It’s been too long since I last visited this blog. But, I’ve started to tweet!
The explosion of Twitter and the multiple other social networking forums has caught my imagination and the imagination of the thousands who sign up daily for either Facebook or Twitter. It’s the web 2.0 surge - the web now doing what its original designer hoped it would do.
But I guess as I join in – Twitter name GilbertFoster – it’s got me asking some questions of civilization especially western civilization.
In my life time we’ve gone from face to face communication to letter writing, to conversations via telephone, to emails, to then texting to now Twitter – 140 characters (not letters). The whole thing needs to be in the space of 140 characters.
It’s a neat exercise to succinctly put down comments in 140 characters.
I’m a bottom line kind of guy – give me the short version – and even I struggle to get it to 140. It becomes a new way of thinking and communicating.
We live in a society that is so cluttered. Every day hundreds of adverts hit your eyes; every day hundreds of messages cross your mind.
Maybe something as short, brief and summarized as 140 characters will be noticed; will help de-clutter us.
But if Web 2.0 and social networks are to develop new 21st century forms of community – can we really know someone in 140 characters?
Is it really social networking or is that just a myth, a dream …even worse – is it a destruction of civilization.
Think about relationships. Think about what it would look like if we all spoke in 140 characters. In some friendships this might be helpful but in most it would be unhelpful.
Would we ever get to the real person? Would we ever reach the real stuff to talk about?
Just as you get past the usual pleasantries – boom …out of characters.
Maybe you think we’d avoid the pleasantries and just get to the real stuff …but you and I know that doesn’t work in sex, its unlikely going to work in building genuine loving relationships!!
140 character social networking.
Is the issue the limiting number of characters, or is the issue the limiting amount of time?
Are we becoming a nation of fewer words, or is Twitter successful because we are a nation of fewer minutes.
I guess Twitter would never work in Africa.
But maybe Africa’s healthier than America – because of it.
And then what about the Gospel.
Yep – for too long people have shrunk the Gospel down to too few characters. The four spiritual laws; the sinner’s prayer; recite this prayer and you’re in.
Our reduction of the Gospel has damaged the Gospel and distorted God.
Both God and the Gospel are a lot more than 140 characters.
Both God and the Gospel need time, development, following.
A 140 character relationship - will only get you a 140 character worth of God, hope and faith.
So ……is it quit the tweeting and return to the blogging?
Or is it let tweeting do what tweeting can do – and make sure we don’t make it do what it never can do.
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5 comments:
I'm for sure a better writer of my thoughts than I am a speaker of them. So you can guess, that I enjoy Twitter, Blogging, Emailing and so on. When I read a blog or some twitter feed there is part of a person I get to know; like reading a book, you get to know the character of the character. I don't think you can ever truly know someone. I think that is reserved for God alone. Although, we can come to know someone enough that they might become familiar to us; maybe even predictable. In the movie, Twilight; Edward, the character of the vampire can read minds. He becomes absorbed with Bella (his love interest), the one mind he can't read. He says to her, she is difficult to read and that he's just trying to figure her out. There is a mystery in each one of us that is fascinating - to me at least. It's revealed not just in the face-to-face conversations, but through all forms of connecting. So here's a little poem I wrote, just for you Tweeters!
Don't let Twitter make you bitter :(
A few lines to read or write, to gain or give some insight.
A place to stay connected, where your thoughts are redirected. Sharing life is a gift to be enjoying, knowing the thoughts of where others are going.
Do becareful who you follow, and what you choose to swallow; now that can make you hollow because Twitter wasn't meant to make you bitter :)
I would say that Twitter could just be the next tool of depersonalizing human relationships. There are so many indicators of this in the world, whether its facebook or face coverings.
Twitter offers a way to connect and a way to put on a mask, just like any other form of communication. We all wear many masks. We most often only show our best faces to those we come in contact with.
Our society very rarely shows anyone our deeper selves, our darker sides.
In fact, we very often don't even acknowledge or recognize or accept these parts of ourselves.
We choose or are forced to get to know some people more than others.
The Jewish philosopher Martin Buber wrote that we are always interacting with people, the world and God. We can interact with people as subjects or objects.
Interacting with another person as a subject is rarer than you may think.
Most of our communication is carefully crafted to not reveal our real selves, therefore we put up an object to others and people are forced to deal with this false self.
With twitter, many people post more raw emotions and reactions. Tweets are not always so well thought out, for better or worse. But they just may be more real.
So in reading, 'Most of our communication is carefully crafted to not reveal our real selves, therefore we put up an object to others and people are forced to deal with this false self', reminded me of when I first began dating my husband. I use to joke and say that he ‘falsely advertised’, but it did take awhile to become familiar with the actual person and now I’m joyfully learning who he is becoming in Christ. When I think of masks – it provoked me to think about how we use masks. I hear a lot of talk about being real, connecting and having genuine relationships. I wonder if when we are in disguised or masked and depending on the situation/circumstance; that this is one way, when we can then be free to be ourselves, to be real. Not to go back a few blogs, but maybe it’s one of the reasons some might post anonymously? There is a taste of freedom in that, not to confuse it with experiencing what it is to be truly free; it’s the working-out of being comfortable with your-self and some may be just discovering it and easing into their skin.
The darker parts-I see the darker side revealed in some of what I read on blogs. I mean some of the things I’ve read that we have posted are dark thoughts, evil even, mean. We say cruel things, maybe even things we would not say face-to-face; so in a way, maybe the rawness is the realness. Maybe twitter, blogging, and the art of writing are some of the tools we use to reveal who we really are. Like a thief masking himself maybe not only because he doesn’t want to be physically identified, but also, because he wants to do something that reveals who he really is (what’s in his heart) giving him a bit of freedom to build his confidence. My friend said it’s more of entertainment to her. That even when you not being real, she can see through it and who are you fooling anyway. I just think like most things, it comes down to what we-humanity make of it and since we are made-up of what's in our hearts, it seems that is revealing something.
Eating sandwich reading blog long day
Deep thoughts ... good laugh ...
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