With this being only my second entry for this page, I am pretty sure that I would still be considered a “rookie” in the blogging world. I’m still getting my digital feet wet, as some would probably say. I know people who have been blogging for years. They were blogging before what they were doing was called blogging. They are veterans – saving the world with one opinion at a time. I guess I am saying all this because the idea of a blog still strikes me as a little funny.
Why do so many people blog?
Why do we all expect other people to find what we say amusing or enlightening?
These are a few questions that seem to constantly pop into my head. (And yes, I realize that it is ironic that I am blogging about my questions concerning blogs). But as I sat in my apartment today thinking about these questions, the world of bloggers, and my new cybernated hobby, a very specific truth popped to mind that I believe is at the center of the blogging phenomenon: within each and every one of us there is a deep and intrinsic need to know and to be known.
I know there are bloggers out there that may disagree with me if they ever come across what I am writing now. They may believe that their words have a deeper worth, and that the world is a better place because of their post…and this may be true for some bloggers, I guess. I am not really an expert. Like I said earlier, I’m still a rookie.
But I think for a good chunk of us out there, whether we recognize it or not, this truth is at the heart of the blogging world. And this is true not just for the blogging society, but everyone. We just want to be known. We want to be seen. We want to be wanted. And most importantly, we want to be loved. We were made for this: to live in a community of friends and family who we can cry or laugh with. A group of people who we know will be there to help pick us back up when we fall. There is something inside of us that draws us to each other – something that brings people together.
And for some reason we have turned to the computer to fulfill this need. Why?
Because it’s hip and trendy?
Because we can do it at our own convenience?
Because it’s safer than telling someone our opinions face to face?
Now hear me out before you assume that I am writing a blog about the evils of blogging. I think a blog is a great way to communicate and can be a creative and healthy outlet. My concern is that, thanks to blogs, Twitter, and other social networking sites, we are forgetting to be truly present to those around us.
Being a youth minister I spend a good amount of my time with teenagers and I would not be exaggerating if I said that teens are on their cell phones hours on end – just texting away. Now, I am guilty of this too. I blog, text and tweet like many of the teens who I work with, so I know how easy it is to forget about the people at the dinner table with you when you hear your cell phone going off in the next room. So I guess the question that I am finally starting to get at is, if we are so saturated with blogs, tweets and whatever else, how can we ever be present to those who are with us now? And more importantly, how can we be present to a God who is at the door of our hearts, knocking, waiting to be let in (Rev. 3:20)?
For the few of you who come across this blog….go find someone. Have a real conversation. Tell them about your day. Laugh with them. Let them know you appreciate them in your life. And then, go pray. You have a God who is waiting to hear from you. Who also wants to hear about your day. Who is ready to tell you that you are seen, wanted and loved.
In Genesis 2:18 God says, “it is not good that a man should be alone“. While writing this I am getting the sensation that I am communicating with the whole world, when in reality I am actually sitting in an empty apartment, at my desk, waiting for my wife to come home from work. So for those of you who blog, keep blogging. And those who use Twitter, tweet away. But don’t forget to look away from the screen long enough to see what is really going on around you.
