This is one of those posts I don't want to write. Not because I have nothing to say on the topic, but because once I've committed these thoughts to writing, I'm going to have to live a little differently. It's like the sermon on humility that you don't want to preach, but you know that it's going to be good for you to do so. Besides, this is a good example of why I do this – it's (obviously) not to draw a crowd but to work through things in my own thinking.
A preliminary note: this is not primarily a discussion of frugality or stewardship, but that is a related benefit of rethinking your use of technology. We spend huge amounts of money on technology, and discovering that, particularly in a time of economic difficulty, can have its financial benefits. This is already happening around the country, as Peggy Noonan and USA Today noted in recent days. (This week's cover article in TIME magazine is all about "the new frugality.") But the following comments are not mainly about that. There are other factors in this discussion that are important to the Christian, and I want to account for them.
Having just read Strauch's little book Love or Die, I think I can center my thoughts around the two great commandments – to love God fully and our neighbor as ourselves. As followers of Christ, our lives are to be characterized in every aspect by love for God and others. Let's put our technological choices to that test. I already dealt with such sophisticated gadgets as dishwashers in the last post, so I'm going to talk about social networking and entertainment this time.
I don't know the full history of online social networking, but my awareness of it begins with Xanga, then MySpace, then Facebook, which is when I joined the movement. Then after a while I unjoined, for reasons I've already detailed. But now there's Twitter, which in the worst case is pure narcissism, although I don't see how it's any worse in its potential than Facebook, although Twitter is easier to manage. The question is, do these things help me to love the Lord and others more (or more effectively)? I think it's possible to answer affirmatively. In my case, I've chosen the combination of blog and Twitter. The former helps me distill questions of significance for my own thinking and present them for the 3 or 4 people that may stumble across them on the internet in case they may be edified.
Twitter is indeed a potential pitfall, like Facebook. There are even apps like Tweet Deck to integrate data from both Facebook and Twitter ("never miss an important tweet again!" they say. Like anything called a "tweet" could really be important). If you follow lots of people, you can spend a great deal of time on relatively meaningless stuff – just like on Facebook. These things must be used intentionally. I chose Twitter over Facebook because it's easier to focus on people that matter most to me. I avoid following anyone for mere entertainment, or just because I know them. I follow Rick Holland because he's my pastor and I pray for him; Al Mohler because he's so stinkin' smart; a few others because I want to pray for their ministries or because they are close friends and they don't inundate me with meaningless trivia. When my new small group ministry starts soon, I'll follow all of them that care to Tweet so that we can share the little things in life with each other. But I don't use a mobile Twitter application on my phone. On the other hand, I have the Twitter widget on my blog sidebar, so everyone in my massive readership can see what's happening in my life if they care to. I hope that's not narcissism, but at least I'm not pushing it on people indiscriminately (as on Facebook and Twitter itself) – if they want to see it, they have to go look at it.
So, technology can help to provide meaningful connections between us, enabling us to love one another more consistently in an increasingly fast-paced culture. But none of this can ever substitute for face-to-face contact. The more we connect online, the more important it is for us to share actual time together, eating and drinking, serving and worshiping, living life together. The electronic connection is only for filling in gaps, or even to keep a little fun in our friendships. In order to get to this point, I had to cancel my Facebook account and limit myself on Twitter to following only those with whom I have real interpersonal relationships, plus a handful of others.
Finally, a brief note about entertainment, because I've rambled on long enough. This is the area where technology has had the most detrimental effect on most of us. I look at all the gadgets in my entertainment center, and I think about how much that blasted TV is turned on. I've done the math: I could cancel my cable subscription and Tivo and use the money for a monthly family night out – even a night at the movies! Or I could keep cable and just be careful to make sure that our use of it is mostly a family activity. Either way, if we just got rid of Tivo, we would be forced to back off of our "on demand" mentality a bit. We'll make the final decision after some prayer, and hopefully God will grant us grace to use our gadgets for godliness. For anyone who has read this far, I hope you'll do the same.
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