I will keep this brief…
Get to know me and you will quickly find out that I will be real and incredibly direct. I have learned over the years that when I am not, many things get lost in translation.
I love technology and reading… Which is why, (like so many others) I was enticed into the phenomenon of social media. First it was Myspace… Then Facebook. Now, Twitter! This great technology empowered me with a platform to share my thoughts, pictures or experiences with brevity… If I caught the interest of those within my social networking circles, great! If not, my feelings weren’t hurt either. Now, it seems like the dynamics of social media are rapidly changing. All three of the aforementioned have eroded from a vehicle of connection to competition… Frankly, they are all more like a popularity contest. Whoever has the most friends or followers wins. I graduated from high school in 1995… I am done with that popularity game. At least, I thought so.
What are the negative ramifications that technology, social media and cell phones are having on our culture? That is a rhetorical question but one that we should be asking ourselves.
Do any of us think it strange that we accept people that we hardly have any connection with or perhaps have never even met? Only to accept them into our virtual “sacred” worlds to let them see our most precious memories, revealing thoughts, etc. You may feel like this is a poor analogy or illustration but most of us would never let a stranger into our homes and yet we do this regularly through Crackbook (A.K.A., Facebook), Twitter, or MySpace. We have relationships with more emotional and spiritual traction with people online than we do with those we share neighborhood streets, office cubicles, and church pews with.
As we eagerly build our social media shrines to ourselves the essence of our issue is exposed… The dynamics of these social forums have changed from sharing our value (experiences, thoughts, photos, and etc.) to finding our value in how many followers we can accumulate… How many comments did I receive on my latest status, link or photo? If we are transparent, this is a common question that plagues many of our thoughts…
WOW!!! Who would’ve ever thought that this is the path we would have traveled down? “We are creating a culture of superficial self-worth, where hype is valued over reality.” – Cameron Strang
Cameron, you just nailed it!
My frustration is this… Can we handle the truth? Can my followers (oh, wait – friends) on FB, MySpace, and Twitter handle the truth? Can I share direct candid assessments of my day, feelings, and thoughts or do I have to continue to spend wasted minutes in developing catchphrases, sound bytes and little preachisms that will portray the HYPE and not my reality?
Really??? Is the passion, LOVE, enthusiasm, and humor that we vividly articulate through 140 characters or less being articulated in our relationship with our spouses, friends, neighbors, tasks, careers and God?
Here it is in a nutshell…
We are stretching ourselves thinner, becoming more distracted. and losing our hearing because the so-called “white noise” is drowning out the most important things in our lives.
We were intelligently designed for meaningful relationship with our Creator and his creation. It’s time that we identify boundaries that protect the most important things in our lives. If not, we will find ourselves clutching to the false reality of what we have created only to find it slip through our fingers regardless of how tight we squeeze.
