, Pope Benedict returned to what has become a familiar theme for the 83-year old pontiff, warning that technology can lead to a "sense of solitude and disorientation" for young people.

Thousands of Catholics around the world then tweeted, blogged, e-mailed or posted the press report of the pope's comments to Facebook.

From Yahoo:

"A large number of young people... establish forms of communication that to do not increase humaneness but instead risk increasing a sense of solitude and disorientation," Benedict told a Vatican conference on culture.

He also said that young people were being "numbed" by the Internet, adding that the technology was creating an "educational emergency -- a challenge that we can and must respond to with creative intelligence."

Benedict issued a similar call to technological temperance in October: As reported by Agence France-Presse, he warned that "new technologies and the progress they bring can make it impossible to distinguish truth from illusion and can lead to confusion between reality and virtual reality."

The pontiff has also previously said cell phones are 'bad for the soul' and pose a 'very grave threat' to spirituality.

Should 'virtual reality' be added to the list of modern trends (including 'aggressive secularism' and moral relativism,') that the pontiff wishes to counter?

Of course, the Internet can also be a great tool for religion.Even the pope knows this. For example, believers who may be geographically isolated can find support in online communities of the like-minded. The faithful have instant access to teachings and documents previously difficult to access, and robust blogging networks support believers on their journeys. Is there a downside to this instant access?

For many religious communities, the use of technology is a spiritual issue.

Many evangelical churches embrace the use of technology, saying that while the medium may change, the gospel message remains. A number of churches provide webcasts of their services and a few even encourage their congregants to tweet questions and prayers during services.

On the other extreme, the Amish, as Kraybill, Nolt and Weaver-Zercher point out in their new book, The Amish Way, view technology with a critical eye. Each community makes its own determination as to which advances are acceptable, based on how the new addition will impact their society. If a new technology, such as a car, or a cell phone is believed to threaten unit cohesion, it will likely not be adopted. The community's connection to each other is valued over any other practical need.

(An Amish buggy travels through the snow along Route 236 in Mechanicsville, Md.)

We bring the Blackberry to bed. We listen to music on the Metro. Even in places where we could meet real, live people --riding an elevator, waiting in line or taking a bus --we find ourselves reaching out for our devices. A decade ago, if a man walked down the street shouting angrily to himself, we thought he was crazy. Now we know that he's just conducting business via Bluetooth. Do we own our technology or does our technology own us?

Does the pontiff have a point? Do our online worlds make it harder to distinguish between reality and virtual reality? Is there something "unreal" about being human online? Is our gadget-crazed world bringing us closer together or further apart?

h/t  Elizabeth Tenety