How many of you have a cell phone, computer, blog, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, or any other form of technology that make communicating easier? For the majority I would guess a good 75% if not much higher then my highly inaccurate guess!

     The main function of these technologies are to keep friends in touch and filling each other in on what’s going on in their life regardless of distance, time, or whatever else stops you. In our Myspaced world information is everywhere and now with smart phones sales on the rise we can literally access any kind of information we want at any time, place, and connivence, and our friends are certainly not left out either. With the tap of a few keys and a click we can communicate what where doing, where we’re at, how we feel, and what we want people to think about us without any hesitation.

     I am often amazed at what people will post about themselves, very little is private anymore. We’ve become addicted to the “play-by-play” of our lives and convincing others how great we are! We now have the pleasure of becoming as self-obsessed as we choose in our McDonald like “Have it your way” status! By no means am I insisting that I am excused from this behavior as I am guilty of it as well, I mean look at what your reading, a blog dedicated to mostly me… and what I do! 

     This is the whole beef I have with the technology is that you have control of what you put out for people to read, you can in a sense be whoever you want. Kind of like what the country singer Brad Paisley sings about in his song “Online,” if you know the song you know what I’m communicating here! The internet has allowed the “attention deprived” to stand out and say “Hey, look how awesome I am and what I’ve been doing,” rather then actually calling your friends and sharing experiences on a…. I don’t know more personal basis maybe? Our generation has a real emptiness about it consuming more media and information that is mostly garbage anyway, like “Check out the Obamas’ temporary quarters,” which is real headline I that I pulled from a major news websites!  Trying to keep up with all of the “news,” status updates, bulletins, and blogs is literally exhausting! 

     What are we called to do in our lives? Our “I” oriented world wants us to be rich, powerful, famous, and so on! But if we cannot help people other then ourselves then what are we useful for? And by hoarding ourselves away to just our computers and cell phones what are we accomplishing in our lives. With the new year upon us I have given this blog entry a lot of thought and consideration. I haven’t updated this blog in almost a month for  the exact reason I’m writing this, I’ve grown tired of updating and I really needed a break from all of this. Which is why for this New Year I hope to be less dependent of technology as a means of spending my time. As I mentioned before I’m guilty of these things myself and with a fresh start this year I hope to deny myself a little more and give a little more attention to the things that are truly important, and I would hope that the rest of us would as well! Happy New Year!