I mean, hell, I'm blogging right now, aren't I!

It seems to be, that in my short life of 21 years, the folks that have impacted me most reside in a place that is physically distant from me.

I have been blessed to have many spiritual mentors that have pastored me, guided me, advised me, led me, and loved me. And yet, the vast majority of them, live in places that are just far enough away to consider taking a plane to see them, if not further. What these beloved children have done for me and how they have impacted my growth (intellectually, socially, and spiritually) leaves me with the frequent desire to experience life with them on a more consistent basis. Reflecting on this has led me to the question: What would it be like if we all lived in the same place? How would our relationships exist if we saw each other all the time?

I am blessed to have many friends spread across the states. And I often wish I could gather us all in one place. But then I think about possible answers to my aforementioned questions. If we all lived in the same place, would we have ever met in the first place? Probably, because the Spirit brought us together. But the context would have been different, and therefore, the relationship as well. If we saw each other all the time, we would grow together in different ways. I feel safe to say that the growth we'd experience in that situation wouldn't be as good as the growth we experience together, at a physical distance, because if it were better, that would be how it is. The relationship wouldn't exist in the same, God created, way that it does from being in physical distance from one another. But we must still communicate regularly to grow with one another. So how do we do that? Dare I say it: the phenomenon that is the world wide web.

As a person of 21 years, I came of age in the heyday of the internet and it's development. I'm old enough to remember having a family computer that no way was going to ever connect to anything like the internet. I'm old enough to remember wanting to support guns so I could shoot my computer because the dial-up was so damn slow. And I'm young enough to remember spending many hours, almost amounting to full days, using old school chat programs and playing simple online games. I've been an avid internet user since the day my family signed on. I rocked AOL, frequented AIM, wasted time browsing yahoo and googling random things. I never got into myspace, but I'll proudly inform you that I joined facebook [as a high school student] when it was only available to college students. (The benefits of having a high school email account.) I posted ridiculously dumb things to livejournal. We used internet programs in my classes at school. I wouldn't get off youtube for months (and still don't). But then I started getting upset over our dependency on these internet programs. The thing that really triggered it was the fact that, in order to stay informed about my classes and extracurriculars, I had to check my email regularly. Which, at Warren Wilson, I rarely had the time to do. But if I didn't, I wouldn't find out about the meeting I needed to attend in half an hour. I wouldn't find out about the assignment change for my Peace and Justice class. I couldn't be informed without depending on the internet. This frustrated the hell out of me. But of course, when I did have internet access, I spent it floating around facebook and surfing the web. This frustrated me more. How ridiculous this all is!

But then, I think about the many friends I have been blessed to make. The many friends that are spread out all around this country. If I didn't "waste" my time on facebook, I wouldn't be keeping in touch with them. I'm awkward on the phone, and terrible about taking the time to call someone in the first place. If it weren't for these online programs that I had grown so frustrated with, I'd be completely out of touch with folks that I love.

If you came up to me about 2 months ago, I would have told you "I hate twitter. I think it's a silly waste of time." Though I think we're very capable of allowing the internet and what it offers to take up too much time of our lives, I now also feel we can greatly grow as individuals and relationals through it. I thought I'd never do it, but I've joined twitter. (you can follow me @freddiedoesit) I still insist on calling tweets "twats" and the folks that post them "twitties" just for my own selfish fulfillment. But there are many things I've gained from twitter. I learn about national going ons and the way people feel about them. I learn about religious and spiritual going ons; and the way people feel about them. And I learn about personal going ons [and the way people feel about them] in the lives of people that mean wonders to me. Same certainly goes for facebook, but I'm a new twittie, so that's more of my focus right now. And my twitter is focused on political and religious feeds, whereas my facebook follows everyone and everything. I digress.

I've struggled with my feelings to these online social networks. Sometimes I feel they take up too much of our time and distract us from what's important. But often, through them, I find out what's important. I feel that we could function just perfectly without them, but also know that at this point, we really couldn't. And I've come to be ok with that.

I value nothing more than human interaction, and insist that we don't allow these online social networks to replace them. And I gladly witness so many people living out this statement. If it weren't for this crazy internet, I would have lost communication with many influential and important folks in my life. Live on, virtual networking, live on.