Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Meaningful
Jollyblogger,prior to his very serious medical issues, worte a post on the whole Twitter thing:
Let's start with the expansion. What is happening in the world of the internet is that social activity/networking is bifurcating from blogging. This is not an either/or question - but a both/and. Blogging is a publishing tool, always has been, always will be. When it first came on the scene, it was used for networking purposes, but that did not change its fundamental nature. Since it was used far more for networking than actual serious publishing, people saw the need for good stuff for networking and behold - Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Twitter. Blogging, now free from the networking load it was never designed to carry becomes, once again, publishing, which is serious.
Now, there is an interplay between the networking and publishing side of things because, unless you are an established name somehow, the networking is how you build audience for the publishing, but they are two very different things.
The point to all this is, if you are on the internet to make friends, etc, then by all means go for the social networking stuff.
Now, the counterpoint. When building relationships, the medium does matter. Indeed deep relationships are comprised of 1000's of trivial encounters, but, at some point, that requires presence - Physical human presence of the other. Otherwise, I think God could have accomplished salvation without incarnation. Each time we are present with the other, we do a mini-incarnation.
Think about the importance of touching - it may be the deep intimacy of marriage, it may be the simple "chuck on the shoulder" between buddies, it might be the butt-slap between team mates, or a hug with friends, but whatever it is, touching matters. Heck with one of my better friends it consisted of beating the crap out of each other, at least until we got to be around 35-40, then it hurt too much.
Technology has a long way to go before it can provide a physical touch.
Right now, Jollyblogger is healing from a most serious illness. I have posted comments, written blog posts, sent emails, and done whatever I could to express my concern and offer prayer for my friend. But what I most want to do is lay hands on him in prayer.
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I think the Dane was saying that "conversations that 'matter'" are an important part of relationships but they aren't the be all and end all of them. I don't think you can ever get to those until you've gotten good and comfortable with the more superficial and trivial conversations. I mean really, it would be "deep" if my wife and I got into a conversation about the merits of supralapsarianism vs. infralapsarianism, but that won't "deepen" our relationship near as much as knowing that she likes tulips and I hate fish and me telling some silly story that makes her laugh. Similarly, when it comes to my guy friends, I always enjoy a deep theological conversation, and in the church there is lots of business that needs to be discussed, but those are the conversations of associates. Relationships are built on deep conversations about SEC football and endless "oh yeah, that's nothing, I can top that" stories.Now that is a good point that I want to expand on a bit, but I also want to present a bit of a counter point.
Let's start with the expansion. What is happening in the world of the internet is that social activity/networking is bifurcating from blogging. This is not an either/or question - but a both/and. Blogging is a publishing tool, always has been, always will be. When it first came on the scene, it was used for networking purposes, but that did not change its fundamental nature. Since it was used far more for networking than actual serious publishing, people saw the need for good stuff for networking and behold - Facebook, LinkedIn, and now Twitter. Blogging, now free from the networking load it was never designed to carry becomes, once again, publishing, which is serious.
Now, there is an interplay between the networking and publishing side of things because, unless you are an established name somehow, the networking is how you build audience for the publishing, but they are two very different things.
The point to all this is, if you are on the internet to make friends, etc, then by all means go for the social networking stuff.
Now, the counterpoint. When building relationships, the medium does matter. Indeed deep relationships are comprised of 1000's of trivial encounters, but, at some point, that requires presence - Physical human presence of the other. Otherwise, I think God could have accomplished salvation without incarnation. Each time we are present with the other, we do a mini-incarnation.
Think about the importance of touching - it may be the deep intimacy of marriage, it may be the simple "chuck on the shoulder" between buddies, it might be the butt-slap between team mates, or a hug with friends, but whatever it is, touching matters. Heck with one of my better friends it consisted of beating the crap out of each other, at least until we got to be around 35-40, then it hurt too much.
Technology has a long way to go before it can provide a physical touch.
Right now, Jollyblogger is healing from a most serious illness. I have posted comments, written blog posts, sent emails, and done whatever I could to express my concern and offer prayer for my friend. But what I most want to do is lay hands on him in prayer.
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