Alone Together.

“I lie awake, lonely as a solitary bird on the roof.” – Psalms 102:7

Something’s broken. Do you sense it? I mean something is just not right. I’ve been noticing it lately but have been “playing dumb” or choosing denial but now is time to name it. I believe our culture is falling prey to what I’m calling Social Media Fatigue (SMF). This epidemic is real and the symptoms are manifesting in a variety of disturbing ways. 

Honestly, it’s way easier to shelf this issue and simply accept it as “the new normal” but I think we need to talk about it for a minute. The irony is thick here as I realize we are all engaging with social media as we sit and read this post! 

I think we can all admit that our cell phones have sort of morphed into another appendage on our bodies. We are rarely ever out of arm’s reach of our devices, even while we sleep! I know this is true for me and I think it’s even more pronounced with our children. 

In the same way a gun is not responsible for violence, neither is a phone, in and of itself, responsible for loneliness or detachment. My daughter tells me that she and her friends half-joke about the days of the flip phone and reminisce about how all you could do with those things was make a call or text and how good it felt to make a personal connection. It’s all of the social media apps now that have infiltrated our lives like rainwater into rich soil. These apps are creating the disconnect and separation we experience from people when we engage with them so regularly.

Are there some aspects of life that still need to be handled in person? Sometimes it doesn’t feel like it. As humans, we are created with a deep need for personal connection and depth of relationship yet we are being enticed and conditioned to believe we can achieve (or get close enough anyway) the sort of depth of relationship we long for via these social networking mediums. I can be on Facebook and see “the best” of what all of my “friends” are up to and somehow I feel a brief connection but then we realize, it’s quite artificial after all.

According to your Facebook profile, you have hundreds and even thousands of friends. That’s amazing! Allow me to pose this question; Of all of those scores of friends, who really knows you? Who’s actually “in” your life?

Challenge for the week:
1. Make a personal connection. Go through your friend list on Facebook, pick out a friend or two you haven’t seen in a while, message them and ask them to coffee or lunch. Put some skin on the relationship!
2. Be vulnerable in person. Everyone likes to share the fun and exciting stuff online but take a moment and be real with someone in person.

As always, your feedback on these posts matters and this is YOUR community so please share your thoughts with the rest of us and let’s keep the dialog going.

Let’s go get it!