Broadband will save us

I am in the middle of teaching a class loosely based on Walsh and Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed. I’ve asked my students to keep their eyes open for examples of our culture’s tendency to see technology and human ingenuity as the keys to "saving" humanity. I previously posted about a Wired article on Al Gore that had this worldview. One of my students alerted me to Verizon’s new broadband campaign, where the tagline is "See how broadband is transforming our world. One story at a time."

Transforming our world? Broadband does that? I like having broadband as much as the next geek, but transforming our world? Listen to the text from one of their mailers:

Lives Transformed By
A Broadband Connection
A broadband Internet connection gives us more chances to explore our interests, whatever they may be.

Meg Brandt found support and confidence in an
online organization of families all facing the same challenge — a child with a
rare heart disease.

And Tonya Diguiseppe, a busy single mom, discovered
hope in an online dating community where she met her husband and got a chance to
rebuild her family.

The emphasis is mine in the above text, but it’s interesting the way they talk about it, isn’t it? Lives transformed, support and confidence found, hope discovered. All you need is a broadband connection…