“If these qualities are in you, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful.”

—2 Peter 1:8

Tide of Technology

 I grew up on the opposite side of the United States in Savannah, GA. One of our favorite summer activities was going to the beach, as I am sure many of you would agree with. When you go to the beach you stake out your piece of sand, set up your stuff, pop out the umbrella and then start to hang out. What I quickly learned growing up is that when swim in the ocean you have to keep track of how far out you are going. It is easy to lose track of how far out you have gone, or perhaps how far you have drifted from your spot in the sand. One of the things that most of us do when we are out in the water at the beach is that we keep turning around and checking where our stuff is. (As a Dad admittedly my spot is not as cool as it once was. Now I spend my time looking back for the stroller and kids toys.) What happens is that unbeknownst to us, the tide pulls us in certain ways: sometimes this is very dangerous, too. People can be pulled too far out and have great difficulty getting back to shore, thus putting them in a really difficult position.

Today, I have been asked to speak on technology and social media and I want to start by describing it much like this tide in the ocean. Technology serves much like the tide of the ocean. Often times we are swimming around in technology to the point that we don’t always realize where it is pulling us and how. In fact, some of you are the one’s facing the ocean and you are losing track of how far you have gone. Perhaps, to a great degree of danger. (more…)