Virtual. Reality.
Note to the Reader
This article might be a bit of a left turn from my usual articles, but I feel like this article has some points that some people need to here along with others. This article is more focused towards a christian audience (there might be a little bit of theology in this article), but if people are interested in this topic, Please feel free to read. This article is going to address the topic of community , social media, and other things in a technological world.
Before I get started, I want to address the haters that are probably going to be saying that I am being a hypocrite because I blog, but I am not because I love the blogging world. It is an great way to get your opinions out there and reach the world in general. This is beside the point, but I have had views from the US to Ukraine, which is awesome (I love you guys). Getting back to the topic at hand though, This article is not just going to be bashing social media. If anything it is going to be talking about using it at better times then when some people use it. So with out further ado, I give you all my second special Report Virtual Reality: Living in Community in a Technological World
The Layout
Basics
Imago Dei
When you look later in the quoted part of the bible (Verse 27) it talks about the way God created man which is the Theological idea of Imago Dei. Imago Dei is latin for the image of God (If you wanted me to translate when you saw the title of this section). So for those paying attention it would mean that we were made to be in community with other people which brings me to the next basic idea of the article.
People Need People
I know that some people find it hard to believe that human beings are meant to be in community *Shocked Gasp*, and some people may say "but I don't like people." But the truth is that humans need each other in order to survive. I Have experienced this in my own life especially from this past summer. You see I was up in Door County, Wisconsin, where I knew like no one except for family. I spent a majority of the summer in the house with no one there except for my Grandpa (Which was fun), But I was not really around a ton of people my age for a majority of the summer. I kinda went a little crazy (ask my Girlfriend). So that being said people need people.
Another reason why this is true is the fact that without each other, the human race would kind of die out (to state the obvious). I also look at earlier Civilizations like the early American Indians, who had groups of people doing certain things to ensure survival such as the hunters / gathers and the people who stayed behind to protect the clan. This is just one example. Another example I can think of is on the TV Show survivor, when the smarter people are great for problem solving, and others better for building shelter. This is getting harder and harder because even though we are more connected than ever, we are missing out on the very thing that makes us human, which is living in community. One of the three ways that we can do this involves being intentional.
3 Ways to Live in Community
Be intentional with friends
Being intentional is really quite hard when you think about it because it is like our phones, laptops, I pods (etc.) are always on us and it is hard to resist the urge to answer the phone when we are hanging out with friends, and there are ways that we can do this. But, I will talk about this later in this section of the post. I will start with how it feels when someone is texting when you are with a friend.
I get it, it is hard to not answer the phone when you get a text message because it keeps dinging asking for attention. The thing is it will still be there later -- Insert sarcastic shocked gasp here -- but I am going off on a tangent here so I will get back to it. The thing is, when you answer your phone when you are answering texts at work, people think you don't care, and the same goes for when you are with friends. It is honestly kind of demeaning when I am hanging out with friends when they answer there phones because it makes me feel like oh well I guess I am not as cool as there phones/other friends. So I tend to stop talking, and then forget where I was in the story.
There is a way that this could be prevented though and it is as easy as it sounds, Putting our phones on do not disturb when we are hanging out with each other. Granted this is easier said then done, but it gets easier. It all starts at the dinner table. One thing that my Girlfriend and I do all the time is put our phones away when we are on a dinner date so we could give our attention to each other and not have to share and balance. Another thing that could be done is training yourself to have your phone in your bag when you are walking with a friend. This then leads to Living unplugged, having stronger friendships, and avoiding the virtual reality that is our phones.
Live Unplugged
There is this thing that I want to train myself to do and that is to spend some time each week with my phone off along with other things to just sit, draw, read, play games with the family, go outside, etc. This also allows yourself to grow spiritually and become more reliant on other people, and open for people to come to you for advice.
Living unplugged also allows you to forget about the social media stressors, and just enjoy life. This is because when you get rid of the stuff that is robbing you of your true freedom, and that is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Ridding yourself of the negative virtual reality that we see.
Social Media
This is an area where I might be called a hypocrite because I blog in my free time, and I am on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (Along with snapchat, but I don't use it that much. But to be honest, people are sometimes on social media so much that it makes them depressed because they feel like they could never measure up to some of the things that they see on the sites. They also Make themselves look way better than they actually are because they only post the highlights. This can also sometimes result in ignoring their friends when they get together (See previous sections).
