Fire and Knowledge

Christians In a .Com World: Getting Connected Without Being Consumed, by Gene Edward Veith, Jr. and Christopher L. Stamper. Crossway Books (2000), 190 pages, 14.99 (paperback).

Book Review by Joshua Sowin

Like it or not, we live in a “.com” world.  Everything has a .com—companies, clubs, churches, families—even individuals.  Everything “real” seems to require a “virtual” counterpart.  Those who do not have a virtual counterpart—for instance, a company—are curtly told to “get with it,” and indeed, if they do not, their opportunities and resources to compete are quickly surpassed.

This creates a question for the thoughtful person, namely, how can we live in this virtual and image-saturated culture without being consumed by it?  And that happens to be one of the reasons I read this book, as its subtitle suggests: “Getting Connected Without Being Consumed.”

The book begins with a general introduction and an excellent historical overview of computers and the Internet.  It separates this history into three chapters—the history of computers, networking, and the world wide web.  I have read a number of brief histories on computers and the Internet, but this one tops them all.  Concise and well-researched, the overview presented should be simple enough for the “uninitiated” to understand and informative enough for the “geeks” to enjoy.

Unfortunately, I did not find the rest of the book as impressive as the historical overview. Perhaps this was due to recently reading Mr. Veith’s Reading Between the Lines, and thinking this work would be on par with that excellent book.  If I did not have that expectation in mind, my impression of this book might have been quite different.

I believe most of my hopes were dashed on the high-tech rocks of technophilia. Veith and Stamper see through much of the hype of the Internet, but not all of it.  Although the authors warn against technophilia, the book sometimes struck me as being exactly that.  Consider the following excerpts (emphasis mine):

No system for finding the best product at the best price has ever existed before in human history.  Such a free economy is working exactly the way Adam Smith thought it would. (p. 10)

Electronic publishing gives anyone a press.  The competition for attention will be fierce.  The book world will converge with the Web world.  When the dust settles, what remains may not be one industry dominated by a handful of Manhattan-based monoliths but a true marketplace of ideas. (p. 92)

On the whole [the Internet] should be good for Christians.  The great theologians of the past—many of whom are now unavailable and out of print—can be rediscovered.  Christian debate and discourse will not longer have to be filtered through the demands of commercialism.  The Church, which often drifts wherever the culture leads, may be able to pull itself back together and recover its own identity as the people of God.  (p. 152)

A virtual community is still a kind of community.  Modernism fragmented human relationships and undermined communal values, but the Internet, to a certain extent, can put some of them back together. (pp. 170-1)

Perhaps this is being too nitpicky.  Scattered throughout the history and hype are many warnings and cautions, most of which people desperately need to hear and follow.  For instance, the authors mention how the Internet “obscures the normal status markers, hierarchies, and authorities…. favors short bullets of information…. [and has much] information available [that is] brief, undeveloped, and ephemeral” (p. 137).  However, although the bad is pointed out, the authors seem to believe that the good side will win.  I question their conclusion.

There are also several inaccuracies in the book, two of which I will point out.  The book asserts, “search engines do not discriminate about which sites are reliable—they list them all” (p. 137), which is an understandably incorrect misconception.  First of all, search engines discriminate by the way they sort sites by pseudo-relevance.  Second, they do not list sites that have requested not to be listed (personally or through a file on their website).  Lastly, if you are in another country, search engines can (and do) discriminate against certain sites.  For instance, MSN China recently blocked sites that contained words like “democracy” and “freedom.”

The authors’ explanation of Internet anonymity is also inaccurate.  The authors state that, “ironically, though the Internet promises anonymity, this, like so much of cyberspace, is an illusion.”  That is correct, but not for the reason the authors identify:

It provides a virtual anonymity that seems real but is not.  The fact is, nearly everything ever done on a computer can be traced and found somewhere on the hard drive.  Cookies leave their trail of electronic crumbs. (p. 143)

The problem is that anyone with basic computer knowledge can easily delete the history, cache, and cookies.  The Internet lacks anonymity because of your ISP (Internet Service Provider).  They have logs of everything you have accessed.  You also have a unique IP address that accessed sites store in their logs along with a listing of every page (and image) you access.  That is what gives the Internet its lack of anonymity, not cookies.

The authors correctly point out that the Internet is predominately centered around typography.  Since Christianity is a religion of the Word, they argue, it only makes sense for Christians to latch on to this medium.  However, the authors fail to realize (or at least fail to write about) why the Internet has been largely text-based: bandwidth limitations.  More and more households are getting broadband, and as this happens, the Internet will become based less on text and more on imagery.  We have already seen this effect through widespread use of Flash animations/videos, but it will only get worse.  The Internet will become the new TV, only with more interactivity. CNN has recently provided free live streaming video through their website.  This trend will continue, and people will end up watching TV (or something similar) through the Internet.

Overall, I think Christians in a .com World is a good book that Christians interested in technology should read.  The historical overview is worth the price of the book by itself.  However, if you are looking to know how to “get connected without being consumed” you will have to either draw your own conclusions or look to a different book.