One of my favorite tech bloggers, David Pogue of the New York Times, has started a campaign called, "Take Back the Beep." The whole post is worth reading and is hilarious, but if you're short on time, the bottom line is that he's angry about the moolah that enters the coffers of the cell phone carriers (Sprint, Verizon, etc.) every time we wait through those inane instructions, "Press 1 to leave a message, or just wait for the beep." You and I are paying for that airtime, even though by now we know what to do. I'm all for it, and here's one reason he doesn't mention: millions of low-income individuals in our nation use prepaid cell phones, and they don't need to be wasting their money waiting through an unnecessary message. [Note: I wrote this email the day after the campaign started because I was leaving for vacation. It's possible the campaign has morphed by now.]
Pogue has pointed out just one example (one I had never thought about before) of the ways the tech industry is great at tapping our wallets. Now, if your congregation has an unlimited tech budget, just hit the delete key now. If not, here are seven suggestions to trim a bit of fat from your tech budget without it even hurting.