“Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (NIV). Hebrews 3:13
Advances in science and technology have done wonders for humanity. For many, the mundane aspects of life have been replaced or enhanced with appliances, computers and other devices that allow us to quickly address the boring and focus more on our personal pleasures. As the demand increases for more from the artificial cyber world, more and more people are getting lost in a world where physical interaction is considered an annoyance. We can accumulate friends over various social media platforms, and we don’t even have to reveal the truth about ourselves to be accepted.
There is an advantage to having mostly online friends – they demand less from us. We emotionally support them with our likes and happy emojis, comfort them after a breakup, maybe even talk them out of suicide online. But knowing someone in the physical world adds a whole, long list of annoying demands. Spending your whole afternoon helping them fix their computer. Going to funerals with them. Toting them around in your car every day after theirs gets repossessed by the bank. Having them show up unannounced when you were just settling in to watch a NETFLIX marathon. You have so much more control over your friends in the cyber world on a forum, or in a game chat room, to the point you don’t have to physically interact with anyone.
We feel worthless because we actually are worthless to each other. So many are lost to artificial relationships that they can’t connect with the world around them nor can the world seem to connect with them.
Although every relationship starts off on a superficial or shallow level, the cyber-world allows that superficial state to remain intact. Many avoid the possibility of having to go deeper. In the cyber-world, it is not necessary for others to know the real you just the one you like to portray.
We have been created in God’s image with a need to do things for people and the urge is always present. Scripture has revealed this for the last five thousand years, yet its as if suddenly we forgot it in the last few decades. Unfortunately, when we stay superficial with others, we remain in a state of loneliness and isolation. This is not God’s will; He made us for relationship. Hebrews 3:13 states, “Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (NIV).
We need each other!
Take some time to visit someone and then listen to them into existence.