Connected and yet …

I’ve been feeling this way for weeks …

…that I am so very connected and yet, I don’t feel connected much at all.    The world of FaceBook and Blogs and Texts and Instagram, well, to me, I feel like it is actually hurting connections.  Instead of talking to people about their lives — it seems that many people catch up with what friends are doing via some kind of electronic means.  And, while sometimes it can be quite convenient … it makes me so very sad.

Do we really know each other at all, anymore?  Or do we make assumptions about people and their daily lives by what we see on line?  And what is it teaching our children?  Heaven forbid people communicate via the actual telephone.  If I get another, “I’ve been thinking about you,” text, I might simply scream.   Or, “I’ve been wondering how you’ve been,” via text.  It feels like lazy communication.    And I am so very worried about the electronic age and my children.  Tyler knows how to work an iPad — and I find it embarrassing and not exciting.  It means he sees his parents using their iPhones and iPads when we should be playing and being with him.

I also love seeing couples and friends out to dinner but it never fails that someone at the table is checking their phone.  JT and I always manage to sit next to the couple where they are both on their phones!   I’ve been guilty of that myself … but the best gift I gave myself a few weeks ago was that I deleted every app from my phone except one.

Instagram … *sigh*.  I have a love/hate relationship with Instagram and part of me wants to delete that one as well.  It’s made me lazy about photography.  On the one hand, I love that I can take a no pressure snap shot but on the other hand, it makes me skip out on a really sweet image that would have been awesome with my camera (see post above).   And do people really need to know who I am with and what I’m doing at all times?  Does it make them sad that they aren’t there, too?  Are people as sensitive as me?

Am I the only one feeling this way?

Is the electronic world really such a blessing?

My grandmother, Bette, is turning 88 tomorrow and I have an interview planned for her that I am really excited about.  I want to hear all about how she kept in touch with her best friends … and how many friends did they truly have … and how did you really know someone was a true friend.   And I can’t wait to get her take on FaceBook and Blogs and everything else that keeps us all “in touch.”

… because, I gotta tell ya, I question it more and more each day.

3 comments
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  • Amanda Fowle BindelMay 21, 2012 - 10:28 pm

    We could kill a bottle of wine and wax on about this topic. This goes hand in hand with that “community” you know I craved for so long. I do think I’ve found what I was looking for, though, and it is separate from technology. I think you will find more connection as Sabrina starts school and your circle closes in a bit so that you are seeing the same smaller groups more frequently. I am conflicted on it all, too, because, to be brutally honest, I don’t know that I want to feel as connected as some people do. It comes with lots of strings attached and I am an introvert. That connection comes with regular encounters — like neighbor wine-in-the-driveway weeklies, or chatting in the gymnastics lobby, or seeing the same people at church each week or weekly Bible study. It can also come with email / fb exchanges, but there has to be a two-side conversation for it to happen. So, there’s my novel of the day. In summary: “How are you? We should get together soon!”ReplyCancel

  • Tricia Thomason MillerMay 22, 2012 - 12:05 am

    Amanda, I really liked what your friend said and the questions she asked.ReplyCancel

  • Teri Keith Sabade JohnsonMay 22, 2012 - 2:33 am

    Wow! I love that! ReplyCancel

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