The Internet's Missing Link — Human Contact – Bible study

In a recent article by Newsweek technology writer, Clifford Stall, entitled, “The Internet? Bah!,” Mr. Stall lists several reasons why the Internet will never live up to the expectations of some folks in being a utopia, or as Mr. Stall writes, Why cyberspace isnt, and will never be, nirvana.

One of the problems of cyberspace that Mr. Stall lists is:

Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don’t know what to ignore and what’s worth reading.

Another good point that Mr. Stall makes is:

We’re promised instant catalog shopping just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obsolete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet which there isn’t the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.

The most important point and observation that Mt. Stall makes in his article is this:

What’s missing from this electronic wonderland? Human contact. Discount the fawning techno-burble about virtual communities. Computers and networks isolate us from one another. A network chat line is a limp substitute for meeting friends over coffee. No interactive multimedia display comes close to the excitement of a live concert. And who’d prefer cybersex to the real thing? While the Internet beckons brightly, seductively flashing an icon of knowledge-as-power, this non-place lures us to surrender our time on earth. A poor substitute it is, this virtual reality where frustration is legion and where in the holy names of Education and Progress important aspects of human interactions are relentlessly devalued.

Similar to Mr. Stalls view regarding cyberspace, theres no question in this writers mind that we live in what I call a fractured society an isolated society that very rarely interacts or communicates with one another on a personal plane, or face-to-face interaction.

Whats the point of all the above observations? That the best method of teaching others the saving gospel of Christ is still the one-on-one method that Jesus used in the first century, as He interacted with people face-to-face and eyeball to eyeball (note the word taught or “teaching” in Matthew 5:1-2; Matthew 7:28-29; Matthew 13:53-54; Mark 1:22; Mark 2:13; Mark 4:1-2; Mark 9:30-31; Mark 10:1; Mark 11:15-17; John 8:1-2).