Yoga and Technology

As I began searching for new articles and videos about yoga this week, I was overwhelmed by how saturated the media is with "yoga knowledge." The Google search I performed on just the word "yoga" returned about 369,000,000 results! Our generation's world is expanding, and we are becoming engorged with information that we often only subconsciously absorb. And yet this expansion also reflects our widening world view, our growing tolerance for new ideas and practices. But how do we, as individuals, navigate the information provided us by modern technology? How can we use the Internet, for example, as a means of deepening our experience of yoga and, in turn, how can such technology harm our yoga practice? These questions only skim the surface of this complicated and ever-changing issue surrounding technology. Yet I feel they are important ones to ask.
Regarding my own practice of yoga, I gravitate towards the end of the spectrum that rejects technology. In so many ways, technology can dislocate our sense of existence - we are often unaware of our own bodies, our own thoughts, and our own surroundings. I believe this dislocation to be stagnating, for it prevents us as individuals from connecting with the very things that sustain and validate our existence - such as our breath. I relish the chance to simply lie on the ground, close my eyes, and surrender myself to the sounds, smells, textures, and sensations that I often ignore in daily life. In our Wednesday yoga class, I found peace within myself simply by experiencing music while lying still, and I find it hard to believe that such revelations can occur when staring at a television or computer screen that pulls us outside of our own bodies and suspends us in a type of limbo, a half-existence. Despite my own concerns about technology use in my yoga practice, I acquiesce that technology has aided the spread of yoga throughout the globe. The Internet can provide us with information about yoga techniques, and can even provide us with music to accompany our practice. Where do we draw the line though?