catapult magazine

the heart of your last paragraph is like a cold drink. it affirms and confirms. thank you!

It’s hard to estimate the impact that the use of online tools such as blogging and then twitter have had on my engagement with substantial debates, new ideas and a range of communities that sometimes manifest virtually and sometimes physically.

Certainly from the outside a communication medium that relies on just 140 characters is always going to seem superficial, but that always seems to be from a viewpoint that sees only a single layer of the interactions twitter and tools like it enable. Sometimes all they provide is a little amusement or distraction, but often throwaway comments on twitter will turn into significant dialogues in other media, or will point to already existent resources, conversations and events I’d otherwise have missed.

In many ways, I’d say that the ideas that “new media” have exposed me to have made my engagement with books, journals and everyday conversations more sophisticated, in a way perhaps analogous to the impact Steven Johnson argues the best of television has had (in his book Everything Bad Is Good For You). And I know of books that have themselves been inspired or at least deeply affected by multi-layered dialogues partly manifested in twitter and largely manifested on blogs.

There’s certainly a time and place for stepping away from fast-paced short form media, to the slower pace of a book or even meditation, but we do wrong to dismiss them without serious and deep engagement. And in a world where many of the older media are seriously out of touch we may well do ourselves harm by resolutely sticking to things that could themselves be transient forms.

I welcome anyone’s right to be a Luddite. Don’t want to use Twitter or texting? Great! But I’m getting a little tired of people who don’t regularly use new technologies like Twitter presuming they know exactly how they work and how they affect people. I particularly object to a blanket statement like, “I suppose there are occasions when instant notification of changes in circumstances makes technologies like texting and Twitter useful, but these are rare.” That may well be true for you, but how do you know it is for me? Engaging with people on Twitter has in many ways made my interactions with friends richer and deeper because along with the trivial bits, I am more aware of the more significant circumstances in their life than I might otherwise be. And even the trivial bits can help me get to know them in a way that enriches our relationship.

i have attempted some twitter and use facebook to keep up some long distance relationships. it allows me to come back into that face-to-face time with a warm embrace that resembles having known them throughout this time we were apart. email does this too – for me.

but i still think it is nothing like the keen human ability to draw ones own heart close to the other’s as one sits face-to-face in conversation and communion.

much of my job is that task. finding a way to bridge the distance between two hearts – and to allow the other person to be deeply listened to.

i’ve just not been able to approach that reality through communication technology – not even over the phone or skype.

oh…and one more comment. i have found that, over the last 5 years in my position, i’ve needed to be more patient as people i meet with regularly learn that skill of listening and being listened to, of loving and being loved.

no conclusive statements – but i do wonder if this is a more common phenomenon. the loss of opening our heart to one another, as we live more into details and less into the hovering and stillness that has for me brought depth.

re-reading, it’s possible that i’ve said to much (as if another post helps), but i was thinking of some old friends.

we use to get together once a year for a week – and we’d sit around the fire for hours, and open our souls (sometimes with a drink or two).

but now, all we do is email eachother short witticisms and bail out on one another for that week of holiday together.

Beef,
I feel your lament over the loss of time spent with friends, face-to-face. I hope that your traditional, annual get togethers will be revived at some point down the road.

I want to thank you for your comments regarding bridge building, hovering, stillness and depth. As a victim/culprit of the degradation of communication in the techno-“e”-age, your words are guiding and refreshing. I resolve to apply these things in my home and life.

klstewart, I also appreciate and agree with your objection. I want to consider the potential positive and negative effects of technology on communication and relationships. I think that there are a great deal of potential negatives, such as the ones mentioned above. I also appreciate the potential positives mentioned above.

I am curious if anyone out there can suggest a guideline, boundaries, general principles, that have helped them to maximize the positive effects while minimizing the negative effects of communication technologies such as facebook, twitter, texting, email….