Facing a Facebook

Facebook? What in the world will they think of next? The intro Web Page states that – “Facebook is a social utility that connects you with the people around you.”

Wikipedia states the following…quote…
Facebook is a social networking website which was launched on February 4, 2004.
In the beginning, the membership was restricted to students of Harvard University. It was subsequently expanded to other Boston area schools (Boston College, Boston University, MIT) and all Ivy League schools within two months. Many individual universities were added in rapid succession over the next year. Eventually anyone with a US college or university (.edu) email address was eligible to join. There was a separate network initiated for US high schools. Since 11 September 2006, it has been made available to any email address user who inputs a certain age range. Users can select to join one or more participating networks, such as a high school, place of employment, or geographic region.

As of July 2007, the website had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 30 million members worldwide (also from non-collegiate networks). In June 2007 it was ranked between top 10–20 web sites, and was the number one site for photos in the United States, ahead of public sites such as Flickr, with over 8.5 million photos uploaded daily. It is also the seventh most visited site in the United States.

The name of the site refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of the campus community that colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff.
End quote from Wikipedia…

It is connecting people to each other in amazing ways.

Those of us that use computers all the time are blown away by what we read and see happening in front of us. If you see the dates in the description above – these are very recent. This new monster is only 3 years old… making the other things like Blogger look ancient – started in 1999…. The Internet itself dates back to the 1960s – my days in High School and all that stuff. That was just yesterday – wasn’t it?

I volunteer with the Lang Pioneer Village – a pioneer village that is just east of Peterborough, Ontario. I spend time in the Hastie Carpenter Shop that dates back to 1856. In the middle of the shop is the original Internet of 1856. It is big, heavy and black in colour. It still works to this very day. Its power is amazing and its ability to draw people around it and into its presence is amazing.

Okay – Okay – there are no wires and electronics involved in this Internet – but it works fine just the same. It is the old antique stove that graces the shop. On a cold day people come close to fire and talk. They warm their hands, face and back parts as they talk.

In 1856 the men would gather in this shop to share their ideas of politics and all the other matters that were important to them. More often than not they would share what they were doing on their farms and the way that they solved problems of working in the Ontario back woods areas.

The Facebook of 1856 was likely a family picnic or a church community picnic bringing everyone together to have fun. The barn dance and the community functions that brought people from their remote areas to meet each other brought about ‘Facebook’.

In our worlds that are increasingly isolated from each other with each home being a self contained, sealed unit we are all separated from others. A large percentage of people reading this Blog will not be able to tell me their neighbour’s name or what they are like. Most will stop at the ability to tell you how many people live in the house – and even that we are not sure of either.

The extreme…
Yesterday I was checking my mother’s bank account in Regina, Saskatchewan. I do this on-line with the bank with my computer. It is very easy and it all happens in a heart beat. As I checked in to read the balances and made ready a statement for her, I was drawn away to other tasks that had to be done… and then I returned to my computer to do more on the account.

As I was doing this computer work and the other tasks that needed to be done – my mom had gone to the Mall to shop for some things that she needed. There on my computer screen appeared the with-drawls that she had just made in Loblaws, Sears and another store. They however did not come all at once…there was a gap between the purchases that she made with her card… she had to walk from store to store with her walker. There on my own computer screen, 5 miles from where she was, and 1700 miles from Regina’s bank, were the foot prints of my 86 year old mother.

As we sat around the table eating dinner last night we laughed about this “looking in” on her shopping trip. Mom and I had said “Good Morning” to each other as I was leaving in the morning but there was no conversation after that. At night Mom has her own TV and I have mine. We definitely watch different programs. We could go through an entire week not seeing each other at all and not talking to one another…yet we still live in the same house.

How much my mother and me are like the world we live in – we are together and can watch each other – but have no need to connect or even speak to one another. We can track each other by bank cards and shopping sprees but never talk. They have developed Facebook that is now a rage – but never visit anyone personally.

Facing a Facebook is too weird. I am not resisting the idea of Facebook – just wondering, if I get involved, what will I lose with those around me? I will gain hundreds of new friends but lose all those around me to the computer screen that sits in front of me. The last time that I checked this one out… my laptop screen is about ½ and inch thick. My desk top, that I use from time to time, has more depth with a much bigger monitor – but in reality the glass front is only a fraction of an inch think.

The other evening we met some friends for dinner at their home. WOW- what a night together we had. We all laughed until the sun went down. I sat there with the other six people and savoured the moments. We played a crazy game and taunted one another. It was delightful fun to be together.

One thought that jumped out at me is that Facebook cannot offer what we had together at their home. With our laughter we touched each other’s souls.

The neat part about my Christianity is that it was started by a guy that walked around meeting people – one to one. He shucked the ways of the religiously perfect people that had separated themselves from everyone else. He got down and got dirty spending time with the worst of society and talking with people that others shunned.

I guess that is why I do what I do and where I do it. I must have the real Facebook before I get on to the new Facebook.

~ Pastor Murray Lincoln ~