Be Who You Be, Even When Nobody Can See

(Right off the bat…excuse the grammar usage in the title – trying to make a point.)

I have to admit that I love the age we live in right now. I mean from a technology and access to information standpoint.

By self-declaration, I am a proud and unabashed maven of gadgets, whiz bang toys and oh, I can’t forget about cell phones…I l-o-o-v-v-e new cell phones. To put it bluntly, I am a techno geek.

I got to thinking the other day about this whole “social” media phenomenon and how people have become so engulfed in communicating this way, anonymously, without actual human contact, seemingly without restrictions or boundaries.

Earlier this year, a study came out (http://bit.ly/5uV2) declaring people visited Facebook, the most popular “social” media site nearly 1.2 billion a month, MySpace more than 810-million times a month and Twitter more than half a billion times during a typical 30-day period. That’s a lot of visits and a lot of time behind a computer screen for a lot of people.

As a techno geek, I will be the first to admit there are wonderful advantages to “social” media. There is the ease of connecting with people from all over the world, known and unknown. There is the impact that can be made on behalf of specific causes or bringing attention to the heroic or dastardly actions of specific people. There is the idea of giving a voice to the common man (and/or woman) when they have been wronged.

But, one of the things that drives me batty about this whole phenomenon is that many people have become lost in their virtual selves, at the expense of their real selves. Many, not all, have more courage to be strong, powerful or assertive, when no one can see them, like when they are sitting safely behind a computer in the middle of the night.

Like any and everything out there, there are good uses for “social” media and abuses. What is the term we hear so much – “too much of a good thing…?” At times, it seems the one thing “social” media is not being, is truly social. Is it authentic to be one person online and someone else in your daily life? Can you really grow as a person, if you loose the ability to interact face-to-face?

I, for one, am declaring and purposing to actually get out of the house, put down the always-connected Blackberry and remote-access wireless card and actually interact with people. The same courage it takes to sit behind a computer screen and spout off, giving people a piece our minds, is the same courage we all can use to become who we would really like to be…who God created us to be. (Philippians 4:13)

We can be who we want to be. So, lets make the decision and take action to be who we be, when nobody else can see.