Quentin J. Schultze's book, Habits of the High-Tech Heart, serves as a warning to those living in the information age, surrounded by technology, and substituting information for knowledge and the transfer of information for community. He laments the lack of morality in technology, and emphasizes six "habits of the heart" that are needed to live morally amidst the information age.
The first habit is discernment. Schultze says that by putting the focus on information we are becoming passive observers, and are losing the ability to distinguish between truth and fiction. This allows people to act amorally and untruthfully online. Cultivating discernment will result in living truthfully, and not just exchanging information.
The second habit is moderation. With ever-increasing technological advancements and ability to trade information better, our culture sees this as a license to use these technologies to their limits without regard to moral usage of said technologies. Cultivating moderation recognizes that more does not mean better, and results in a focus of how to use technologies morally rather than just more.
The third habit is wisdom. Schultze points out that cyberculture is very shallow and lacks experience-based wisdom, instead relying on facts and figures in place of wisdom. Cultivating wisdom allows people to take more into account when making decisions than simply relying on databases.
The fourth habit is humility. Our increasing potency from information technology is resulting in pride, Schultze argues, and results in blind faith and belief in the infallibility of our technology. Cultivating humility allows us to laugh at ourselves, and realize the fallibility of technology, as we are fallible.
The fifth habit is authenticity. The Internet allows us to hide behind a mask and present ourselves any way we want, allowing individuals to lie to others over the Internet. Cultivating authenticity will allow us to say what we mean and mean what we say.
The sixth habit is diversity. In cyberculture, anything that is not technologically productive is considered worthless by the cyber-elite, regardless of their cultural significance. Cultivating diversity will result in appreciation of other cultures and tradition.
Finally, Schultze concludes by criticizing Internet "community" for not being community at all, but rather a gathering of people with similar interests, which he says is not community. He urges people to return to more traditional communities with geographical proximity.
The habits of the heart that Schultze lists in his books are worth cultivating. However, the book itself is not without faults.
For one, never once in his book does Schultze define what is moral. Through several instances of the book it is evident that Schultze has a far broader definition of morality than most people, and as he does not specifically communicate what he means by morality, this can lead to misunderstanding of his book. Many readers may find his talks of morality inapplicable to certain situations as a result. Furthermore, readers may not agree with what Schultze's faith-based assumptions, which could cause them to be hostile to his book.
Schultze appears to ascribe the cause of the amorality of our culture to the Internet and information technology alone. However, the causal relationship is in fact quite the opposite. For instance, many in our culture are undiscerning of information on the Internet not because the Internet obscures what is true and false, but because postmodern culture denies the existence of absolute truth. To quote Megan Maloney's review of this book:
"If people agree to the objects of their love, it is not the objects (cybertechnologies) that determine their hearts, but their hearts that determine what they love. Schultze consistently confuses the order of causation, granting agency to cybertechnologies and obscuring the root of our misdirected loves.
As Jesus once said to a people confused about the source of uncleanness: “It is what comes out of a man’s heart that makes him defiled.” Orality, which Schultze touts as a more perfect form of communication than high-tech messaging, is no exception to this rule: The things that come out of the mouth come from the heart.… The mouth, no more or less than the keypad, depends on the heart."
In sum, the Internet is not what affects our morality; it is our morality that affects our use of the Internet. This is a subtle yet very important distinction. Schultze would benefit from a class in sociology to learn how to properly study causal relationships.
Schultze also makes blanket statements about how individuals use cybertechnology. His claims about how we use technology do not necessarily reflect how everyone uses technology, though the way he makes these claims sends across this message. In fact, some of these claims seem to be more based on the potential that technology has to be abused, rather than the abuse itself.
In addition, his assumptions, such as that communication online is not moral and true relationships cannot develop online may not be entirely accurate. He gives little support to back up his assumptions, and there are several counter-examples.
Finally, Schultze tries to force real-world morality onto the virtual world. However, since they fundamentally operate by different rules, this may not be wise. This is not to say that morality and values are meaningless in cyberculture, but critical judgment should be used to create a set of values and morals that apply to virtual reality and the real world.
Though his book does have some issues, at the basic level his habits of the heart do have worth. There is great value in emphasizing and cultivating them.
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