I've been thinking a lot about words recently. I've come to believe that words have power. Words have power because they carry ideas, and ideas motivate actions. Words have the power to carry ideas because they carry meaning. Words are used by one person to communicate meaningful ideas to another person.
Today, however, our postmodern culture teaches us to use words vaguely. When we communicate, our words are less precise in meaning, and more steeped in connotation and innuendo than denotation and precision. We talk of feeling more, and thinking less.
Our culture today is addicted to social networking. It has become an almost sad irony that it is difficult to have a real face-to-face conversation with someone without them pulling out their phone at some stage to perform some social-networking function. And homework is always performed as a multi-task between writing the paper, and placing one’s two cents on that hilarious status that everyone is commenting on.
I am convinced that this social networking addiction is having an effect on our minds. I have read articles about how the way we use the web is changing the way we think. Think about the way you look for information on the internet. There isn’t much reading going on until you find what you are looking for. Until then, it is just skimming to find where to click. The same occurs, I think, with social networking.
Think about the general gist of most tweets or facebook statuses. Generally speaking, they probably end up being a random funny statement, followed by likes and witty comments in response. Everything is short, not much meaningful is exchanged, but everyone has a good laugh while staring at a screen.
This focus on the trivial and witty seems to be spilling over into real conversations. Think about the general pattern of your conversations with friends. Someone says something funny, and others respond in a series of witty comments. The pattern may just be a human pattern, but I think the spillover really shows in the triviality of those verbal exchanges. We have a good laugh, but in the end of the day, what have we really done? We have communicated meaningless trivia, rather than deep significance.
I have decided to focus on blogging as a way to train my mind away from the shallow trivia of status updates, and toward the deep thoughts that really matter. I hope that this focus will spillover into my conversations with others. I hope that by focusing on thinking more deeply, I will seek to talk about deeper things with others, and thus in turn encourage them to think and talk more deeply.
This is not to say that social networking is useless. I plan to use social networking as a tool to share the deeper thinking of my blog. But social networking is a tool, not a destination. I want to use it as the tool it should be, and keep ideas in their proper place.
Today, however, our postmodern culture teaches us to use words vaguely. When we communicate, our words are less precise in meaning, and more steeped in connotation and innuendo than denotation and precision. We talk of feeling more, and thinking less.
Our culture today is addicted to social networking. It has become an almost sad irony that it is difficult to have a real face-to-face conversation with someone without them pulling out their phone at some stage to perform some social-networking function. And homework is always performed as a multi-task between writing the paper, and placing one’s two cents on that hilarious status that everyone is commenting on.
I am convinced that this social networking addiction is having an effect on our minds. I have read articles about how the way we use the web is changing the way we think. Think about the way you look for information on the internet. There isn’t much reading going on until you find what you are looking for. Until then, it is just skimming to find where to click. The same occurs, I think, with social networking.
Think about the general gist of most tweets or facebook statuses. Generally speaking, they probably end up being a random funny statement, followed by likes and witty comments in response. Everything is short, not much meaningful is exchanged, but everyone has a good laugh while staring at a screen.
This focus on the trivial and witty seems to be spilling over into real conversations. Think about the general pattern of your conversations with friends. Someone says something funny, and others respond in a series of witty comments. The pattern may just be a human pattern, but I think the spillover really shows in the triviality of those verbal exchanges. We have a good laugh, but in the end of the day, what have we really done? We have communicated meaningless trivia, rather than deep significance.
I have decided to focus on blogging as a way to train my mind away from the shallow trivia of status updates, and toward the deep thoughts that really matter. I hope that this focus will spillover into my conversations with others. I hope that by focusing on thinking more deeply, I will seek to talk about deeper things with others, and thus in turn encourage them to think and talk more deeply.
This is not to say that social networking is useless. I plan to use social networking as a tool to share the deeper thinking of my blog. But social networking is a tool, not a destination. I want to use it as the tool it should be, and keep ideas in their proper place.
Great Thoughts, Ryan. Our generation definitely needs to learn to think and relate on a deeper level.
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting in a meeting and some guy thinks that he can stop the meeting and answer his cell phone and let an outsider come in and interrupt the meeting. It is his perception that he must be available at all times, but other people sitting in the room find he is suddenly unavailable to them - and they scheduled the meeting with him, or he with them. Meaningful conversation has been hijacked by a hijacker and a willing hijackee. Turn the phone off. Lets protect face to face communication.
ReplyDeleteFurther the massive amounts of time spent keeping fringe "friends" up to speed on your latest verbal emission, and you on theirs is wasting our most precious resource. Jesus focused on 12 people and changed the world. He taught a group outside that, but mainly as a means of discipling the 12. Focus, focus, focus. You see the short frivolous conversation is shortening attention spans even more, and so when an idiot like Obama comes and says yes we can, they think he is brilliant. Go read a PhD thesis or dissertation (depending if you are in the US or Europe) or a Theology book, and you will see a brilliant mind at work. We have lowered communication to the lowest common denominator. Next, we will have the social networking fad, Grunting. You will go on the website and grunt, and others will grunt in agreement. That is where we are heading. For evolutionists who believe we were once cave men, groan, they see that as an activity in the past. For those who believe in a depraved nature in Man, we see devolution as a consequence of sin, and are not surprised. It still doesn't make it right.
So keep thinking - "yes we can"!!