Where’s the I in Us?
Hey guys,
most of you probably know the work we do, training Youth Coaches to work in schools, colleges and children’s homes, empowering the youth with hope, vision for the future and answers to the unique challenges they face daily. I want to use some feedback from one of my guys to start things off…
He came to me last year and mused about the way the kids in his school don’t play sports at break any more. I won’t digress to offer his whole story of how they used to play rugby, cricket and “Open the gates” every chance they could get. Instead I’ll get to his worrying observation: Most of the kids in his school sit and socialize in groups whilst listening to music on their Ipods, cellphones and other MP3 players.
This got my tail wagging a little bit and I decided to start watching this already well established phenomenon. And whilst the benefits and drawbacks to listening to music ALL DAY can be a lengthy debate on it’s own I rather want to note the following: There as also a considerably large amount of kids who sit listening to tunes on their own (even though some are in groups), headphones in their ears and volume cranked up.
What I’m wondering is what effect this isolation has on these kids’ ability to function in a community? We all know how much time kids spend on their pc’s, Xbox, PS3, the internet, in their rooms alone with the music on. Our consumeristic society in it’s current state is set up to cater to the needs and cravings of the individual. It offers both the platforms (gaming systems, MP3 players, Pc’s, Internet etc.) around which these tendencies revolve as well as then filling them with a myriad of weird and wonderful choices of games, programs and music etc.
I fear that it is subtly leading our children away from understanding life in terms of a community.
Individualism seems to be creeping in every where and though this is a bigger philosophy than we have time for in this post I want to restrict myself to the following:
Where does the tendency to remove the individual from the community manifest in our current society?
Some examples from my own life: Me and my wife run together and a couple of times I’ve had to resist the urge of whipping out my Ipod and listening to my latest podcast whilst on the road. About once every fortnight I’ll get stuck into a computer game which completely cuts me of from the rest of humanity. I’ll sit and surf the net for extended periods of time. When do these habits become a problem?
When we are called to consistently live in fellowship with God, our families and His Church how do we determine when it’s okay for something to lead us out of fellowship and into isolation? Is it even okay? Or is fellowship, at least with God, a given in our walk with Him?
So I’m wondering about two things:
1. What are the manifestation of isolationist part of individualism in our current culture? How is it creeping into Church life?
2. How do we evaluate and change our behavior, and how do we biblically qualify this? Or how does the Gospel interact with this issue?
I’m really in the beginning of exploring this topic, I probably haven’t made up my mind about anything so feel free to offer whatever you have, I’ll appreciate any stimulation in this area.
Be blessed!
HY ALMAL HIERDIE IS CHRISTO DE BEER SE COMMENT, EK POST DIT NET VIR HOM:
Where does the tendency to remove the individual from the community manifest in our current society?”
Dink jy regtig dat mense UIT community uitgetrek word? Word die konsep van community en gorup ens nie net re-define nie? Ek meen, dink maar aan die konsep van Facebook, myspace, Yuwie en wie weet wat nog. Als bring mense net meer en meer in kontak met mekaar. Dit brei jou horisonne uit. Ek meen, weird as it might seem, van my coolste pelle het ek nognooit fisies ontmoet nie! Of dalk net eenkeer in ‘regte lewe’ en verder facebook…
Verder, dink hieraan: Ons generasie het niks wat mekaar aan mekaar bind nie. Ja, daar is global warming issues, en almal is ‘n afgestomp an vigs. Maarwaar is die groot oorlog, die wereldwye depressie, die revolusie wat almal saambind? Ons generasie het nie meer ‘n groot en sterk genoeg common ground om verhouding op te bou nie, om voor saam te staan en waarlik community te wees nie. Dus vind jongmense common ground in musiek, gaming, en ja, afentoe nog sport. Mar hul besef dat die wereld is groter as kuruman waar hul grootgeword het, of selfs as vereeniging of Pta… slefs Suid Afrika. Hul kan deel word van soveel groter community, en ‘n global consciousness (of so iets) vorm.
Op die ander kant het dit al vir my gevleo dat die wereld word al hoe kleiner en keliner, tog leef ons verder en verder van ons direkte naaste af.
Ek dink dit gaan maar oor balans. Ek meen, as ek die heeldag op FB sit (wat ek doen, hehehe) en op die ou end nie meer kan face to face kommunikeern ie (haha… i can still do face to face) dan raak dit ‘n probleem.
Balans.
I hear you and I do appreciate your comment. There is definitely a shift in how certain aspects of community works within our culture. Thanks for that.
What I see though is that you are basically bringing the social networking into the game. My challenge is not necessarily with that. I actually find the social networking a blessing, makes it easy to maintain otherwise tricky relationships. And I hear your question about concept of community that could be changing (I would actually say the concept of community stays the same it’s the concept of interaction and maybe the concept of “a meeting place” that changes, but anyways).
Let’s take social networking out of the the discussion and go purely for the where the individualism creates self isolating behaviour. A person willingly removes himself from the community and decides to follow behaviours that isolates him/herself.
Here’s an example:
My friend went to the airport the other day, not really important what he was doing there but he made the following observation: A very large percentage of people walking by him had headphones in their ears. And he found it weird contemplating that even though all these people where in the airport together they weren’t really there together because of the fact that every one was mostly in their own little world.
So my questions still are, in which different ways are people isolating themselves in our culture (I just want to brainstorm on this) and then when does it become a problem if someone keeps isolating themselves.
I just want to acknowledge in your comment because I understand that the “meeting places” and “methods of interaction” are definitely shifting within certain groups of our culture, I’m just sort of looking for something else here.
Any truth stands in tention. The pendulum must be in hte middel for it to be accurate. Yes, sorry for using the cliche – balance. But in the West our balance is all upset to the indivualistic side. In the east the opposite tends to be true. But we’re in the West.. so, under the banner of “being yourself” or “being my own person”, we defenitly upset healthy community living. The great problem of sin is disconnection. Adam and Eve disconected from God, disconnected from each other. We are also becoming disconnected. When you do something I don’t like, I go to a diferent church. We divorce one another. We drop old friends and make new friends on facebook, who cannot penetrate my personal space and challenge my character, who cannot show up at unfitting times but only when I chose to logg on, who does not have to face my outbusts and selfishness nut only hear me when I have organized my thoughts in writing. Ok, I sound a bit gloomy, but think about it. I have no doubt the seed of disconnectedness are shown by our very culture – things like gaming and listening to ipod when I don’t feel like facing you.
Check out this: Heb 13:16 “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” So I have to give you a bite of my chocolate, right? And then God is well pleased. I’m sharing. Wrong! The greek word translated “to share” here is “koinonias”. Sound familiar? The sacrifice God is seeking is not to share your chips, it is to live in community! Real community, because it is hard. I cannot hide, I have to expose myself, I have to accomedate others when I don’t feel like it. It is a sacrife with what God is well pleased.
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