It's not a little ironic that those inventions which initially intend to bring people closer ultimately separate us further. Do you remember the old telephone commercial? "Reach out touch some one," they used to say, and then pick up the phone. Who would have thought in those days of rotary phones and party lines,(do you remember those?) that nearly everyone including young people would be carrying cell phones. Of course its aimed at "staying connected." Not only that, we now have text messaging, where a person doesn't even have to talk, he or she can just type words, but not whole words or actual sentences- abbreviations. Whole words, and sentences take too long and require some grammar and spelling expertise. This is an excellent way to chat with your friends while you are otherwise occupied, say at church, or school, or in the grocery check out line. You can even be in a crowd of people (or with your family,)and at the same time "stay in touch" with your friends. Then of course we have the grand daddy of all superficiality, "social networking sites." Where else can you "keep up" with all your "friends" who you never see or talk to? Now you can be "social" from the comfort of your own home, sitting in your pjs on your lazy-boy. You don't even have to comb your hair or brush your teeth.
Which brings me to LOL, or another designation aimed at communicating emotion.:) Have you ever wondered why this is even necessary? I'll help you out here. The printed text is an inefficient, maybe even inadequate medium for human communication. It's fine for text books, dictionaries and encyclopedias, that is, for sharing facts and information. However, for communication between actual human beings, it is woefully inadequate. So when we text or email, we have to give indication of the emotion or inflection that we want to accompany the message. Of course we are limited to a relatively small stock of available emotions, LOL...Human communication, and social interaction is more than just words, or even accompanying pictures. Trying to compress human experience into words, was the challenge of the great literary artists, poets and novelists of former days. They did so by means of the mastery of the language, powerful vocabulary and many words, not abbreviations and emoticons.
I have to admit I was enthralled by some of these new "advances." However the novelty has worn off, and a sense of foreboding has taken its place. They may be useful but I doubt they are good. In effect, the world of text, rather than growing to accommodate human experience, is static, compressing human experience into an increasingly narrow field. The result? superficiality, facade, and surface relationships with no depth. Not only is there the possibility of intentional deception, ( I'm thinking of the country hit..."I'm so much cooler online") but also the tacit deception, that is, the things left unsaid. What your friends via textual media know of you does not even scratch the surface of who you are. It's like the tip of the ice berg. What your friends see by means of facebook, twitter, or TM may be true, but its certainly not the whole truth, and "Relationships" thus upheld bear little resemblance to human friendship. Consequently, while we may be inundated with "friends," it's entirely possible to remain isolated, remote, and alone. We may actually find ourselves losing face to face social skills. Perhaps the most detrimental effect of the multiplication of these superficial contacts, is that they can and do sometimes distract us from the people who are physically present with us, endangering the only real relationships we have. Virtual is virtual. Real is real. Virtual is not real.
I'm reminded that God communicated through the words of the prophets and seers for ages, but to save us, to reveal Himself, and His love, the Word became Flesh. God incarnate, in Jesus Christ. The book, the text on the page was just not adequate.
My advice? The next time you are out with real friends, show them the respect they deserve. Be present with them. Give them your unobstructed attention. Turn off your phone. You can catch up with all your text messages later, from the comfort of your own home.