When it comes to showing the virtual picture of our lives being amazing, we are almost professionals at that. How many people do you know that say "Oh my God, My life sucks right now!" on Facebook, getting real about their struggles? I do not see that like ever (you may have extremely raw friends). I have only seen this once and it led to kind of a good relationship that resulted in iron sharpening iron. I am not saying right now to get real on Facebook and talk about some of your deepest and darkest secrets, because sometimes people are stupid. However, you can send a message to one of your close friends saying I really need some prayer/advice/insert struggle here. I do know that there are some people that are real on FB and do not care about what others think.
There are studies that show that the more people are on (insert social media platform here), the more likely they are to be depressed. This makes sense because most people only post the highlights that they have for their lives. While others are just stuck working and thinking about what else they could do to say that they lived this summer just looking through the Virtual lens that everything is perfect when in reality their family could be going through a divorce, and they went to the beach to get away from the house because their parents are fighting again.
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/299225.php)
Bringing it together
So what can be done to improve this Virtual reality that we are living in? I am pretty sure that I have said all that I can to talk about how this could be done, but Just to reiterate, we need to take into account the amount of screen time we use. It can be taken several different ways and we need to proceed with care when it comes to Virtual Reality and use it well. I believe that its time we leave Virtual Reality and Enter into a time of Reality.
________________________________________________________
~Again I would like to thank you all for bearing with me this summer
~ Stay tuned for some live broadcasts discussing where I would like to go come fall (I have some Ideas
~Movies.Travels.Music365 is going to be going international come winter break
~I would like to say that Since school starts in a couple of weeks there will be a lack of content for awhile.
This article might be a bit of a left turn from my usual articles, but I feel like this article has some points that some people need to here along with others. This article is more focused towards a christian audience (there might be a little bit of theology in this article), but if people are interested in this topic, Please feel free to read. This article is going to address the topic of community , social media, and other things in a technological world.
Before I get started, I want to address the haters that are probably going to be saying that I am being a hypocrite because I blog, but I am not because I love the blogging world. It is an great way to get your opinions out there and reach the world in general. This is beside the point, but I have had views from the US to Ukraine, which is awesome (I love you guys). Getting back to the topic at hand though, This article is not just going to be bashing social media. If anything it is going to be talking about using it at better times then when some people use it. So with out further ado, I give you all my second special Report Virtual Reality: Living in Community in a Technological World
The Layout
- Basics
- Imago Dei
- 3 Ways to do it
- Be Intentional
- Actually talk when you are with friends
- Live Unplugged
- Take off your headphones
- They would know that you care if you did these things
- Don't Live on social media
- If you use Social media, Be Real!
- Don't be on there so much that you get depressed
- Unpacking these three things and draw connections
- Conclusions
Basics
Imago Dei
" [26] Then God said, 'let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' [27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1: 26-27, ESV)I am going to dive right into this article with the only theological idea that will be looked at in this article and then get broader from there. In Verse 26 (as you can see in the quote above) there is one of the first mention of the nature of God, and God refers to himself as more then one. When you look at the bolded terms here The Bible uses is the words "us" and "our" three times in the first verse. For all you grammar geeks out there, those words are plural (Which means more then one, for less grammar inclined people like myself) . This is also one of the first references to the trinity which is the Christian Believe that there is one God in Three Persons (There will probably be an article unpacking this idea later this year).
When you look later in the quoted part of the bible (Verse 27) it talks about the way God created man which is the Theological idea of Imago Dei. Imago Dei is latin for the image of God (If you wanted me to translate when you saw the title of this section). So for those paying attention it would mean that we were made to be in community with other people which brings me to the next basic idea of the article.
People Need People
I know that some people find it hard to believe that human beings are meant to be in community *Shocked Gasp*, and some people may say "but I don't like people." But the truth is that humans need each other in order to survive. I Have experienced this in my own life especially from this past summer. You see I was up in Door County, Wisconsin, where I knew like no one except for family. I spent a majority of the summer in the house with no one there except for my Grandpa (Which was fun), But I was not really around a ton of people my age for a majority of the summer. I kinda went a little crazy (ask my Girlfriend). So that being said people need people.
