This past weekend I have been engrossed in a different type of relational zone. It's not one that I know or do very well. On the personality profile I am a high extravert. I find my energy with people and just being with the crowd. I love the face to face interaction and dialogue of friends and even people I do not know well. Recently one of my staff buddies asked me if I thought the younger generation saw us old guys as non-relational because we don't spill our guts in you tube, facebook, myspace etc. This has really gotten me to thinking about developing relationships. I watch my two older kids text all day long, non-stop talking to their buddies. I also watch them update their facebook constantly and checking out their friends. By the way, it is in the kitchen and they cannot get on without an adult present...so we do have boundaries.
Just this past weekend I got involved with twitter.com. It is a service where one goes and constantly updates what they are doing. I can follow some people I like or am curious about. They to in turn can follow me. Is this a way to build relationships? Then, I came across seesmic.com. It is a video community. Basically you can build relationships with people anywhere. It is basically video blogging. Some of the discussions are fascinating. My question to you all is, is this the new way of relating? Are we coming to the point where the face to face interact and touch are not going to be necessary. How then do we get a sense of belonging or becoming. When I sit down face to face with someone, I am able to see a lot. I hear your voice and watch your verbal as well as non verbal reactions. It tells me a ton about you. When I twitter or seesmic, how do you know that I am NOT faking it or am something that I am not.
I'm not knocking any of those avenues. I personally love the people of the world. But I also think there is tremendous value in developing relationships face to face. Sorry for the rambles. I'd be curious to know your thoughts....email me at philip@mylifebridge.com
Philip Thurman
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