Ironically, this may be the longest blog I have ever written.
So here is what has been running around in my mind a lot lately. Tell me if it resonates with you. We have access to way too much information. So much so, that it is choking off our ability to experience life as God intended it. We are information rich but relationship poor. We have more ways to contact one another (phone, cell, pager, email, blog, fax, PDA) and yet we are more removed from life-giving community than ever before.
Honestly I'm thinking of stopping this blog for that very reason. There are times when this is just another form of pseudo community. "Wow, I wonder if anyone will read what I write. Will they respond?" Does this validate me? Yet I spend less and less time talking to you over a cup of tea in my living room.
The world is producing nearly two exabytes of new information a year (an exabyte is a billion gigabytes). More information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the last 5,000. A weekday edition of the New York Times contains more information than the average person was likely to come across in a lifetime in seventeenth-century England. We are bombarded by information. In the past we got our news from the newspaper, published in the morning or in the evening. Then TV news... 5 pm or 11 pm. Now, CNN, websites, news-tracker e-mails are constant. Catch this: 260,000 billboards, 11,520 newspapers, 11,556 periodicals, 27,000 video outlets, 40,000 new book titles and 60,000,000,000 pieces of junk mail EVERY YEAR!
How are we expected to live... and to love and to grow and to relate?
More doesn't work anymore.
Last Wednesday, I spent the day with my 6 month old daughter. We played on the floor. We took naps. She smiled and laughed at me. I felt my soul begin to heal and even to grow. I felt like I was living for the first time in a long time. No computer, no e-mail, no cell phones, no deadlines...no CNN, no Google...just me and my daughter playing with a stuffed purple monkey.
"Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks."
(G.K. Chesterton, 1902)
"I have come that you may have life...life to the fullest!"
(Jesus Christ to Paul, February 16, 2005)
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7 comments:
Paul, you and I have already talked some about this, but I'll share some of my thoughts for others to read.
It is no coincidence that the fastest growing mental health issue in the U.S. is depression. A challenge that is isolating, dark and makes it very difficult for people to initiate relationships. Of course there are a few other symptoms, the biggest and most difficult (in my opinion) is hopelessness. So, if we have all these "great" ways to keep in touch, then why so much depression and interpersonal difficulty and hopelessness? Well, it's that pseudocommunity, to some degree. As we become innundated (sp?) with information, what is our place in all of it? My hope is that all who read this look for opportunities to truly connect with those around them, face-to-face.
tiff
I'll vouch for all said so far, particularly pseudo-community. But my opinion is the same as most everything else. As humans, as a civilization, we've just been trudging, sometimes careening, towards the total satisfaction of self in the material sense. All this info is another symptom of it. "Knowledge is power" and all that.
But I think info and communication are two different technological issues. We can get swept away into both. But only in one avenue is the attraction to be someone you otherwise are not, and to hold people as closely or loosely as you desire.
Maybe the real solution is to hand everyone on earth a purple monkey!
While I largely agree with what has been said, I will also be an advocate for tech stuff, too. There are two reasons I know what's going on with people in my life who are very important to me. The first is technology, i.e. my cell phone, my email and my blog. But the second is that I have a pretty high level of time management and desire to squeeze people in. I don't say that to boast...in all honesty, I feel like it's a gift...the strong desire to keep in touch, that drives me to do it. I know who is pregnant and what people's babies are named. I know who is out of town and who is sick. I know who is unemployed and who just got a job...yay Patrick! I'm grateful for it. But I do also admit it can be a distraction....for me, it's generally not a distraction from real interaction....it's a distraction from my job! More work, less email!
information and technology... i've found it's not so much the things themselves, but rather, how you use them.
on one hand, technology has helped me to connect with friends that i might otherwise have lost contact with. the advent of cell phones and blogging and the like have, in fact, strengthened several of my friendships and created new ones, as well.
on the other hand, i was once in a situation where someone whom i talked with on a weekly basis [if not more often] communicated almost solely by email and blogging. for example, i would be in his home for three hours and then come home to find an email or post regarding a major decision [one that would affect me directly], though no mention of it would have been made during my visit. that situation just seemed unhealthy to me... very weird. disconcerting.
blogging, for me, is a healthy release. it's the only journal i have -- i've never been able to do the pen and paper version -- and although comments are fun, i would continue on even in their absence.
all this to say: nothing [or, at least, not much] is truly black and white. things are often what you make of them. i will be sad if bloggingpaul is no more. but if this "good" is keeping you from "best", that would be even sadder.
i don't like tea, anyway. ;) [coffee, anyone?]
I wonder if anyone ever said the same thing about the post office (why visit when you can send a letter)? Or the telephone (why send a letter when you can call)?
No doubt many things are more easily said and/or dealt with in a non-face-to-face situation (and as someone who, believe it or don't, is very uncomfortable with social interaction, I rather appreciate this). No one would know my thoughts on this or many other issues were it not for these types of forums. (Hmmm...)
There are days and times, however, when enough is enough and I refuse to look at e-mail or return phone calls. Like many of you, most of my calls and e-mails are from clients or dog business colleagues who "need" to talk to me, need to see me, need my advice or opinion, need me to do something, etc. Rather than a vehicle for casual communication, technology becomes a vehicle for more work.
And frankly, I would have no business or rescue organization without these things, so I appreciate them. But as Sara Groves sings, "There's always just one more thing... You've got to stand up and tell the world you've got to rest awhile."
I've spent 30 minutes catching up on this blog today. Does that mean I waste too much time shoveling down information? Sure it does. All this information is a huge problem for me. CNN, Weather.com, blogs, forums, email, IM, it all adds up to some very unproductive time. But I echo others that it's not the technologies fault, it's how we use it. Without some of these things I would be missing out on the lives of those that live far away. I'd have trouble planning my days and workouts around weather and work. I think we need a campain like, "drink responsibly." We could call it, "Learn responsibly." Alright, the buzzer just went off and I need to get on with life (I don't really have a timer, but maybe I should).
This makes me laugh only b/c I remember your sermon relating to this and often talk to myself about "ichurch" whenever I listen to the podcasts...
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