connectivity?

A few weeks ago I was listening to a piece on the BBC about the Internet. It started with the contributor talking about his first Walkman and how it was great but it started a wave under which we are becoming more and more engulfed. Let me say upfront that I am not in any way a technophobe but I am aware that, even in my own life, technology can become an excuse not to to other things - and more specifically an excuse not to engage with the world around me.

Email, Google, Twitter, Facebook and all the other apps and programs are wonderful tools for our life. A few years ago we would have long and complicated phone trees for urgent messages, now we simply send an email and we expect people too be connected enough to receive it in a timely fashion. Much has been written about this soundbite, snappy existence which we have begun to live. We write quickly and carelessly - if we are using Tweets or text we abbreviate our words - we reply equally quickly and sometimes, in fact often, we misunderstand because we are hardwired to look at someone's face and listen to their tone and watch their body language - not to read evverything in test which has little expression.

There is nothing wrong with judicial use of all these media but what the BBC contributer noted was that from the time that music became personal we have become more and more isolated in our entertainment and communication. Whilst the Internet has in many ways opened up the world, it has in others closed our individual worlds and made us observers. We can, if we choose, have social interaction almost solely through a computer keyboard - we can post our best photos and always be smiling - when we are feeling depressed or have nothing to say we simply do not log on.

But this is not what life in community is about. Life in community is about showing our messy hair days and our tears as well as being the happy smiley person who we prefer too be. Life in community challenges us with who we are and to be who we are - we cannot get this same interaction electronically.

Religions have long recognized the importance of the guiding power or community - however loose this may be in some cases - for most community means a constant sort of interaction with other people. This sort of connectivity is not easy sometimes, we cannot press the power button when we are annoyed at someone and we have to deal with people when we make mistakes - not simply move on to the next email. We can become all too painfully aware of tone and body language.

But this more exposed and dangerous form of life, life with other people, is what we are made for. I would not advocate throwing the computer baby out with the bathwater but I am becoming increasingly cautious about just how the Internet and electronic communication can look like something which it is not - rather like the eighties college student s sitting around in a circle all listening to Walkmans "together" - but the fundamental divide has crept in.

Perhaps these thoughts are laughable from a blogger - but I am not against this wonderful and amazing computer world. Now, though, I am going to post, press my power button and go and talk to some real people!!