Do you try to go through the rigmarole of applying the complete guide to the social networking universe?

If you are a blogger, like the purveyor of these midly conherent wurds… What?… then, more then likely than a… knot in this matter, you may have tied yourself in… nots… as you try to stay atop and abreast of what you have said, where you have said it, and whom you have said it with… And, No, I don’t want to hear about the failures in your love-less-life!  I am speaking only of the viral kind… So were you?

[Blogger looks down, and begins to talk about what nice weather we're been having...]

Tweet, tweet… okay, so that was the best sound I could come up with to connect a social networking site with a mouse, as Yes, I am taking the Mickey.  But seriously, as my brow furrows, and the lights fade, I do confess that there are multiple times when the whole establishment wearies me, with its relentless ranting, its endless reach, and its seductive smile, and that’s only when the wife is on Facebook with me, on the other computer, in another room… he begins to whisper, in the same house!  D’oh!

If this has been your disease, then we, all three of my very sociable readers would love to hear your experience, as we journey together, doing community, on-line… Yeah Right!  I’d invite you round for a coffee, but I drink Tea, English Breakfast, Organic-style.  The fact that you are reading this in the middle of God-really-only-knows-where-and-it-is-probably-safer-that-way, could possibly further move this relationship into its limited effect, but we can still make the most of this time… that last part is, at least, seriously sincere!

I must confess that this bug is a catchy disease, as the more you get, the more you can very easily want; the more you want, the more you feel-the-need; the more you need-the-feel, the more it has you, which leads you to do the most obnoxiously insincere of things, like following people on Twitter… so that they will follow you!  Please, I am not referring to you O reader, my social networking blog-brother-ess!  But seriously, and I have only just started thinking about this… and what this is, is the following, do we do that in person [insert the word/ concept: reality]?

At this stage in the post, I am beginning to get into the flow of talking shop, while selling little worth reading, but the joke is on me, so humour me people, and invite others on-line, as its a game the whole church family can play!

I have just hit 9,400 readers, so High Five me… knuckles… Its how we do it in the i am jonny king-dom!

Just to show you social networking off the hook, this just came in on my Twitter feed…

bradlomenick: in case u didn’t know, today is National HIGH FIVE Day. So celebrate accordingly……

Now, as you can patently see, I have used the high five as a means of sounding hype and out… dude, and if not to exemplify why social networking can be so helpful, bradlomenick has helpfully pointed out the significance of the day of this piece of posting, providing even further synergy… and like this post needed it… like,  to what I had already written!  Thank you Mr Twitter, You’re the One!

Okay and alright, there is much more that could be said, and trust me on that one, cause I have it in me, but suffice-it-to-be-what-I-am-about-to-be-saying, but [wouldya stop talkin about somebody's but... Sorry, Dr. Do-Good-Little].  Again, Sorry, I have no posterior motive!  Yes, my writing is a little like a horizon, just when it looks like it’s about to be your foreground, you arrive, and a whole new horizon just appears, out of the blogging thin air.  For the love of a near-sighted blogger!  There, I said it for you!  Getting to the point my linear thinker, much commentary has been written about the good vs evil battle of the social networking cultural context, and I am not about to provide a historical survey, which is another way of saying that I can’t put up, so I will shut up… about that, anyway!

But there is something in this context that I do want to digress about, particularly thinking about what our Social Networking interactions say about our centredness, Gospel, and otherwise…

Just recently, as I have been starting to functionally and practically use Twitter, after facing up first to a book [Yes, Facebook], I have begun to see how helpful it is, particularly to be informed about such and such resource, but also to connect with others on-line, through a very brief, but limited format, and particularly with those who are far from my New Zealand home.  But what I have experientially and very anecdotally found out, which has encouraged me to test the theorem, is that those who are more well-known [as I thought about phrasing this, I thought of Paul's words in Galatians 2:6, but those are his words that, in the main, do not apply to mine], seem to be less prone to return the communicative concept, making it collaborative.

Now, while blogging may provide you with a bandstand to play on, I can only play the drums, so I sit near the back!  And, I have been guilty of the said-charge myself, so I am no prince!

Therefore, I am wanting us to think through this reality together my blog-buddies, out-loud and on servers!

Here are some possible props, some thinking thoughts, with which to encourage you to think about whether there is such an unsociable reality as social networking snobbery…

[1] Is this even a problem? Isn’t this just an unfortunate, but a-moral consequence of being able to connect with too many people to build any meaningful existence with, all at the same Twitter time [to pick on one media], and those who have more friends and followers than family, have a life outside of the cyber-unreal-world, which means you wanted the world with only a dollar in your pocket…unrealistic… and unwise!  While my community cake is formed outside this world, social networking provides a lovely cherry to adorn and encourage this community!

