While we may be accustomed to or overwhelmed by the rapid pace of digital development, recognize that cell phones are often the very first connection pastoral communities have with a modern information and communication tool. The way pastoralists have largely approached the rather belated entry of mobile technology and social media with excitement, grace and inventiveness is another example of their remarkable flexibility and adaptability.
The skepticism and downright hostility towards technology, and particularly mobile phones, along with its varied disruptions to contemporary life continues to grow. This concern and disdain are not new or peculiar to this generation. There were similar reactions to the inventions of electricity, the fax machine, radio, and television. As they are deployed in our era, internet-enabled phones and their snarky elder siblings— personal computers — alarm leaders, disconcert activists, victimize workers, bully educators, depress teenagers, retrench artists, terrorize governments, decimate jobs, destroy the environment, and upset economies. The concern and pessimism is justified. We have the power to alter the trajectory of these innovations. To activate our agency in shaping the future of these tools, we might benefit from reconnecting with the sense of possibility that innovative ideas inspire when they first begin to spread...
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