January 15, 2011
Can you describe the typical workday at an office building somewhere in America in 1980? Your first instinct may be to say that you can. But think about it for a moment. Right now. Before reading further…
Were there any computers in your image? If so, start again.
I was alive and working in 1980 and I am having a very hard time trying to figure out how we got anything done in offices at that time. We would have been dead without typewriters for sure. And technology killed the power role of secretaries. Boy did we take what they did for granted.
I was having coffee with a friend this morning and we were discussing how rapidly technology is changing and how much of an impact technology is having on our social lives. The conversation began when he told a story about when a new teacher working with high school students raised the power of Facebook. One student replied “Oh. That’s for old people.” Really?
Do you know what IS the Facebook for 18 year-olds today? I didn’t think so. Neither do I.
Then we started talking about what is “a long time.” No matter when you were born, 10 years before that was ancient history. Think of your birth year. Think of the major historical events of 10 years before that. Ancient history, right? Now… think of the year 2000. Ten years ago. Feels like yesterday, right?
Oh my…
Not only can we NOT keep up with what is changing – we have no clue what is relevant to 18-year-olds today. We can’t RECALL what was relevant – office work before computers.
But not everything changes. My dad took me to a Detroit Tigers vs. New York Yankees baseball game at Tiger Stadium in 1963 – 47 years ago. The core experience of watching a baseball game with your dad is the same today. So is the experience of having friends over for dinner. Or getting together with a friend for coffee on a Saturday morning.
Life is not simple. Maybe it never was. But because some of the most important things we do - like simple community - don’t change much, it’s tempting to think life isn’t changing and we don’t need to pay much attention. The great news about massive change in the presence of the stability of simple community is that we have a haven in community to find relief, encouragement, support, renewal and fulfillment.
The sobering piece of all of this is that the support of simple community is only available to those who know and experience simple community in the first place. If Facebook is for old people, in the mind of an 18 year-old, what is simple community – if it even exists?