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08/24 2009

Virtual Community

So I’m interested to know your thoughts on this. It’s the head of the Catholic church in England taking a stand against the next wave of evil.

But it’s not homicide, abortion, or drugs. The forbidden fruit this time is something far more innocuous. It’s text messages.

To be fair, it’s actually a lot more than texting. It’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and all the other ways that we can connect to one another virtually. But what’s interesting about this Arch-bishop statement (at least to me) is that he seems to bring up a valid point.

He says that too much communication via technology is dehumanizing. We lose the social skills that are necessary to interact face to face. Or even worse, we lose the desire. His main point is that real friendship is hard work, it involves sacrifice, time, and serving one another. And that the danger of social networking is that the emphasis seems to be on quantity of relationships above the quality of them.

A few times a year I get an email from a parent that’s about something like this. Their kid is so plugged into a virtual community that he/she doesn’t seem to have a real life. I usually try to help them see that there are people behind screen names and that there are some legitimate ways that online communities help people connect.

But I’m beginning to wonder, do they have a point?

Rob Bell talked about this many years ago. He pointed out that when God tells Moses to come up and meet him on the mountain, he then follows it with a command to be on that mountain. Which at first seems a bit repetitive. If Moses is meeting God on the mountain than the meeting is going to obviously involve Moses staying on the mountain.

But Bell points out, that God knows human nature. He knows that Moses will spend the entire day trekking up the mountain thinking about getting up there. But the moment he gets on the mountain his thoughts will turn to heading back down. The danger is that Moses might be constantly moving, but never present where he actually is.

A church that I really respect in Atlanta, recently took this to the next level. They started an online church. They have a guy leading worship, prayer, teaching…everything…even online tithes. The heart behind this is to make it as comfortable and non-threatening as possible for new people to enter a church community. But my question is this: Is what we gain by doing this worth what we lose?

It’s not just about the online church. I mean all of it. How many times have you been sitting at a table in a really good conversation when your pocket starts to ring, or your conversation partner starts to text someone else? Are we losing the art of being fully present anywhere by attempting to be present everywhere?

I’m not trying to be nostalgic, or to say that we should just go back to the good ole days of candlelight and ink pens. But when was the last time you turned off your phone? Or went to visit someone instead of sending an email? It seems to me like the arch-bishop may be on to something that we all already know.

Maybe the danger of technology (in excess) is that it makes us something we were never meant to be.

Maybe not all progress is an advance.

But I’m still thinking about this one. What do you think? Is this true in your own life? How has technology hurt or helped your “real” life?

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  • http://feetwasher.blogspot.com Philip Cunningham III

    I guess I’m not going to declare war on virtual communities just like I’m not going to declare war on TV or Hollywood. All they are are newer vehicles for doing things we’ve always done. With TV/Hollywood, it’s tell stories. With social networking, it’s connecting people who otherwise wouldn’t be connected. Now, can there be abuses of these new vehicles? Well absolutely. So we need to setup appropriate boundaries for ourselves & or children. And we need to have values that govern these boundaries, such as “being present is greater than trying to be omni-present,” and “face-to-face interaction is more important than screen to screen,” etc.

    But, yeah, I do think a virtual church is a little too far for my taste. And just thinking about the direction of culture, one thing the church will have to offer people is REAL community over virtual community. As much as we try to use these new vehicles for Kingdom gain, we must preserve the old-fashioned handshake & hug as we gather together to break bread & open the Good Book.

  • http://westcoastwitness.com/ Wes Woodell

    Good post, albeit ironic.

    I do believe people can place an unhealthy emphasis on social media, but to be honest I don’t believe anything helping people connect with other people is inherently a bad thing – especially when you consider what Christianity is all about. Of course social media can be abused just like anything else, but I’m not sure I agree with the bishop that it’s dehumanizing or a hinderance to real relationships.

    I think it’s simply different from anything that’s ever existed before, and we’re still struggling to figure out the impact of it all.

    IMO, if you want to find evil in technology, you’re less likely to find it in the various social media and more likely to find it in the cyber-crack people are smokin’ known as World of Warcraft.

    That seems to have the potential to be a lot more harmful than Twitter or Facebook.

  • DecaturJeff

    I would be inclined to agree with the archbishop. Granted, I have some odd views about what is happening in our world and the difficulties that will be visited on Christians in the coming years. Having said that, while social media appears to connect more and more people. I believe it truly impedes real relationships. The fact that I can connect with 200 people from high school online might prevent me from serving the person down the street who is in some type of need because I don’t have time to recognize it.

    Jesus, our example, had a few CLOSE friends that he spent a great deal of time with in service, teaching and, at times, agonizing. I take from his life that I need to be tight with people, not keeping with them from afar, or via the internet.

    The Internet, like many things, isn’t bad in and of itself. Taken with moderation it can be good but as I watch my children and their friends try to spend more and more time texting and tweeting and updating their status at any and every venue they are at- yes, even in church- I see the perils grow with expectations and boundaries lessening over time.

  • http://labelmeplease.blogspot.com Joe

    This is a bit comical. Motion pictures were invented, church objected, no one cared. Radio, church objections, apathy. Television, objections, apathy. Social networking, objections…now what?

    I understand the concerns raised, but I think they will be of little avail. The answer to shallow relationships is not attacking the venues that allow for them, but fostering real relationships of depth. The experience of real community is life-altering, and no one who has experienced it will ever mistake it for a Twitter feed. The key would then be getting the experience to more people, rather demonizing Facebook.

    Might I point out that texting in church is a symptom that sitting idle, staring straight ahead at the show up front also has an isolating effect on people. If we’re concerned that people are losing their face to face communication skills, then perhaps we should cut services a bit shorter to help remedy the situation, no?

  • Maynard

    As a non Facebooker, non My Myspacer, and non-blogger, I must say I don’t see this as a problem at all even though I’ve chosen to abstain from doing it myself (except when I hijack your blog). If there’s a problem, it was there already and will be there when the next phase of communication comes along.

    A grandparent of one of my clients recently complained that her grandkids never talk to her anymore now that they have ‘text’ on their cell phones. My advice – start texting them and be a cool Granny.

    Online church seems better than none at all, which is where most of our society is. I say, go for it. If you know of a good one, send it my way.

    This is a tame blog from you…you’re not going soft on us are you?

    Blessings to you and yours and all your social networking, pal.

  • SherryLee

    I have a niece who still insists on stationery, fountain pens, even sealing wax. A communication from her is an honored gift. Anyone out there ever read Momo, the story about the men in grey suits who save us time by actually stealing it from us? Michael Ende wrote it. The turtle Cassieopia helps save our race and helps us remember how to be truly human-in then fable that is. On the same note, Mark and I have a running discussion about the time and effort necessary to find the right for people. If you rush the process, is something lost? Why?