Not long ago, my niece Earecka got married and I couldn't wait to see her wedding pictures. When I asked her about them, Earecka told me to visit her page on Facebook -- that's the new social networking site on the Internet, a kind of virtual community. Wouldn't you know it, these days young women in their mid-20s don't show off their wedding albums; they upload their photographs on their webpage on Facebook.
Earecka is 27 years old and she's part of a new wave of young people they call the “mosaic generation;” Gen Y, I think they've labeled it. The mosaic generation, among other things, is supposed to place a very high priority on community. And I guess this is why Facebook is so popular among so many people. It’s their instant community – you and 156 of your closest friends who click on your website to see what you’re up to, what you’re wearing, what you purchased, where you’re vacationing, and how your wedding photos turned out.
Well, I knew if I was ever going to see photographs of Earecka’s wedding, I’d have to get with it. So I dutifully did as my niece instructed me and I signed on to the Facebook website. My niece told me it would be easy, but I tell you what, after going through all the prompts, the double clicks, the logins, passwords, security checks, and sign-ups -- all just to see a few wedding pictures -- I thought, and they think this is community? I thought community was people getting together… hugging, you know, touching, not their computers getting together!
Hey, Acts chapter 2 tells us the real definition for community -- it's where you devote yourself to fellowship and getting together in the breaking of bread. Pretty hard to do that in a virtual world, wouldn’t you say? You just can't do real fellowship in cyberspace. Fellowship, Christian fellowship, is a face-to-face reality, not a virtual reality.
By the way, I finally did get into Earecka’s page on the Facebook website (only that after she officially “accepted” me as a friend). And, yes, the pictures were lovely. But you know what? I kind of prefer flipping through a wedding album. Facebook is nice if you live thousands of miles apart, and I guess Facebook works if you’re overseas serving in missions and living away from your friends and family in a distant land. But when you can, when you’re able, there’s no substitute for friends getting together and having a cup of coffee over a photograph album… there’s no substitute for a phone call and the sound of a friend’s voice; there’s no substitute for real paper and ink and an envelope with a stamp on it. And there is no substitute for getting up out of your office cubical, walking down the hall, and knocking on the door of your co-worker rather than sending an email. There’s no substitute for getting together for prayer, for the reading of God's Word together, for the sight of a smile or tears and the feel of an embrace. That’s what fellowship looks like – it’s a face-to-face reality that Facebook will never be able to quite copy.
Used by permission of
JONI AND FRIENDS
P.O. Box 3333
Agoura Hills, CA 93176
© Joni and Friends