Image by webtreats via Flickr Social media is critical for growing a business. It has provided the means for many families to stay connected through blogs and e mails. This generation will be the first to have more access and experience in social media connections than any other in the history of our country.You can take a course on line, hold a meeting,advertise, buy a car, search for a home, immediately post a comment about an experience, connect with others you have never met, shop, bank, manage investments, pay bills, search for a soul mate, and in some cases even get legal or medical advice. It's wonderful to be able to hear from friends and loved ones around the world. I wouldn't trade this technology to go back to the dark ages of party lines, snail mail or fighting the crowds at the mall at Christmas, but sometimes I wonder if we know how to communicate in person anymore.
Several weeks ago, my husband and I were waiting to be seated at a restaurant when another couple was sitting across from us, each involved with some type of electronic device but not each other, nor their child, who also was playing some type of video game. We sat one table away from them once we both got seated and I couldn't help but notice the man was still using his phone during dinner and when the child got restless, the woman rummaged through her purse and returned his device to him. There were few words shared. It looked sad. although perhaps not to this couple. Maybe it looked typical to them but what I would have considered a great evening out looked like a routine experience interrupted by eating when I observed this family.
I can't wait until my husband gets home so we can "catch up" on our day. Having a conversation during dinner is one of my favorite things. Don't get me wrong the internet helps me connect with a friend who is in Afghanistan as well as family near and far. I love to see the pictures and comments my friends post and enjoy all the on line interaction regularly with the click of a mouse. I too wonder how I ever lived in a world without a computer or a cell phone. But, it is easy to forget what we have been commanded..."Let us not give up meeting together"(Hebrews 10:25).
While a quick e mail, comment or text is incredible to have at our fingertips, sometimes what I really want is face time and not just on some book that identifies how many friends I have before I can communicate with them. We all do it. We take a peek and wonder just how someone can possible really know 1, 074 "friends"? The truth is they can't, I can't, you can't. At best, we have some on-line friends but many more acquaintances, people we are happy to rediscover or get to know but little more. Before social media, we knew what friends had our back, would give us the shirt off of theirs if necessary, and had our hearts and our best interests in mind. Social media will never make real friends for us only time, energy and effort will do that.
Sometimes, I want to see a friend for coffee or shopping or just to give a hug I can't ever send electronically. I want to hear the laughter and see the tears while I am face to face with the person who makes up a part of me. I want more socials and less media.
I want to enjoy being in the presence of another's heart and soul with real words and not something printed and sent through a fiber optic network. I like face time. I think it makes me a better person and I don't want to ever give up meeting. Some days, I worry that we will forget how to make eye contact and speak from the heart and no matter how sophisticated our communication systems become, once we lose that, we have lost the core of being human.
Our persona on-line lacks our smile, our tears, the hesitancy in our voice, the bits and pieces of nuances that make us a real person at any given moment. As Brad Paisley put it..."I'm so much cooler on line." http://www.songlyrics.com/brad-paisley/online-lyrics/ We create a presence but only a few true friends know it deeply. Meeting someone face to face is the only way to connect sometimes because while we will always like being able to conduct our lives at the touch of our fingers, having a friend in our space, face to face, is real unadulterated friendship, not one pretending or hoping to be one, but one that really is.
How about you? Do you need more face time? Remember what we have been commanded to do and next time you have the choice between a text or visit, a lunch or a post...go for it!
PS...I'm so much taller on line !
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