For three weeks now, I’ve been fighting an upper respiratory infection. It’s waxed and waned in its intensity. Unfortunately, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve were two of my bad days. I was worn out and slept through family celebrations.
Though it is horribly embarrassing to admit, I realized that I wasn’t sad to miss the conversation or the food. Rather, I was disappointed that I wasn’t in any of the pictures. How egotistical is that?
In trying to honestly analyze my feelings, I came to a sad realization. I have been pulled hook, line and sinker into the fake world of social networking and its false projection of humanity. I didn’t get a picture with my family at Christmas lunch. I was sound asleep and didn’t get to snap a “selfie” of a New Year’s kiss with my hubby. I wasn’t in the Instagram photo collages that showed my closest family and friends having a great time. I’m digitally absent.
Those of you that are free from a social networking addiction say “So What??” I get it. I can step back and see this for what it is. However, it does help me to understand why the electronic connection that our tweens/teens (and many of us older “kids”) have is so polarizing. The cyber world is very real to them and the lives they live on-line may be as intense (if not more so) than they one they live in the flesh.
I walked away with two observations after taking the time to think this through. First, I need to be very conscientious about how much time and effort I spend in living life on-line. It’s part of my job, and I enjoy it personally, but its pull and power is great, and can cause me to miss real relationship for the illusion of friendship. Secondly, it’s causing me to be shallow. I realize my attention span is shorter, and I’m thinking less “deeply”.
This week, many of us will be making resolutions to get in shape, to cut back on junk, to exercise more, etc. Have you really thought about what it means to make a resolution? Webster’s (office edition) defines a resolution as “firm determination” or “a solving, as of a problem”. I resolve that I want to be more present in relationships, purposeful in conversation, giving of myself and deeper in my reading/thinking. Care to join me?
May your 2014 be blessed! Let us all strive to make a Holy impact in the place where we have been planted.
