Jason Thacker's Blog, page 15

Social media and expert culture

Throughout my childhood many saw me as a very confident young man. I was typically up front and vocal about things, confidently asserting my knowledge, skill, and abilities even if I did so with a subdued confidence. I grew up thinking I needed to prove myself in order to be loved, and that desire was often projected through my achievements. When I arrived on campus at seminary, I figured I would continue to achieve, and I was sure that I would succeed. But through the power of the local church ...

Should Facial Recognition Be Used in Policing?

Earlier this year, The New York Times broke the story and raised public awareness of a little-known facial recognition startup called Clearview AI, which sells their controversial technology to more than 600 law enforcement agencies and police units around the nation. CEO Hon Ton-That says the benefits of the technology include allowing police to identify criminals quickly and efficiently, often from a single photo uploaded to the service.

Facial recognition technology is already used in vary...

WeeklyTech Podcast Roundup

This month marks seven months of the WeeklyTech Podcast. Thanks to all who have tuned in so far. It’s been an honor to be a part of equipping you to navigate some of the challenges around technology that you and your family face each day. Over the last seven months, we’ve covered a range of tech-related news stories and talked to guests about various tech issues related to their areas of work. If you’ve missed a few episodes or haven’t started listening to the podcast yet, we wanted to give you ...

You Can Map Our Faces, but You Can’t Steal Our Souls

In December of last year, the New York Times ran an article chronicling yet another authoritarian abuse of technology to oppress a minority people group in China. At times, it feels like the Chinese regime relishes these types of revelations because it gives them more reason to flaunt their power over the weak and remind the world of how they define morality and liberty down. Nearly every story of human rights abuses contains comments from a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member spouting off the ...

What do we do with information overload?

I am often struck at how prophetic many older books on technology are in light of our modern debates over technology and the role of social media in our lives. It is far too easy to believe that many of the problems we face today are completely new and have no historical background or insight. As we have seen over the last weeks and months, there is a substantial debate over the influence of social media and how these information-driven tools impact our social discourse along with the rising tid...

How to teach our kids to use technology during a pandemic

I love Sunday mornings, but there is one thing I dread each week about them. Outside of the blessing of gathering together as the church (even remotely in this season) and extra time with my family, I get the dreaded notification on my iPhone. From reading and entertainment to social media and productivity, the screen time activity report on my phone displays the reality of my online activity for the past week. That methodic revelation often comes as a disappointing and discouraging reminder of ...

Transhumanism and the Temptation to Play God

Often when we hear about advanced technology like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and genetic engineering, we think of some far-off future with flying cars and robot co-workers. Terms like “the singularity,” “superintelligence,” and “transhumanism” seem irrelevant to the mundane problems we deal with as Christians living in a fallen world. Aren’t there more pressing issues?

In his book Transhumanism and the Image of God: Today’s Technology and the Future of Christian Discipleship,...

Should your church use facial recognition?

You may read that headline and wonder how in the world someone could ask that question when many churches are still not able to meet in person or are having hybrid services to cut down on the spread of COVID-19.

Technologies like facial recognition seem like such a far off dream that you likely haven’t even considered the possibility of using it in your church or ministry.

But in light of the questions concerning regathering together as the church, social distancing, security, health risks...

Why you should read old books on technology

In our digital first world, it is easy to focus on the things right in front of us. Our social media feeds are designed to constantly barrage us with new information and updates. Online resources are often written in ways to boost engagement and interaction. As writer Alan Jacobs puts it, “navigating daily life in the internet age is a lot like doing battlefield triage.” Reality is that we are often overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information to process so we often default to shallow engage...

What is digital authoritarianism?

One of the hidden blessings of 2020 has been the ability to rethink our routines and habits. Some have picked up new hobbies while others have decided to rethink how they approach technology, news, and social media. Early in the pandemic, I decided to try intentionally to get my news from sources outside of social media as a way to combat the constant churning of my social media feeds which are often full of unhealthy obsessions with controversy, underdeveloped stories without context, and a goo...