Email is the least of it. Now we have wikis, Google Wave, Match.com. We call these ”social media”, despite the fact that none involves actual, face-to-face human contact!  Nonetheless, people are increasingly relying on these virtual connections for real human interaction… even for finding life partners! Welcome to iLife.

Vocari is dedicated to helping people discover and live their vocational & spiritual calling in the post-modern workplace. That is why we invited cultural historian and social futurist Dr. Leonard Sweet to share his observations with us in October 2009. He is author of more than two hundred articles and dozens of books, including SoulTsunami and The Gospel According to Starbucks.

His insights about living in the post-modem age bridged the worlds of academe and popular culture. Weaving together the intersection of post-modern culture, technology, and spirituality, Dr. Sweet characterized us as being either in the “Gutenberg generation” or “Google generation”, depending on you are born before or after 1973. The Gutenberg generation relies on the printed word with a sequential, left brained orientation. The right-brained Google generation is focused on simultaneous experience of images. To the Gutenberg group, it’s derogatory to say one is all thumbs, but it’s a compliment to the Google group!

Dr. Sweet observed that the issue is not whether the digital world will change our lives, but putting ourselves in a position to monitor and manage how we use the digital experience to express our humanity. For example, digital culture favors virtual relationships that are anonymous. An example is the development of online personas like Milo Natal for the next generation of X Box. Nonetheless, it is possible to create real, vital relationships, even in virtual worlds, if our spirits are grounded in who we were created to be.