Another reason why this is true is the fact that without each other, the human race would kind of die out (to state the obvious). I also look at earlier Civilizations like the early American Indians, who had groups of people doing certain things to ensure survival such as the hunters / gathers and the people who stayed behind to protect the clan. This is just one example. Another example I can think of is on the TV Show survivor, when the smarter people are great for problem solving, and others better for building shelter. This is getting harder and harder because even though we are more connected than ever, we are missing out on the very thing that makes us human, which is living in community. One of the three ways that we can do this involves being intentional.
3 Ways to Live in Community
Be intentional with friends
Being intentional is really quite hard when you think about it because it is like our phones, laptops, I pods (etc.) are always on us and it is hard to resist the urge to answer the phone when we are hanging out with friends, and there are ways that we can do this. But, I will talk about this later in this section of the post. I will start with how it feels when someone is texting when you are with a friend.
I get it, it is hard to not answer the phone when you get a text message because it keeps dinging asking for attention. The thing is it will still be there later -- Insert sarcastic shocked gasp here -- but I am going off on a tangent here so I will get back to it. The thing is, when you answer your phone when you are answering texts at work, people think you don't care, and the same goes for when you are with friends. It is honestly kind of demeaning when I am hanging out with friends when they answer there phones because it makes me feel like oh well I guess I am not as cool as there phones/other friends. So I tend to stop talking, and then forget where I was in the story.
There is a way that this could be prevented though and it is as easy as it sounds, Putting our phones on do not disturb when we are hanging out with each other. Granted this is easier said then done, but it gets easier. It all starts at the dinner table. One thing that my Girlfriend and I do all the time is put our phones away when we are on a dinner date so we could give our attention to each other and not have to share and balance. Another thing that could be done is training yourself to have your phone in your bag when you are walking with a friend. This then leads to Living unplugged, having stronger friendships, and avoiding the virtual reality that is our phones.
Live Unplugged
There is this thing that I want to train myself to do and that is to spend some time each week with my phone off along with other things to just sit, draw, read, play games with the family, go outside, etc. This also allows yourself to grow spiritually and become more reliant on other people, and open for people to come to you for advice. Living unplugged also allows you to forget about the social media stressors, and just enjoy life. This is because when you get rid of the stuff that is robbing you of your true freedom, and that is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Ridding yourself of the negative virtual reality that we see.
Social Media
This is an area where I might be called a hypocrite because I blog in my free time, and I am on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (Along with snapchat, but I don't use it that much. But to be honest, people are sometimes on social media so much that it makes them depressed because they feel like they could never measure up to some of the things that they see on the sites. They also Make themselves look way better than they actually are because they only post the highlights. This can also sometimes result in ignoring their friends when they get together (See previous sections).
When it comes to showing the virtual picture of our lives being amazing, we are almost professionals at that. How many people do you know that say "Oh my God, My life sucks right now!" on Facebook, getting real about their struggles? I do not see that like ever (you may have extremely raw friends). I have only seen this once and it led to kind of a good relationship that resulted in iron sharpening iron. I am not saying right now to get real on Facebook and talk about some of your deepest and darkest secrets, because sometimes people are stupid. However, you can send a message to one of your close friends saying I really need some prayer/advice/insert struggle here. I do know that there are some people that are real on FB and do not care about what others think.
There are studies that show that the more people are on (insert social media platform here), the more likely they are to be depressed. This makes sense because most people only post the highlights that they have for their lives. While others are just stuck working and thinking about what else they could do to say that they lived this summer just looking through the Virtual lens that everything is perfect when in reality their family could be going through a divorce, and they went to the beach to get away from the house because their parents are fighting again.
(http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/299225.php)
Bringing it together
So what can be done to improve this Virtual reality that we are living in? I am pretty sure that I have said all that I can to talk about how this could be done, but Just to reiterate, we need to take into account the amount of screen time we use. It can be taken several different ways and we need to proceed with care when it comes to Virtual Reality and use it well. I believe that its time we leave Virtual Reality and Enter into a time of Reality.
________________________________________________________
~Again I would like to thank you all for bearing with me this summer
~ Stay tuned for some live broadcasts discussing where I would like to go come fall (I have some Ideas
~Movies.Travels.Music365 is going to be going international come winter break
~I would like to say that Since school starts in a couple of weeks there will be a lack of content for awhile.