technology

I am laying on the floor next to my roommate as we both type away and browse the Internet...leaving silly messages on our facebook pages and laughing. It is different. With social networks and laptop computers, I find myself interacting with friends in a whole new way. One of my favorite examples of this is a "thread" which is basically an on-going commentary with a group of friends on facebook. We have posted about 350 times, and it is just a free-flowing conversation. We hang out in person a lot too, and text, and talk on the phone, but it is our way of staying in contact all day long. We can take a break from work, or check in before bed, and guaranteed, someone has contributed something funny or interesting to the thread. Technology is a funny thing. I love it, and yet, somehow, I feel like it creates distance. People used to socialize by sitting on their porches and talking. Now we email. We text. We post on threads. But we rarely spend lots of time face to face. Even when we do sit in the same room, it is often with a television on. What happened to good ol' conversation? Today, we forget how to be personal, how to look into someone's eyes and see them. We have to be distracted by something else in the background. We are uncomfortable so we hide behind our toys and technology. We have to wonder why. It also reflects in our ability to sit down in a quiet place with God. Most people struggle to spend even five minutes in silence, just sitting in His presence, including myself. We've created walls of distraction, and we are so used to all the commotion that when we strip it all away, and are left in the silence, we panic. Something feels wrong, so we run back to the familiarity of chaos. God meets us in the solitary places. And we discover each other in those places as well. Take the time to really see someone today. Lay aside the distractions, and take a look. You'll be amazed at what you will find.