I’m Back…..
Six weeks ago, I told everyone that I would take the month of July off of blogging, twittering, and Facebooking. I also declared that I would check my email infrequently and only get on the Internet when I needed to. This was in response to a growing dependence on electronic communications and social networking. So the questions are: How did I do, and, what did I learn?
First: How did I do? Honestly it was a mixed bag. The first week I found myself often reaching for my iphone to start to check twitter updates or email, and then realized I had made a commitment not to do that. I have to admit that my hands were a bit shaky and my eyes darted around like an addict looking for his next fix (OK, that’s an exaggeration, but it’s a bit what I felt like). Fortunately, that feeling didn’t last long. About 10 days into it, I really didn’t care.
But it wasn’t all success. Though I mostly refrained from checking my work email at home, and I didn’t look at it at all on my 3-week vacation, I still got sucked in more than 3 times a day. And I did find myself surfing the Internet after having done some “necessary” research or gathering of news.
Second: What did I learn? The first thing I discovered was the liberation of my attention. I’m generally not a “focus on the cell phone instead of a conversation” type of person, but before this season, in most of my down moments I would find myself popping open an app to check twitter updates or Facebook status or email. What I realized was that in the in-between moments of life—in minutes or even seconds when there is nothing to do—is when we are surprised by everyday grace. When I default to my iphone, I tend to miss the people walking by, the overheard snippets of conversations, or the beautiful sunset sky. More importantly, I miss the opportunity to notice something that should be attended to: A hurting or lonely person, a child who would love to play, or a challenge that needs to be prayed over. I learned that taking time to breathe, and think, and letting margins stay margins, is a really good thing for a human being to engage in.
I also learned that instant communication is rarely necessary. Most emails used to hit me with gale-force urgency, pleading with me to answer in the blink of an eye. Text messages are even worse; people know I have my phone with me and can find a little time to text back! Twitter and Facebook tended to seduce me into following tangents of conversations and observations to which I felt I must contribute. Email, text messages and social networking isn’t bad in and of itself, but they should not drive me or own me and I learned that I shouldn’t feel guilty if it takes me a day or two to respond to folks.
I learned more, but I’m not going to share it all right now. If ever. Because that is another thing I learned; everybody doesn’t need to know everything we are thinking. Sometimes its OK to learn something and treasure it in my heart for a while. Not every observation and experience needs to become a blog post or a twitter update. We don’t need to position ourselves to become the electronic equivalent of the kid in the class who knows everything: Maybe sometimes we should be the old, wise person at the meeting who says one thing, but it is radically profound.
Finally, I learned that after being off of all of this for a month, my friends are still my friends, the work I needed to do got done, and nobody is really any worse off for my absence. I’ll go back to using some of these tools, but I’m still in the process of figuring out how and how much I want to use them. I would encourage anybody—especially if you lead other people—to take some level of break or slow-down from electronic communications, not because the tools are bad (I’m still convinced they are valuable) but because it will help you redefine what—and who—is important in your life.
Continued in part 2: Online Social Networking as the Servant, not the Master