Changing Lifestyles

Our lives nowadays are very much influenced by technology, which can be both a boon and a bane.  Technology has brought with it a lot of benefits, making life in the 21^st century much more convenient and less laborious than in the previous centuries.  Artificial intelligence and the use of robots will become more and more pervasive as know-how increases.  A recent article in The Straits Times talks about a self-driving robotic vehicle that can take you places in the shortest possible time, avoiding traffic jams and slippery roads.  In the meantime, the passenger can get some work done while in transit.  Another innovation in the pipeline is that of 3-D printers whereby we can design our very own bag or shoes and get them “printed” out.  Such technologies can set one back by thousands of dollars and do away with the human touch. 

In the world of high-tech, we can often lose the high touch.  This can be considered a bane of technology.  It is not uncommon to see people connected at family gatherings using their mobile devices instead of spending time talking face-to-face. Children are kept entertained by iPads or mobile phones.  In a crowded train or bus, many would be plugged in to their mobile devices to either surf the net, play games or listen to music.  Even though the World Wide Web provides a vast wealth of knowledge, not many of them are wholesome or truthful in nature.  There are also human predators on the net seeking to take advantage of innocent lives and possibly destroy them.  People can be influenced by humanistic or demonic philosophies and become rebels without a true cause.  A case in point would be those led into becoming human bombs to fulfill a so-called higher cause. 

Web technology has progressed from reading to interaction and then to customization.  In the past, we use the World Wide Web to search for information; thereafter, we are able to interact with one another through social media like facebook, twitter, blog, etc. Now the move is towards capturing user-end information and marketing products or services through customizing personal preferences. Your personal tastes and preferences are captured when you serve the net without your knowledge.  Somehow this information gets connected with marketing agencies and before you know it a message appears concerning a product or service you were looking out for, with a discount thrown in.  Depending on how you see it, this can be an intrusion to one’s privacy or a beneficial outcome of modern technology, saving you the trouble to search further.      

Another possible lifestyle change is the constitution of the family, which may not be instituted by God i.e. the union between a man and a woman.  Increasingly, the demand is for same-sex marriage as seen in the western world and raising children from such union, either through adoption or some other means.  Another alternative is that of the single-parent family whereby singles who do not marry obtain children through the help of medical science or adoption. Children brought up in non-traditional families will usually suffer from stigma and not experience the full complement of paternal-maternal love and bonding.  In the creation account, God said that it was not good for Adam to be alone and as such Eve was created, someone to complement him and to be his helpmate (Gen 2:18-25).  The biological make-up of the male and female anatomy is to complement one another so that children could be brought forth. This is in stark contrast to having same-sex marriage.  The Bible also says that the body is not for immorality but for the Lord (1 Cor 6:13).