I have spent almost two months now in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the Oregon desert, serving at Washington Family Ranch, which is a Younglife Camp. I have been disconnected from all forms of technology other than a computer to write my articles and a phone for which I need a calling card. This has been hard for me, but I have learned to appreciate my time here so much. I have learned to find value in the relationships I am building with the people around me. I have made deeper connections with people I have known for a month than I ever did with people I knew for a whole semester of college. When Snapchat, texting and direct messaging are taken out of the picture, we as people are forced to dive deeper into face to face conversations.
I feel like I am constantly surrounded by people with their noses in their phones. Conversations are constantly getting interrupted because people have to respond to a text right away instead of answering the question right in front of them. Barriers are created in friendships because we are to busy looking at what someone we have met once just posted on Instagram instead of paying attention to the people in the room. I may have a few hundred people following me on Instagram and follow many of them back, have a thousand plus friends on Facebook, or even get over 100 views on my Snapchat Stories, but the question is how many of those people do I go to when life gets tough and how many of those people come to me when they struggle? The sad, but brutally honest answer is less than one fourth of those people. Do I think they are all beautiful people and love watching them grow? Absolutely, yes I do. But the brutal answer is they can not all play a role in my story and I can not play a role in theirs. As people we need to focus on the relationships around us which truly matter and are truly life long.
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Technology does not only create barriers between relationships and friendships, but it can also distort these relationships. In a message, words can be interpreted in ways that they were never intended. Technology also makes it easy for someone to lie about who they are. I am not only talking about "catfishing" people, but instead trying to take on character traits' that a person does not have. I have found this to be true in my own life when I have tried to get to know people on a deeper level through technology and I have also found myself miss interpreting texts. Technology makes it super easy for people to hide behind the screen of their phone.
On Instagram and other social networking sights people mostly only post about the exciting and joyful moments in their lives. People rarely ever post about the struggles they are going through. I find myself comparing the low moments in my life to the happy high moments in the lives of the people I follow. Social media puts people under lots of pressure to look perfect in the eyes of the world. This in not only with physical looks, although that is true, but also how adventurous and exciting their lives look. I have found myself guilty of this at times and have spent many hours dreaming of the perfect Instagram post, but I have quickly realized the time it has taken away from me enjoying life.
Don't get me wrong I am excited to reconnect with the world around me. Social media is fun if used in the right way. I have the newest iPhone, Instagram is fun to post on, and I love sending goofy Snapchats to my best friends. These two months have given me a sense of adventure and taught me that there is more out there beyond the cyber world. I have learned to find value and love those around me. I have also learned the true beauty of witting letters.
Technology is a great invention, but if not used in moderation, it takes away the opportunity we, as the population of this world, have to build communication with one another.
