It is the first Saturday of Advent and I am sipping my coffee in my pajamas after spending almost 3 hours leisurely reading some great in-depth articles at the Crux, the Atlantic, Sick Pilgrim on the Patheos Blog and just discovered an on line journal called Image.
I recently swore off social media for a while after the election. I took a break from the meanness of the posts that all sides were vomiting out.
It took a day without any duties for me to go deeper and see the redeeming qualities of some of our social media. If not for the internet I would have never read Pope JP2's Encyclical on the Eucharist.. I never would have found Crux and would have assumed the only media outlet for Catholics was EWTN. I never would have met (virtually) Laticia Adams and her frank talking blog or even read a great GQ interview of Stephen Colbert as he describes Catholic Suffering in a way that makes sense.
I sat down to write this blog not to praise social media but to praise the art of leisure. I am pushing away the guilt of not being more productive. It is the first Saturday of Advent after all. I should be shopping, cleaning and decorating. At the very least, I should be catching up on work emails and projects. As I started this blog a pain of guilt ran through me as I saw the Day 13 of my 31 day writing challenge from October sear through my brain and remind me of taking up challenges that I did not finish. (Not unlike cleaning my closet!) A few weeks ago when I swore of social media. I did so because I was wasting my time on shallow and mean facebook posts that compelled me to respond. Even though I know the shocking adage "Oh No! Some is wrong on facebook." craziness, I fell into it.
My experience this morning of social media was so different... so enriching. Along with the in-depth articles I messages my sisters and a far away friend. I watched a few videos that were only for laughs and saw that a nephew in law was hosting his fellow Olympic swimmer friends in California.
Leisure used to be for this. Catching up on reading the newspaper (when the world had such things) reading a book (the kind you held in your hands) and catching up with friends. Today it is not so different if I use social media with the same intent. I can do all of those things via my computer and that is what I did today.
It is all in how we use it. Technology is not, in itself evil or driving us into secluded walled off lives; technology can open our doors, enlighten our minds and foster relationships, but we do need a "firewall" of sorts to to keep us out of the virus of negativity.
If you find yourself on-line today... find an unexpected place to go deeper and leave the internet trolls under the bridge.
We also need to sign off and hold a book or newspaper in our hands and talk to friends face to face. It is all about balance.
Enjoy your Saturday!
I recently swore off social media for a while after the election. I took a break from the meanness of the posts that all sides were vomiting out.
It took a day without any duties for me to go deeper and see the redeeming qualities of some of our social media. If not for the internet I would have never read Pope JP2's Encyclical on the Eucharist.. I never would have found Crux and would have assumed the only media outlet for Catholics was EWTN. I never would have met (virtually) Laticia Adams and her frank talking blog or even read a great GQ interview of Stephen Colbert as he describes Catholic Suffering in a way that makes sense.
I sat down to write this blog not to praise social media but to praise the art of leisure. I am pushing away the guilt of not being more productive. It is the first Saturday of Advent after all. I should be shopping, cleaning and decorating. At the very least, I should be catching up on work emails and projects. As I started this blog a pain of guilt ran through me as I saw the Day 13 of my 31 day writing challenge from October sear through my brain and remind me of taking up challenges that I did not finish. (Not unlike cleaning my closet!) A few weeks ago when I swore of social media. I did so because I was wasting my time on shallow and mean facebook posts that compelled me to respond. Even though I know the shocking adage "Oh No! Some is wrong on facebook." craziness, I fell into it.
My experience this morning of social media was so different... so enriching. Along with the in-depth articles I messages my sisters and a far away friend. I watched a few videos that were only for laughs and saw that a nephew in law was hosting his fellow Olympic swimmer friends in California.
Leisure used to be for this. Catching up on reading the newspaper (when the world had such things) reading a book (the kind you held in your hands) and catching up with friends. Today it is not so different if I use social media with the same intent. I can do all of those things via my computer and that is what I did today.
It is all in how we use it. Technology is not, in itself evil or driving us into secluded walled off lives; technology can open our doors, enlighten our minds and foster relationships, but we do need a "firewall" of sorts to to keep us out of the virus of negativity.
If you find yourself on-line today... find an unexpected place to go deeper and leave the internet trolls under the bridge.
We also need to sign off and hold a book or newspaper in our hands and talk to friends face to face. It is all about balance.
Enjoy your Saturday!
