The virtual world of FaceBook and Insta have it’s good and bad. I love seeing post of family and friends…… weddings, graduations, first steps and first cars. I use social media to make announcements for upcoming events, for my website, and to keep up with family and friends. Where else can you do all that? That’s the up side of social media and something I enjoy!!
The down side for some is how dispensable friends can become. Don’t like someone’s comment…delete. Someone doesn’t compliment your selfie….delete. Someone has a different opinion…delete. Jealous of someone’s success….delete. Now I will say, if someone continues to cuss and show cruelty to others, man I’m gonna delete their feed. It’s not that kind of trash that I’m talking about. But I just have to ask…what is all this teaching our kids? It teaches them, friends are dispensable. We never have to forgive, work things out, or overlook shortcomings. We don’t have to work on solutions. Get another friend. One that agrees with everything, one that never fails…but the truth of the matter is friends do fail us and we fail our friends.
Sometimes we think having social media friends are enough to satisfy our need for people. But if that’s the case, why are people more dissatisfied than ever in relationships? Why do they long for more, after hours of looking at feeds, making comments, and liking hundreds of post. Because we are created to need other people and not just their compliments or likes. We are created for an interactive relationship of growth, of sacrifice, of opportunity and forgiveness, that thrives in face to face relationships on a regular basis. I believe this happens with families, with neighbors, with church, work, and other social events where we are present in someone’s life.
It all makes me feel nostalgic, the old days of picking up the telephone and hearing someone’s voice. It makes me long for long conversations on the front porch, with a glass of ice tea and a neighbor sitting next to me. It makes me think of barn dances, and ice cream socials. Those community events where people gather and talk. Where getting caught up is becoming a lost art in our instant world. The art of conversations about rain, cattle prices, and a new horse. The surprise in seeing how much little Johnny grew because you haven’t seen him in awhile or the surprise of a toothless grin from a youngster, who’s got loose change from the tooth fairy burning a hole in his pocket. The bombardment of post and already knowing the “news” makes me want to turn it off and just wait for the old timers to come into the feed store.
Do you ever think about this? How easy it has become to write someone off? To only do what feels good without real growth? I wonder if we have shown this to our kids in our own lives, perhaps in our own marriages? Maybe in our own relationships? How easy to rally for self and hit the delete. To start again, the next one will be better.
What do you think? Can you tell me the good and bad you see for the next generation. I would love to hear from you…….thecowboypastorswife.
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