Tim Challies, the author of The Next Story, is talking about technology and how we as Christians are to relate to technology. By the way, if you want to ever read a book about technology, I recommend this one! Anyhow, in his chapter about visibility and privacy, he talks about data trails. All of the information that we leave behind us. He uses the example of how AOL (the search engine) released more than 21 million searches as part of a project. They anonymized it, stripping away user names with numbers. For example, pauld1995 would be User #75636534. Here is an AOL user whose searches tell a sad story.
- body fat calliper 2006-03-01 18:54:10
- curb morning sickness 2006-03-05 08:53:23
- get fit while pregnant 2006-03-09 18:49:37
- he doesn't want the baby 2006-03-11 03:52:01
- uou're pregnant he doesn't want the baby 2006-03-11 03:52:49
- online christian colleges 2006-03-11 04:13:33
- foods to eat when pregnant 2006-03-12 09:38:02
- baby names and meanings 2006-03-14 20:01:27
- maternity clothes 2006-03-28 09:28:25
- pregnancy workout videos 2006-03-29 10:01:39
- what is yoga 2006-03-29 12:17:31
- what is theism 2006-03-29 12:18:30
- hindu religion 2006-03-29 12:18:56
- is yoga alligned with christianity 2006-03-29 12:33:18
- abortion clinics charlotte nc 2006-04-18 2006
- can christians be forgiven for abortion 2006-04-17 11:00:02
- roe vs. wade 2006-04-17 22:22:07
- abortion clinic charlotte 2006-04-18 16:14:07
- symptoms of miscarriage 2006-04-18 16:14:07
- water aerobics charlotte nc 2006-04-18 19:41:27
- abortion clinic chsrlotte nc 2006-04-18 21:45:39
- engagement gifts 2006-04-20 16:57:04
- mom's turning 50 2006-04-20 17:51:13
- high risk abortions 2006-04-20 17:53:49
- abortion fibroid 2006-04-20 17:55:18
- wedding gown styles 2006-04-26 19:37:34
- recover after miscarriage 2006-05-22 18:17:53
- marry your live-in 2006-05-27 07:25:45
"This woman goes from searching about pregnancy, to realizing that the father does not want to keep the baby, to researching abortion clinics, to researching whether she can, according to her faith, choose abortion. It seems that she did not have to face that decision, as the pregnancy terminated in a miscarriage. And at the end of it all, life goes on, and she seems ready to be married. We can reconstruct this period of her life by what she searched for. We know thing about her that even her friends and her boyfriend would not know. Did he know that she was considering an abortion? Did he even know that she was pregnant? Did he know that she was wrestling with her faith? Her searches revealed her actions, her heart, her intention. It was all there, sitting in a datebase at AOL. She had doubtlessly long forgotten about many of these searches; yet the search engine remembered."
It seems that our searches, and as is everything else we do, reveal our heart. They reveal our intentions. They reveal who we truly are. He goes on to say,
"Our searches are a penetrating window into our hearts. We tell search engines what we would not tell anyone else; we ask them what we would be far too embarrassed to ask in any other context. And we entrust to them this information, perhaps not realizing that they might keep these searches forever and certainly trusting that they will never reveal it to anyone else. Though we may want them to forget about searches, we now know that they do not."
He continues,
"More people than ever before are watching us, keeping tabs on us through our data. They are sorting through this date to find a picture of who we are. And someday they may make this data public. Our secrets may be revealed, if not today, at some later date. The challenge for the Christian is clear: we need to be diligent in living lives marked by what we believe. Christians must ensure that we are above reproach at all times--more guarded in our behavior, more diligent in our Christlikeness, than we've ever been. These words have always stirred me: "Now when they (members of the Jewish council) saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they we uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recongnized that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:13, emphasis added). Wouldn't it be remarkable if people could see a distinct difference between the date trails Christians leave behind and the ones left behind by unbelievers--that our data trails made it obvious that we had been with Jesus?"
Yes. And wouldn't it be a shame if the data trails were nearly indistinguishable?
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