Technology Affecting Your Love-Life?

Machines do for us what we no longer have to do for ourselves. As time goes on we become dependent upon machines and the functions they perform are no longer developed in us. They simply don’t have to be. Should certain functions remain in the realm of human experience only? Which ones?

To what extent are machines affecting our ability to love? One idea is advanced technology is diminishing the level and depth of human interaction. In the 21st century machines have progressively become an intermediary between interacting human beings. The direct interaction (no mediators) is quickly falling out of style.

Another consideration is the speed at which human interaction is taking place is accelerating. People are interacting faster and for shorter periods of time. Those forms of human interaction that take time to develop and require an experience of stillness to emerge are becoming obsolete. If these changes in how we experience each other are allowed to prevail in our lives, the mutual warmth of human intimacy will begin to grow distant and cold.

Love is a function of human experiencing that resists an assimilation into advanced technology. Love requires human contact and growth. Love possesses a unique timeline for every single instance of love. Love simply cannot be controlled. Love comes and goes as it pleases. The best we can do is create the most welcoming conditions for love to occur and grow in our emotional lives.

No doubt control is the predominant feature of advanced technology. For this reason machines will never usurp the function of love. Love and control do not mix. If they could it would be more than tragic for us all. Instead, love takes a backseat waiting for an opportunity to emerge in between and despite human efforts to stay focused on other things. In this age of advanced and advancing technology, your best defense against dehumanization is to keep love in your mind and in your life.

Your ability to give and receive love is connected to all that is and was uniquely you at the time of your birth. An interest in love keeps this deepest part of your life alive. If you cooperate and keep the prospect of love alive in your life in at least some of its various forms (romance, family, friends, humanity, spiritual), love will never leave you. Love will seek to emerge in those moments when you are distracted from your cell phone.  Dr. T. Jordan