When I was in eighth grade, my teacher said I was cynical. As an adult, I don’t think it’s such a bad quality.

In today’s age of constant, on-the-spot, media coverage by both professionals and every guy on the street, we are bombarded with “news”. The breaking headlines on CNN and Twitter capture people’s attention. I’m always shocked at how completely people believe the details [...]]]>

News might be Fast but is it Dependable? Let's be Reasonable.

When I was in eighth grade, my teacher said I was cynical. As an adult, I don’t think it’s such a bad quality.

In today’s age of constant, on-the-spot, media coverage by both professionals and every guy on the street, we are bombarded with “news”. The breaking headlines on CNN and Twitter capture people’s attention. I’m always shocked at how completely people believe the details and instantly empathize.

“Is this true?” is always the first question in my mind. I can’t stop myself.

A few years ago I spent two weekends in an Episcopal Church workshop exploring my “gifts”. When discernment topped the list, I was surprised. I’d never heard of it. As we researched the results, I scoffed at God putting people on earth to discern good from evil, identify “false prophets”, and protect his people. Could there really be a gift enabling you to determine if something is true or false?

My immediate reaction was that we don’t need this gift anymore. We have the Bible, right? It’s written. How on earth would this gift serve my church in this day and age? When was the last time you saw a golden calf being worshiped in your neighborhood? How ridiculous!

But then I started to think. I thought about a phone call I received from a parishioner would wanted to organize a blood drive at our church. Since I was outreach co-chair, he called me. I immediately had a terrible feeling while talking to him on the phone. Even though he had a well-thought out plan and had even considered the need for childcare during the blood drive, I was “against” him. It’s difficult to put it into words. Since this was church and we are supposed to love everyone, I felt awful. I couldn’t deal with speaking to him and handed the whole thing over to my co-chair. How guilty I felt for the reaction and my inability to accept this man.

A short time later an older woman in the parish recognized him as a child molester who had grown up in our church and served time in prison. He had just been released. Our parish had to deal with how to handle his presence and even met with the bishop about it.  He could hear the word but we needed to protect people.

At the time I only fleetingly thought about my strong reaction to him. I didn’t give it much weight. Now I pay attention to these “reactions” to people and situations. I accept my nature to take a step back and not get carried away in new situations. Maybe I’m just made this way.

With all the constant interactions online, we need to force ourselves to take a cynical look at “news” and discern if it is true or false. I believe we all have this gift to observe and consider before reacting.

My fear is we will become so detached that we won’t care when we should. If we are unable to develop a personal system for determining if reports are false, we’ll ignore all reports. I hope we all have a good dose of discernment to keep us true.

As I began to start a new community website, I caught myself thinking I’d need to jettison real life commitments in order to maintain it. Then it hit me, I was actually thinking about quitting my volunteer work with other people to sit at my laptop.

In the last week I’d volunteered at our elementary school festival and field day then participated in a cub scout service project. Between my family, work, church and a city [...]]]>

As I began to start a new community website, I caught myself thinking I’d need to jettison real life commitments in order to maintain it. Then it hit me, I was actually thinking about quitting my volunteer work with other people to sit at my laptop.

In the last week I’d volunteered at our elementary school festival and field day then participated in a cub scout service project. Between my family, work, church and a city commission, my days are booked. Something would have to give.

Should we really reduce our real life community time in order to have one online?

When I confided my dilemma to a friend, he told me about his six years maintaining a national website for train enthusiasts. After a while, the site took up so much time that he realized he wasn’t fixing trains anymore. All he wanted was to grab tools and scrap paint to repair old engines in the museum, but he’d spend his weekends on the website. He stopped.

For people who don’t have volunteer or community activities, online groups and interactions provide a sense of community. Anyone can spend time blogging and commenting to provide a place for like-minded people to participate from the comfort of their own computer screen.

But what if your time is filled volunteering in the flesh? Even if you streamline, you still need to have the time to do a good job and respond to others online. It’s unavoidable.

Now I’m seriously considering the benefits from all of my activities by asking myself four simple questions.

Does the organization have a positive influence on a priority in my life, such as my children?

What do I get out of the experience personally?

Am I truly helping a broader good or cause?

Will the online interaction improve an aspect of my real life community or career?

When I find the answers, I still have to prioritize whether an online effort with the same benefits outweighs a real life effort with people physically in the same place at the same time. It’s amusing to even consider it.

More and more, time spent online truly competes with real life interactions. How many times have you been dragged away from your computer or internet cell phone connection by someone standing in front of you?

A fellow mom sent me a piece of Flair on Facebook, “Not now sweety, mommy’s on Facebook.” I read it out loud with my 7-year old in the room and he said, “That’s alright mommy.” I spun around in shock and explained that I was only reading something. Was I ignoring him for the computer? At that moment I hadn’t thought I was. Though I often say, “Just let me post this blog real quick and we’ll do something together.”

I can’t imagine quitting as a volunteer to spend my time on my laptop no matter what the reason.

What we all need are online clones to handle our internet duties, blogging, programming and design. Our look-alike avatars could handle everything for us. Who’s working on THAT kind of robot?