EDMOND — I recently achieved a milestone accomplishment. I now have more than 500 friends on Facebook.
First of all, you need to know that I am almost computer illiterate and was dragged into the Facebook world by friends who sent me an invitation to join this cyber social network. The invitation said something like, “Is John Smith your friend?” How could I say no? And the next thing you know I am on Facebook, hearing from friends that I haven’t seen or thought about in 30 years! By accepting invitations from friends, I suddenly have more than 500 friends.
I don’t do much on Facebook, and I don’t Twitter. I assume that my life is not exciting enough to document every move I make. But apparently other people’s lives are that exciting. I found some research on these new social outlets on Erik Qualman’s blog, Socialnomics. Listen to these amazing facts:
• By 2010, generation Y will outnumber baby boomers and 96 percent of them have joined a social network.
• 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via a social network.
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s fourth largest, between the U.S. and Indonesia.
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen Degeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire populations of Ireland, Norway and Panama.
• 25 percent of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video — on their phone.
• 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation because we no longer search for the news, which now finds us.
Those are some strange and enlightening facts. Apparently, many people in our society are longing for a community, even if it means being a virtual community online. At the same time, many of us long for meaningful, face-to-face relationships. How do we achieve that?
In his book “The Tipping Point” Malcolm Gladwell cites research by Robin Dunbar saying that 150 is about the number of meaningful relationships that our brains can deal with. Meaningful relationships are those people who you trust, who you can seek out in times of trial and tribulation, with whom we have significant investment in time and energy. His research suggests that the ideal size for organizations, churches, networks, etc., is 150.
That’s is a relatively small number in our world today. Especially for those of us with more than 500 friends on Facebook! How can I manage to reach out to all of those people every day? The answer is: I cannot.
The point I stress is that during this Christmas season, it is important for us to give thanks for those who mean so much to us. We need to take the time to nurture those meaningful relationships that build us up and make our lives more meaningful, be they 150 or 15.
I can’t possibly keep up with all of my 500 friends on Facebook. But I can spend more time with my family, nurturing those relationships theAT mean so much to me. And give me my newspaper, so that I can keep up with my local community. And if you “friend” me on Facebook, I may or may not be able to keep up with you, but if you would like, come by the church and we can talk — face-to-face.
CHRIS SHOROW is senior pastor at Edmond’s First Christian Church. He may be reached at cshorow@fccedmond.org.
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