A question has been lingering in my mind. It was brought to front and center when aryan nation called me liberal in regards to my views on facebook. This question has caused me to delve deeper into the philosophical ideals and the logical basis behind my beliefs and behind those of the proponents for this "new" phenomenon in internet communication. Should I break down and join?
I care nothing for facebook because I do not wish to be in yet another social network. I do not wish to search for people who I can have no direct influence on, nor do I wish to be searched for by people from my past. The people in whom I can have direct impact need my full attention. Those who love me know how to contact me, and those whom I love have no need to look up how I'm doing on facebook or elsewhere. People who spend all their time updating their facebook content forget about those people who care about them but don't have a facebook account. I was totally unaware that everyone had switched to facebook, so I was left in the dark and excluded, if you will.
You may find this humorous, and in some sense I do as well. However, I'm including it. In reading about issues with facebook, I found one area where my opinions find themselves devoutly in opposition to this progressively liberal society (click here). On this issue, I'm about as conservative as it can get. If you cringed at the content, or had any reaction other than contempt for the liberal double standard with this organization when you clicked above, then I call you a pseudo-conservative wimp who is in need of proof of existence of your supposedly present Y chromosome.
I fully admit that I may sound crazy, but I like being odd. Those who know me know that. I like standing in firm opposition with the masses on important and trivial issues alike. I like being an extremist of sorts. Opposing our seeming "dependence" on the internet and it's forms of communication is one area where I proudly stand on traditional ideals. I think that we are fooled into believing that the internet is necessary in our lives because our over consumptive, overly busy, overly individualistic mentality in the US. This is yet another symptom of our failings in reaching our neighbors and communities. What do you and I do for our next-door neighbor? Our neighborhood or complex? Our church community? Our city? Our county? Our state? Let's work on real relationships and see what blessings God will bring when we focus on those around us.
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4 comments:
Dude, its a tool that allows you to keep up with people at a glance. Its like the blog, only better and faster. (Nobody can see what you wanted us to see bc you didnt include the link.)
John, you can continue to pretend like our world isn't changing, but it'll be better for you in the long run if you just come to terms with it and understand that if you really want to reach people, you have to go where the people are.
100% of the college students in my church use Facebook to communicate so if you want to reach college students, you need to reach them where they are which is on Facebook. I definitely agree that sometimes these social networks can get out of control as I'm sure your link points out, but lest not forget that anything that takes the place of worship in our lives is sin, not just social networks. Lets not paint something as being evil just bc its new, popular, and a little unfamiliar.
Lets think about ways in which we can redeem the culture, not hide from it.
I realize that continuing this discussion borders on lunacy, but here I go...
I don't have to pretend that the world isn't changing because it isn't (see my post for Ecclesiastes 1:9 quote). Were not evolving, and technology certainly isn't making we humans any more intelligent or advanced.
I agree that in order to reach people, you have to go where they are. However, people aren't IN facebook. They are IN their dorms or houses, IN the dining halls, IN their class rooms, etc. The person and the body cannot be separated here. We must reach out to both. If you want to reach someone, you gotta do it Southern Bell style... Reach out and touch someone!
So what if 130% of college students are on facebook. Though you might wish you still were, you are not a college student. Why do you think it's necessary to sign up for facebook to reach these young people? It is totally illogical.
I don't believe we are called to redeem culture. We are called to subdue the earth, but does that include rescuing secular cultural entities? We are to be in the world not of the world. Let the secular remain so. We don't need it! We have the Spirit and a Hope. We are to CALL the nations OUT OF the secular and INTO the sacred. We don't need to make our worship services like rock concerts to get dead heads to join in. It is so sad how Christians think that we need to make life metal (Christian death metal) in order to reach the world.
If all Christians lived their lives in a truly productive and sacrificial manner, the world would be lining up outside our doors to get in.
Let's facebook....I mean, blog on this issue some more.
Have you encouraged your own wife to remove herself from the warrants of this internet beartrap, facebook?
My wife is an adult. She will do as she ultimately feels right. However, her feelings are quite similar to mine.
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