1) Nonviolence 101 -Becoming a People of the “Third Way”

Source: Zach Hoag

–The following is a guest post–

Last year, I began a personal discipline/tradition based on the growing influence of social media on our daily lives.

Once a year, I Reboot.

Specifically, I enact the full deletion of my Facebook profile. Poof. Gone. And while for some that may seem insignificant, for me, a bonafide 21st century digital boy, it is significant. And if this recent article (and many others like it) are any indication, then it is significant for lots of you, too. (For the reason why I don’t delete my Twitter or Instagram, see the very end*. Also, see my rant on why Google+ is ridiculous.)

Let me begin with the disclaimer: I am not anti-technology or anti-social media. At all. While I appreciate the neo-monastic or even anabaptist impulse to eschew all artificial forms of human connection and the fast pace that technology often applies to one’s life, I am more moderate. The impulse I feel is to interact intentionally with technology and media, to understand the “message” implicit in the “medium” and, hopefully, to find a way forward that combines engagement with thoughtfulness.

I have seen, for instance, my own tendency to constantly live back and forth between “two spaces.” The first space is physical space with the persons sitting or standing physically next to me. Or the cars driving beside me. The second space is electronic space (better than “cyberspace”), the space into which we enter through electronic portals and within which we find information, communication, and entertainment that is somehow less than physical (although one could argue it’s getting closer and closer to physical everyday). The electronic space, like the physical space, is not bad or wrong in itself; they are both neutral; but no one can deny that the tension involved in living back and forth between them can easily and quickly become negative.

Consider, for instance, these two negative effects of the tension between the spaces:

1. Ill Communication. While this has been an issue with electronic media in general [Read more...]