Someone I know just deleted her Facebook account. I support that because I abstained from internet for a month this year at one point and it was great. Though I had thought of permanently deleting my account there is one snag holding me back: how could I then share what I think… oh well… blog might be a better distraction… moreover though, there is couple of pages and sites tied to my account. How can I let those go? Furthermore, my website,www.mj-d.si receives the most views from Facebook (even though I have yet to see anyone asking for my services via website or Facebook – is it hence even any value in the time that I did put in all that I do?) and some ministry stuff is great on FB (like sharing events, etc.)
Browsing on youtube, Facebook, wikipedia and google is very tempting or even addicting in a way. I takes huge sums of time from me and is counterproductive. Yet at the same time it seems as though it is a necessary evil in this post-modern and over-information-saturated times. Oddly enough the only things read these days seem to be countless posts with length of 140 signs. Furthermore, people don’t seem to watch clips, that people post with hope of educating, especially if they are longer than 4 or even 2.5 minutes.
Sometimes I think it would be magnificent if I didn’t have to use technology in a way as it is being used these days. The days are such, that we the people are sharing our own information freely online and someone is making a profit on the information we share (and statistics). None of which increases our wellbeing, but it does however undermine our liberty as people to privacy.
Then again, what is privacy these days, one might ask? How can one have privacy if they share pretty much everything and when you look on their wall, you instantly see how they (myself included) spend their time. Furthermore I ask myself, why would I need to socialize outside of my room, if I can have the world in the range of my fingertips? Would I even need asking someone:”How are you? What have you been up to?”
It seems to me that these kinds of questions will soon become obsolete or just a leftover of the past as a means to possibly start a real conversation.
So… would I delete the account I ask myself… hmmm…
I guess a part of me likes the fact that someone likes (with a button) the photos I make, and posts I post, videos I share… I suppose all of us do. I wonder though, how good is it to designate Everything with a like button. How can a number of likes define the quality of the work?
The other thought I have is that it seems to me that FB is a great way to have all the people you know in one place. And the information is being updated as people get married, or move, or change their contact info… But then again… Do we really need to know all there is to know about another person by default? Do we not perhaps just want to boast with the number of “digital friends” we have, so that we pretend to be likable in the real life and so that everyone would see, who we want to be and to keep who we really are to ourselves? Do we need all those people in our network to know every “sugar-coated” thing of our lives?
Do I, Matic Jelovčan, need to be connected with everyone, where in fact I sit here on my bed, alone, with a desire for real thing, real relationship, real life, and in my online self-centeredness forget that Jesus is here beside me, and real people are couple steps away, friends are a call away or maybe a bike or a car ride away.
Is being constantly and succinctly informed with irrelevant information not ignorance? How can we, as peoples of a quasi-developed nations, being consumers and not producers, stay on this path of ignorance to all our surroundings? How can I appreciate quiet time, when I don’t take any? How can I expect of myself to move if I don’t even see that I am in a standstill?
My Lord, where have I come? Where am I going?
Can I trust you to take care of me when I take an action that seems asocial, yet at the same time wants to give that time to you and serving people. How can I be the difference that I would like to see around me?
Today I may not yet have guts to remove myself from Facebook, I may not yet have the urgency to trash away wasted hours of stagnating online life. I pray that God will give me a sufficient enough reason to abandon this. Then again he just did, but the question is, when is it that I will be willing to see clearly what I just wrote about and act on it.
Matic Jelovčan
Neka punca, ki jo poznam, je ravnokar izbrisala svoj Facebook račun. To podpiram, saj sem se sam letos za en mesec abstiniral od internet. Super je bilo.Kljub temu, da sem razmišljal o tem, da bi izbrisal svoj Facebook račun, mi nekaj stvari ne da miru: kako le bi potemtakem delil svoje misli… no ja… blog bi morda bil dobra ideja za preusmeritev slednjih… več kot pa samo, mislim, pa je problem tudi v tem, da je kar nekaj strani povezanih z mojim Facebook računom. Le kako lahko te kar pustim na miru? Na drugi strani pa moja spletna stran, www.mj-d.si, prejme največ ogledov iz Facebooka (kljub temu pa iz strani tega (tako na strani kot na Facebooku) ne dobim nobenega naročila mojih storitev – je potemtakem sploh kaj vrednosti v času, ki sem ga vložil v delo na obeh ali kar delam?); nekaj stvari za Trdno Skalo je prav tako izvrstnih na Facebooku, denimo povabljanje ljudi na dogodke, in še nekaj drugih stvari.
Brskanje po Youtubu, Facebooku, Wikipediji in Googlu, je zelo mamljivo in celo lahko zasvoji. Predvsem pa vzame gromozansko količino časa in je večidel neproduktivno. Istočasno pa vse skupaj izgleda skoraj kot potrebno zlo v tej post-moderni in preveč-informacijsko-saturirani družbi. Tako niti ni nenavadno, da večina ljudi ne prebere tekstov daljših od 140 znakov. Večina predvidevam da niti ne pogleda video posnetkov, ki jih ljudje naložijo ali delijo zavoljo izobraževanja, posnetkov ki so pa daljši od dveh minut in pol oziroma štirih minut pa sploh ne pogledajo.
