Last week we began exploring relationships and their value in our lives. God created us to be relational beings. It seems that we are not taking our relationships as seriously as we once did. Does this present a problem? Or what is the nature of the problem?
In the good ole U.S. of A. we have seen dynamic change from the beginning of the industrial revolution up to the current day where we are now in the midst of a technological revolution. The move away from the agrarian society of the past has deeply impacted the formation, quantity, and quality of our relationships. While I admit that I would likely have struggled on a farm, it is also likely that I would have had fewer relationships, but of a deeper nature.
We have gone from working side by side on those farms, in unison, to achieve a meaningful harvest, to working side by side on the production line to send out as many widgets as possible, to now working in cubicles practically isolated from one another while moving vast amounts of information along the information superhighway. I am a man torn by the draw of "advancement", yet quite beholden to the simpler times. I feel the the craving for deeper relationships, and see or hear it in so many others that I have contact with on a regular basis. If we lose our relationships, then where will we be?
It seems that we have established vast networks of pseudo-relationships via the ever burgeoning social media outlets. Yes, by producing this blog and distributing it over social media I am a participant, I recognize this as fact. Let's ask ourselves this question:
What do we gain from
our friendships?
A simple question really, but one I believe that we all need to reconsider. Then ask this question next:
Do we use a different
criteria when selecting
our social media connections?
If the answer to this second question is yes, then why? What are we looking for online? One article that I found while putting this piece together had the following to say:
Social media forces upon us a feeling of intimacy
and closeness that doesn’t actually exist.
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-tools/social-media-pretend-friends-and-the-lie-of-false-intimacy/
Is this true? Are we gaining a false intimacy via our social networks at the cost of true intimacy with those whom we actually live, love, interact, and "connect"?
That same article put it this way:
Is that what we want?
Spending considerable time building large networks of shallow connections, potentially at the expense of deepening a few cherished friendships upon which we can truly rely?
http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-tools/social-
media-pretend-friends-and-the-lie-of-false-intimacy/
“He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will suffer harm?”
Proverbs 13:20
Does our consuming need for "connection" lead us astray from this teaching? We all know that the internet is full of distraction and foolishness of all sorts. I hope that we realize that like a hammer or saw that it is merely a tool in our hands. We still decide what to make of it, and I hope that you will use it wisely and not sacrifice actual relationships that have, or would have, physical proximity and emotional significance. I pray that we would all seek to grow in some of our actual relationships, and that we would all be smarter about the online relationships we form. If we do this we will Make Today GREAT!
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