Believe me, I'm about as pro-technology as they come. But there's a point where the technology replaces the human-to-human contact where I have to draw the line. Facebook is the prime example of this. Every time I find out about a very significant event in someone's life because another friend of mine saw it on Facebook, it really irks me. (I don't have Facebook myself, so I get the news second-hand when a friend sees a person's status has changed.)
One example: several months ago a couple broke up. For some reason the first thing people do when this occurs is to log in and change their status. Then the grieving can commence as if that finally makes it official. And by the way, this apparently justifies not telling anyone because "you could have seen it on my Facebook".
Another case (which spurred this little post of mine): a guy I used to know came out of the closet, taking everyone by surprise. Perhaps he was so scared of judgment or maybe he wasn't completely confident in this decision that it was much simpler and more brave to hide behind a monitor and announce to the world via a keyboard.
I'm not being a hypocrite by the fact that I blog and use Twitter. Anything I say on here invites conversation or is a result of a conversation. Most of it is nonsense anyway. But when people reach the point of using these avenues to not do the right thing by having that person-to-person contact, I would go so far as to say it is not what God intends because the relationship with that person suffers. It's like emailing someone when you are angry with them, instead of talking to them. It's a weak, character-miring cop-out. Soapbox off.
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