Living Sacrifice

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I am finding that I am getting quite caught up in the realms of cyberspace, and by the time I get everything else done, I'm cyber-pooped and don't feel much like blogging. This overwhelmingness of trying to keep up with today's cyber overload of information is starting to boggle my mind a bit and cause me to take a step back and think about what I'm really doing.

Am I substituting emails and IM chats and personal webpages for real relationships with people? I'm beginning to wonder. What is this all about? The hours that I spend sending messages on facebook and myspace and updating my info and all that......is it worth my time, or should I be investing that time into my current surroundings? I'm not saying the people I keep in touch with aren't worth my time....that's not it at all. I just go back and forth on the whole internet thing. I can see the good in it.....how it can be a way to connect with people that I normally wouldn't be able to connect with.....even to encourage people, inspire people, point them to God hopefully, invite people to be more real....but at the same time, I can see the downside. The time I spend online could be invested in relationships with people I actually see every day, in current surroundings, to do the same things I try to accomplish online.

After spending a long time catching up on emails and sending messages on myspace and facebook, this topic is fresh on my mind and is therefore all I can really type about at the moment before my hands fall off. *laugh* OK, not really, but after all that, I'm tired of this screen. I have had the notion before to remove myself from internet contact (so, delete my myspace and stop blogging, delete my facebook, etc)....so I can focus on building relationships where I actually talk to people, but I haven't been able to do it so far because I can still see the good that has come out of some of it.

Our age of communication baffles me. And frustrates me. But what can I do? Live in the world, Jesus says. I think the internet is included in that. But don't be of the world........what does that mean exactly?

I must say before I go.....just to be sure this is clear......anyone who reads this that I am primarily in touch with through internet.......I love you. This is not a question between whether I care about you or not, this is my own struggle about spending too much time on the internet. Just wanted to make sure you understood that.

2 Comments:

  • I used to live online. Even met my wife online. Had fellow poets I collaborated with every evening. Felt like I was more able to be myself, or at least the self I wanted to be.

    Then it came crumbling down. Work interfered with a poetry group I co-moderated. The drama increased as I met an increasing amount of unstable people during a time I was more worried about my stability. And I realized I was missing out on other parts about life. It was time to leave.

    I disappeared for ... hmm ... about five or so years. Since my return I've had a basic philosophy. Use it in moderation, accept the fact I may not be able to log on each night, and that my online friends will survive without me. (not that I have too many. Life as a hermit will do that)

    It's a great networking tool. I've met poets from around the world and now have contact to journalists in different states and countries. I'm not limited to my own community, which is often not as artistically inclinded towards my tastes as I would like.

    I admit it. I'm hooked again. But, with everything else, moderation remains the key.

    Your words help people. I've been motivated by them. (Likely will be part of an upcoming blog entry)

    But if you don't help yourself you can't help others. Even if it means calling it a night early and being with people in the real world.

    Kinda like this. Pee Wee's Playhouse is on in 5 minutes. I watch it nightly w/ my son. Time to run.

    Just another happy message from the La-Z-Boy Buddha.

    And have a nice day!

    By Blogger Kurt D. Moore, at 12:00 AM  

  • I hear ya. Spare time in my life is now next to none, and I find it difficult to blog at all. I try to keep up, but things are just crazy. I know if I spend too much time online, it just kills everything else. It hasn't been this busy in a long time. The change from spending a lot of time on AIM and blogs and email and all that to this is almost like a culture shock. Though it is busy, I'd still like to keep in touch with my family on the blog... somehow it takes just a little less time. maybe i'm a bit lazy, too.

    By Blogger Christi Lee, at 11:05 AM  

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