Today as I was eating jelly beans in front of this computer, surfing the web, looking at other people's personal webpages and blogs, I was just thinking about how very new this notion is of wanting to share our lives to the world. I mean, 10 years ago, no one would have ever thought of doing a web log. No one would've ever wanted to have a web log page. I'm guessing that no one would've ever wanted to post their daily thoughts, for everyone to see. Privacy was king. Besides, before, it was only those exclusive people who could put together a personal webpage, who were able to share their thoughts and lives with the world. It's important to note, however, that even in the beginnings of the personal webpage era (if it's even an era to speak of), most people would wonder why anyone would be interested in reading about some random person. To have a personal webpage was considered a waste of time and possibly even geeky. Now, it's almost become trendy, well, at least for the younger generations. And with easy to use weblogs like this one here available, nobody has to fiddle around with html code or frustrating webpage builder programs to put their thoughts, their feelings, themselves, to be shared with the world audience.
What's changed in the psyche of young America? Young America has sacrificed its own privacy for something else. This is evident of course from the boom of reality TV shows and all sorts of spin offs from them. Realism has become king. We want something real. We're tired of acts and fake smiley faces. I can't think of anything more annoying or "ahhh" (picture me closing my eyes with a look of anguish while shaking my hand in front of me) than knowing that someone is blatantly being fake with me. I'm guessing based on all the webpages and blogs I see, that I'm not the only one with such values.
This of course, is something that the church must take into consideration. Constantly, many churches are criticized for being the epitome of fakeness. Now more than ever, I believe the church has to be like the early church recorded in Acts who "shared everything they had." I'm guessing that this wasn't limited to just stuff. They shared in each others' lives. But how? What first steps can we take toward that goal?