A newly-wed couple updated their relationship status on Facebook and Twittered about it at the wedding altar. Yeah, even before they kissed each other.
Now let us hear what N. T. Wright has to say about the unintended dehumanizing effects of social media:
NT Wright on Blogging/Social Media from Bill Kinnon on Vimeo.
(H/T: Q Ideas – N.T. Wright On Managing Technology by Gabe Lyons)
That’s stupid… =.=
One way to see this is some amount of dehumanization brought about about by social media.
Another way to see this is how people are now increasingly using their weddings to pull stunts.
Today, someone invited me to join the group “If 1,170,000 People Join, My Girlfriend Will Marry Me!” on Facebook. I feel sad for that couple, and also for the person who invited me to join the group.
Yeah, stunts like this one, eh?
How do you determine what is dehumanizing and what is not?
We are a psycho-somatic unit, besides the 5 senses we possess, our touch, warmth, proximity, tone, facial expression, gestures, breath, alertness, attention, nods, empathy, and even silent presence….etc. all contribute to our ability to communicate fully and humanly.
As we opt for more and more of those modes of communication that do not let us communicate fully and humanly, we are dehumanizing ourselves. (Not that we should not use those modes of communication, but we should strive for more humanizing modes of communication, because they form a more authentic and genuine way of communication that builds people up.)
Actually this reminds me of a comic strip I saw a while ago:
http://www.xkcd.com/77/
Yeah, I think this is evident that the fragmentation in our lives have caused us to lose a lot of common experiences, which then causes us to long and desire for sharing with one another what we have experienced.
But the downside is that, we tend to over-share and have spent little effort in being fully present in the experience and process what it means to us personally.
I think it is true for those who keeps on taking pictures and videos during their vacation trips, trying to capture the moment to share with others later, but never enjoyed or treasured the moment itself.
This also applies to our church life. Although I appreciate those photographers within the community to capture the memories, but I’ve always felt like they have detached themselves from the worship/fellowship experience itself. I hope one day we can nurture the habit of really putting down all the cameras and camcorders, no matter how big the event is, and have everybody really focus on worship and the fellowship experience. We need each individual’s full presence and full attention more than a bunch of photos that we can look back to. I believe that’s what God wants of us in our worship too.
And as someone once told me, the best cameras are our own eyes. There’s really no point in taking pictures if we don’t even remember what had happened!