As much as I’ve observed, cell phones and telecommunication providers have been dominating most of the commercials, whether in radios, televisions, mags, or newspapers. Everyone of them offers the same: fast, cheap, and reliable communication. Each new cell phone offers various benefits to its user, and as the networks of social messenger increases, the ability to connect to such social networks like facebook and twitter is a must. Now is the era of communication. With the rapid development of information technology, people around the globe can now communicate with each other, quickly and cheaply. You and I can share the latest news on the go, no matter how far we are from each other. And, we can do it through our wonderful cell phones. The world feels smaller now, as small as the grab of our hands! However, this tiny gadget called “cell phone” in certain ways pulls us away from each other. When I sit down in waiting room, I’d rather “playing” with my cell phone than having some conversation with other people in the room. Sometimes I was too busy with my facebook account that I passed chances to chat with and to know my friends in the “real world.” It’s very sad to say that those gadgets and social networks made to make people’s communication more effective, in some sense separates us away. Furthermore, I think there is even saddest thing about hi-tech communication, that is, when we often abandon our personal time with God for some superficial communication with friends on cell phones and social messengers. I myself sometimes do this when I wake up in the morning and the first thing I grab is not the bible, but my cell phone, just to check new messages and friends’ updates! I believe that this sophisticated world has the hidden agenda to drag us from our deep relationship with God and others. We must rise against this hidden plot. We must build our awareness of it. We must not let those cell phones and social messengers separate us from each other, but let us use them to get our relationships with God and others deeper. Never let them draw our main attention and ultimate priority from God. Let us start using them to encourage others, through our updates, notes, pages, links, etc. As the Ecclesiastes says, “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven” (Ecc. 3:11), let us give proper time to communicate with our God, family, friends, and even strangers. There is time to connect using cell phones or social messengers, there is also time to connect directly face to face. There is time to sign in, and there is time to sign out. However, speaking face to face is always more joyful than doing it through any media, just like what John expressed in his second letter, “Having many things to write unto you, I would not write with paper and ink: but I trust to come unto you, and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.” (2 John 1:12). God bless you. :D
