Maggi Dawn has been someone I’ve followed for some time. Her blog is delightful, thought-provoking, and never fails to give me a different angle on faith and culture.
Yesterday, she responded to comments by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury about the danger posed by Twitter, Facebook, et. al. to authentic human relationships. I’ve bookmarked her article, found here, because I think it is a good statement on relationships, what makes us human, and the biblical value of our work (technology being one instance of “work”).
If you read it, tell me what you think: do social networking sites make you more or less “human”? Are they a hindrance to authentic relationship?
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I would disagree with this quote from her.
“, the clunky and time-wasting aspects of social networking will fade into insignificance once the novelty wears off”
I think social networking will grow and we are now seeing just the beginning. Mobile phones, especially smartphones such as iPhones will continue to grow. Social networking is one of the biggest used tools on these devices. Time waster? Yes. Going away. No
So, you’re saying we’ll always find a way to waste time?!
Sometimes the social networking takes away from my xbox time. But other than that. It’s no waste.
I think the above mentioned quote needs the final part of the point made in it’s context: “…and what’s really useful will become commonplace.”
I think Maggi’s point here isn’t that social networking is going away. Instead, it sounds like she is pointing to a day down the road when all the useful parts of Facebook, Twitter and the like will be sifted out and used daily by the majority of the people. It’s kinda like email…5 years ago, asking someone to shoot you an invoice to your email was a hit-or-miss request. Today, however, the lack of email capability is almost a liability. The useful parts of email have survived and are now a mainstay of culture.