Včasih, velikokrat, pomislim, kako bi bilo super, če mi ne bi bilo treba uporabljati tehnologije, kot se v teh dneh uporablja. Dnevi so taki, da ljudje prosto delimo skoraj vse svoje podatke na internetu, nekdo pa taiste podatke in statistike prodaja naprej za profit. To ne povečuje naše svobode in kvalitete življenja, ampak samo uničuje našo svobodo in pravico do zasebnosti.
Vprašanje pa je, kaj v teh časih sploh je zasebnost? Kako le imamo lahko zasebnost, ko pa delimo pravzaprav vse (nekateri še celo na straniščih). Ko pogledamo na zid ljudi (tudi na svoj Facebooko zid), lahko kar natančno ugotovimo, kako posameznik preživi svoj čas.
Tako pridem do vprašanja, zakaj bi sploh šel ven iz moje sobe za to da bi se socializiral, ko pa imam skoraj celoten svet na dosegu svojih rok preko tipkovnice in miške? Zakaj bi rabil koga sploh vprašati:”Kako si? Kaj pa si počel zadnje čase?”
Izgleda, kot da bodo taka, in podobna, vprašanja kmalu postala nepotrebna, zastarela, le še ostanek zgodovine, ki nakazuje le na začetek pogovora z resničnim človekom.
Še vedno pa se sprašujem… ali bi izbrisal svoj facebookov uporabniški račun… hmmm…
Delček mene ima rad dejstvo, da nekdo pritisne gumb za “lajkanje” na fotofrafije, ki jih naredim, video posnetke, ki jih delim, stvari, ki jih napišem… menim, da imamo vsi to radi. Sprašujem pa se, kako dobro je popolnoma Vse stvari, ki jih poznamo, označiti le z “like” gumbom? Le kako lahko samo količina “lajkov” definira kvaliteto dela? Menim da ne more.
Naslednja misel, ki jo imam, glede tega, zakaj je Facebook morda uporaben, je dejstvo, da imam lahko na enem mestu zbrane vse ljudi, ki jih poznam. In poleg tega so informacije vedno osvežene – ko se ljudje recimo poročijo, preselijo, spremenijo kontaktne podatke,… navsezadnje pa, ali res potrebujemo vse informacije o neki osebi? Ali je postalo že samoumevno, da moramo o nečem vse vedeti (na podlagi informacij na internetu)? Ali pa se z vsemi temi povezavami le samovšečno in egoistično bahamo, koliko “digitalnih prijateljev” imamo. Pretvarjamo se, da smo všečni v resničnem življenju na podlagi interneta. Želimo, da vsi vidijo, kdo mi sami želimo biti, ampak v resnici nismo, ker tisto kar res smo ostane samo za nas. Noben ne želi vedeti naših temnih skrivnosti. Biti moramo popolni in to na internetu tudi pokažemo. Ali res rabimo, da vsi vedo vsako pocukrano stvar v naših življenj?
Ali jaz, Matic Jelovčan, moram biti povezan z vsakim, med tem ko ta trenutek sedim na svoji postelji, sam, v želji po pravi stvari, pravem odnosu, pravem življenju. V svoji samosvojosti in internetni egocentričnosti pozabljam, da je Jezus zraven mene, pravi ljudje so le nekaj korakov stran, prijatelji pa klic ali vožnjo s kolesom oziroma avtom stran.
Ali ni biti konstantno informiran z nepomembnimi informacijami ignorantno? Kako lahko, kot ljudje kvazi-razvitih držav, kot potrošniki in ne proizvajalci, ostajamo na tej poti ignorance do vseh stvari okoli nas? Vse se vrti okoli nas in kaj moramo imeti, in se s tem hvaliti in tu trošiti naš čas nespametno. Kako se lahko ustavimo, ko venomer hitimo? Kako lahko sploh cenimo čas tišine, ko pa ga nimamo (Venomer je okrog nas hrup premikajočih se stvari, slušalke na ušesih, televizija prižgana (tudi če je ne gledamo))? Kako naj pričakujem da se kam premaknem, ko pa niti ne vidim in ne želim videti, da se sploh ne premikam?
Moj Bog, kam sem prišel? Kam grem?
Ali ti lahko zaupam, da boš poskrbel zame, ko naredim korak, ki ga bodo morda nekateri vzeli za radikalnega in asocialnega, a istočasno s tem želim dati tebi svoj čas, ter da služim ljudem. Kako sem lahko sprememba, ki jo želim videti okrog sebe?
Danes morda še nimam volje, da bi se odstranil iz Facebooka, morda še ni nujno ali urgentno, da stran zabrišem vse v nič vržene ure internetnega življenja. Molim, da mi Bog da dovolj velik razlog, da internet opustim. Mogoče mi je le tega ravnokar dal, vprašanje pa je, kdaj bom voljan jasno videti, kar sem ravnokar zapisal in po tem tudi ravnati.
Matic Jelovčan
P.S.: Nekatera vprašanja so samo za razmišljanje, nekatere stvari pa so le misli. Kdorkoli ki želi odgovoriti na to, naj mi odogovori preko sporočila, ča pa je želja javno deliti mnenje (morda ne kot odgovor meni, pač pa publiki), naj kar odgovori.
Hvala
P.S.: Some questions are to be pondered about, some are just thoughts. Should anyone be willing to give me their views, opinions, poniters, etc. please reply (possibly in a message and not necessarily as a reply to the post). Should you reply to the post directly, please do so in a “public” way and not perhaps to me. That being something directed towards anyone reading this.
Thank you.