Several weeks back Brian Cole, the Subdude of All Souls, make a slight crack on Twitter during a sermon. His point was that people crave relationship so much that they are willing to send messages out into the cold void of the internet. I do see his point, and I think there probably are people for whom twitter acts that way. Or maybe the internet as a whole. I’m also not sure that those folks would function all too well in the “real” world either. Needless to say, I do not count myself as one of “those folks” although there is plenty of possibility that I am.
What I would like to think, in fact what I have found to be true, is that the relatively new tools for communication, the things we refer to as “social media” have a lot of possibility for creating relationships. I am starting to be able to count on two hands the number of people whom I have met using twitter that I would otherwise never have gotten to know. I was blessed to be able to be present for a twitter companion during a time of crisis. Several of us were. That was real. Those relationships have substance and meaning.
That is also true of people who I never see. Or people who I only see online. High school and college classmates, former colleagues, and friends whom I have made over the years show up in my Facebook news feed. Are those relationships somehow less authentic because they are lived out in the ecosystem of the internet? I don’t think so. There are ways in which the anonymity of the internet allows for greater authenticity of expression. (If I am not careful, this is going to turn into a review of the Lana Del Ray album.)
Brian the Subdude and I were going to turn these ideas over a couple of weeks back, but when we got to breakfast, he had some other news to share and we never quite got around to it. That’s OK, because we will have the chance to mull it over before he has to move. As a matter of fact, we have to find the time. I was just asked today to talk with a conference of Episcopal communicators about using social media for community engagement. I think I got the call because I live relatively close to where the conference is being held. No matter. It is an exciting discussion to be a part of, and serendipitous that I should receive the call. If you believe in that sort of thing.