How Connected Are You?

We all know what it means to be plugged in. So tell me, how connected are you? I thought about this after my darling hubby presented me with a new cell phone. I had gone without one for almost two years and frankly, after two weeks of adjustment, I was in heaven. No interruptions when I was shopping, or browsing in a card or bookstore, or dining with friends. Most everyone is addicted to their Crackberry and never fail to extol the virtues of all that it does for them. They've gone application crazy. :)

I know my not having a phone drove my friends crazy. Every blue moon I thought about a possible emergency that I'd be missing because I was out and had not told anyone my wherabouts. Guess what, there were really only three times, I was like "darn, a cell phone sure would be nice right now!" For the most part, if I was out with others, someone, no, everyone had a phone available for my use.

What about Facebook? How many of your "friends" do you not know? Are you Tweeting? Do you have a MySpace account? Are you LinkedIn? Have you been Tagged? Everyday some new site pops up to connect you to your past and your present, maybe even your future. Like Reality TV, we can now glimpse someone else's life and perhaps feel better about our own. As technology advances, we are continually allowed to connect with others through various mediums but are we really connected? Do we really know them and what they are going through?  We are fostering relationships without relating in person. We can take a whole semester of learning without meeting our classmates or professor. My personal favorite, right now, is grocery shopping on-line. If you've ever taken your kids to the grocery store with you, you will love this discovery. You can  even go to church by watching TV or tuning in to Streaming Faith.

We need contact, physical contact, with others, to survive and thrive. Cell phones, social networking, and Skype all serve a purpose but they are not substitutes for building and maintaining relationships of substance. Sometimes, we need up front and personal contact. We need to see(or hear) someone to know that they are in fact, doing okay. Don't let your reliance on these gadgets keep you from real relationship building. Sometimes your friends need to be convicted and challenged. You can't do that if you don't see them drop the pretense and phoniness allowed by hiding behind the computer. We are our brother's keeper. We need to be plugged in. More importantly, we need to be connected...but we need the right connections.

Copyright September 23, 2009 by Pamela Cole Thorpe