On the other hand, this does mean that Gospel transformative-awesomeness should be a foreign referent in this reality.  For example, should I say something nice about a given individuals book, conferences, you-name-it, I am sure, should they be aware of it, there will be a growing willingness to re-claim it, with a re-tweet at the click of a button [I know, I am sounding all bitter and twisted...Gnarly]!  Before, hater becomes my lover, if you think I am not prone to do exactly the same sort of things, you over-estimate my righteousness in self, which can be added with a good deal of simultaneous self-righteousness on the personal side of life!  I am too prone to be more motivated by whom is communicating with me, than Whom I should really be doing this for, and what the real reason, motivation, meaning, and purpose that should be inherent with this use of my life as a disciple, follower, and imitator of My Moshiach.

[2] As you are presently finding out, just maybe our words are not worth the reply?  No, don’t shed a tear for me, I will get over myself, not by myself, but with the gracious help of Another Self!  What I am affirming here is not worth pity, but reflection, as this statement has much truth that should help us both to remain sober in our judgments of self, but also helps us reflect as to what we put on-line, and for what purpose.  If my words do not illuminate His, am I any more potent to bring life, than a cloud without rain?!  If I do not make much of Him, whom am I making much of?  Tragically, prone am I, to wander!  Therefore, it is not about you and me, Tim Keller has stated it so [quoting C. S. Lewis?], humility is “blessed self-forgetfulness,” which we would do well to remember [Screensaver anyone]!

[3] Even on Social Networking sites, as “Supergroove” have historically sung, “You Gotta Know To Understand?” While it certainly does happen, forming interactions-to-relationships on-line takes time, with the chemistry encouraged by more than a moment or three, which really means, you and I have not had these moments.  I am gonna cry now!  While the cassette tape in my ghetto-blaster can’t rewind, we can fast-forward forthwith from this point on!  Let’s compel one another toward Christ and His Gospel!

However, as it relates to the question before, you, do you have to respond when someone directly communicates with you on-line?

[4] Expectations… Meet Reality!  As has been communicated, if you want a feed, don’t rely on the cherry in the communicating, go Deep!  Just maybe, you can use social networking as a means to incarnate these relationships face-to-face!

[5] Are all these explanations just excuses for those who want to use social networking for their own social purposes, and have bifurcated how they live their lives when in person and when on-line?  This is actually quite a challenging question, when you get past my rhetoric.  I mean, how many times has someone come up and communicated with you in person… and you have FLAT OUT IGNORED ME, I mean them… Sorry, I thought I was over these issues.  I need to send a thousand tweets and I will be absolved!

We would very rarely, if ever, think of doing something like this, and if we are thinking Christ’s thoughts after Him, we would view such a response as being unworthy of the Master and unworthy of the Gospel!  Maybe, just maybe [for the third time], the ease with which we can social network, also allows us to ease away, promoting a communicative type of sacred and secular, with the viral form holding the default position, giving us an antinomian freedom in Christ, which is without warrant.  For the Fame of His Name, it is, at the very least, worth considering!

Is this an example of the devil in the social networking details, or the devil in the social networker?  Mmmm

I am reminded of Luther’s words, Saint and Sinner at the Same Time

Where do we go now sweet blogger of mine?

Just as you begin to think further about your own time, remember that there is an opportunity cost to what you do with your time, as we can really only spend each moment in this life under the Sun once.  I need to choose my social priorities wisely!

However, if I am going to spend time on-line and I want the collateral benefits thereof, I have to put up with the costs, yours, and very probably my communication, might just be one of those costs. Not only this, but personally, I need to grasp the Gospel more brilliantly and beautifully, and so do you, and maybe, just maybe [here we go... again], lightning may strike and I may have something profitable to say, and even if I don’t, I need your godly counsel, rebuke, and example, so that when my 2 seconds of self-imputed fame recognition ends, I will recognise the poverty in this pursuit, when compared to the incomparable Christ, and I will run to Him… and by running to Him, I can go out into the REAL world with a greater sense of who I am, because of what Jesus has done on my behalf, translated into making the Good News, more grandiose than GRAND can ever spell!

And here’s the rub again… you need this too!

Social Networking Snobbery… not for the Glory of God, and not in His Family, and in His House!

For the Fame of His Name

Man of Spin