LAST ONE FOR TODAY (I PROMISE)

My Virtual Life

Anyone who would admit spending too much time online would probably be making an under statement.  My virtual life in cyberspace often has some of the characteristics of an addiction, including feeling like I am going through withdrawal when I find myself without access to a computer.   And the whole phenomenon so stealthily and insidiously crept into our lives, didn't it?

I mean, really, how long ago was it that only a small part of society knew how to type?  Do you remember back to the days of yore when you had never heard of people tweeting and texting; when Facebook was just a glimmer in someone's eye?  Even beyond all that, how about a time when you could walk through an airport and not have to hear half of a telephone conversation wherever you were?

Do you think our increased ability to communicate in all sorts of hi-tech electronic ways in our virtual lives has become an impediment to intimacy and face-to-face relationships?

On the other hand, I know people who have met their spouses through the use of internet dating sites.  Of course many still meet the old fashioned way through friends or relatives, at church or doing hobbies, or even at ladies' night at a local pub.  And I personally always found that the guys I met on the internet first were nothing like I imagined them in virtual reality.

As for that, I will admit that part of the problem with my virtual life is that even when I am interacting with someone by chat, tweet, text, e-mail or on Facebook it means I am at the same time cutting my self off from the real world around me.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Or is there?

I was kind of amused during the past few days when some of the 571 of my closest friends on Facebook became turned inside out over some changes made by the programmers.  These were the latest in a fairly frequent set of supposed improvements to how the whole thing works.  In the midst of the cyber turmoil, some people were very upset and some threatened to disappear from that particular quadrant of cyberspace.  Very creative protests were posted on many friends' walls, cyber rumors flew and were debunked by the trusty Snopes folks, and some very funny warnings showed up in reaction to the tempest in the virtual teapot.

The bottom line is that people don't like change any more in virtual reality than in their day to day lives when they close down their computers and recharge their cell phones.

Now I don't know what I would do without a computer or a cell phone.  But sometimes I yearn to try it.  I have a friend who observes the Sabbath by staying offline in addition to the other traditional ways she draws aside in rest, prayer, worship and reflection.

We all can probably use more of that kind of practice.

Maybe someone will start a new web site to encourage it!

(Just kidding . . . I'm sure there are plenty of them out there in our virtual reality already.)

I hope you have a delightful day (virtually and otherwise).  Enjoy!