From the Urban Dictionary: "Techno-pagan - Someone who blends modern technology with their pagan or witchcraft practice. Alternately, someone with a pagan spirituality who believes that mechanical and electronic devices, such as cars and computers, have a spirit or soul of their own."
As with all discussions I have on religion, this is tongue-in-cheek. I don't want to get into any in-depth discussions on personal religious belief. It's a good way to make enemies, or expose oneself to public prayer sessions - both of which I'd like to avoid.
I've begun to consider myself a techno-pagan, perhaps through default, more than a participating member of any established religion. (Yes, lapsed Catholic - thank you) Consider - Every day of the week, I seat myself at the altar of techno-paganism - the desktop or laptop computer. I place my hands in the approved position (for the qwerty keyboard) and I begin to make my obeisance to my daily email. I have clipped my divine token to the front of my outfit (Vocera) so that all participants may reach me throughout my work day. And the ear plug cord (to hear its secrets better) is wrapped around my neck. Like all religious tokens they never match what you're wearing - they are all black. Black, according to Color Wheel Pro is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, evil, and mystery. Hmm...how appropriate. And you know, it speaks to me, too. And in different genders. When I touch it's magic button it announces its presence in sepulchral tones. Of course, often it doesn't understand me, but then I'm a mystery to my husband, too.
But! are technological gadgets and appliances even alive? you ask. Doesn't matter. We treat them as if they were. How many of us have prayed and waived our arms, or cursed the machine we hold, if it skips a beat (is that 25 page report due tomorrow - Lost? Oh, MY god!) or just up and quits? And after Columbus' windstorm and subsequent power outage a few weeks ago, people were haunting my branch looking for power outlets to recharge their phones, the UPS', their laptops, etc. And it wasn't reverently. These people were on the edge. I bet they weren't half as worried about feeding themselves or their children.
So what does this have to do with Twitter? I signed up yesterday, and read over some of the 'tweet's of Columbus, Ohio participants - and frankly, I wasn't impressed. Much of it was totally inane, feeding the pagan god even if it means nothing. And a lot of it was being used as advertising, read evangelizing (as if we need much more of that) Even Barack Obama's twitter site was blatant self promotion - and I bet he's not even typing it. Really, I don't care to tell the world or even my best friends every move I'm making. Let them have a little mystery in their life. I really don't care what they're doing either. Maybe when I was sixteen, and I had a crush on some guy - then I really cared what he was doing every second of every day ( picking out my socks now. think I'll wear the blue ones - Oh, baby!) But now, there's already too much information in my life. What I'd really like is a little down time: 'no phone, no lights, no motor cars' to quote an old tv theme song - guess which one.
Final analysis: For some people I can see that this would be a great deal of fun, even an obsession. I can see that it might be used on a larger scale, but I think there are better venues. OH, and if you really want to 'tweet' me and prove me wrong or misguided, I'm at twitter.com/replogle.
No comments:
Post a Comment