Skylar's Blog & Podcast

Hebrews 10:24-25

I ask this a lot, but how many of you have a facebook? If you do, and I'm sure a good chunk of you do, how often do you check your facebook a day? One, two, three, twenty times? It is surprising how addicting facebook can be. What makes facebook so addicting for you? Is it all the apps (farmville, bumperstickers [which is one of my favorite], mafia, etc.)? Is it getting a chance to poke fun at your friends pictures and profiles? Whatever it is facebook has now become the second most visited site on the web. Can you guess number one? It is...Google! That means Facebook has passed up Yahoo, Myspace, ESPN, Ask Jeeves, and everyone else for the most visited website! That's insane seeing that Facebook isn't a site that holds information that people need. So, my next question is this: why is Facebook so popular? Why do we (because we are a part of this number) so attracted to what Facebook has to offer?...What do you think? In my opinion, Facebook offers something that every single one of us want, and that is: ideal human connection. What does that mean? Let's start with the first word. What does ideal mean? Ideal means satisfying one's conception of what is perfect. In other words, facebook offers friendships that match up with our idea of perfect. How does it do that? Facebook offers a lot of control of what people find out about us. We have a lot of control over what other people see about us. This means it is very easy to create the ideal (there's that word again) you. So, people see us as we want them to see us and we see them as they want us to see them.

On to the second part, it offers human connection. We all want this. We all deeply desire to have relationships with other people. Some of you might think you are better off being isolated, but the second you slip and step into any relationship your perceptions change almost instantly (Don't believe me? Watch the movie Up in the Air). When God created humans he saw it wasn't good for us to be alone, and that is still the case today. Facebook provides a consistent, everyday outlet for us to experience some kind of connection with other people. However, does facebook totally satisfy what we are looking for? What do you think?...

I'm going to say it doesn't. While facebook is a great place to make people feel special or make them laugh, it isn't a place where you can really talk to someone and form a friendship. To do that we have to get our hands dirty, we have to hang out with other people and let them experience who we really are. The verse I gave you at the beginning of this blog is the verse we base our Rock Groups on. Life can only be lived to its fullest if we have other people in it who know who we really are. Life is only enjoyable if you have a group of friends who know your shortcomings and have made it clear they love you. Living becomes much more exciting when there are people you can count on and trust. However, I realize this is hard. There are many of us who find facebook a better alternative because we've been hurt by people we've trusted with who we really are. There is a risk when we come into relationship with imperfect human beings. However, in my mind and in my experience, if you are wise who you allow into your life, it is definitely worth the risk. So, my advice, put that laptop down, turn off your computer, and ask a friend out for coffee, to throw a baseball around, to go shopping with you, to hike with, or whatever it is you do. Be yourself, and let those people in your life be themselves, too. And after all of that watch God bless you with what you've been created for: a real-life, ideal human connection.