The more stink and infighting I hear chirping on the blogosphere, the more I realize the internet is like The Ring (a la Lord of the Rings). It seems few can wield it’s power all that well. Good intentions can switch to division and vitriol.
This is not a new sort of problem.
Have you ever acted differently in your car than you do face-to-face with people? I have. I first time I drove with my husband-to-be, the man truly surprised me. Hallmark placidity turned to zeal and strident use of a motor vehicle.
It’s a problem of the flawed human heart. It’s spiritual, not behavioral.
Something about the material confines of transport too often unleashes something worse than normal in our thoughts and behavior. The internet is the very same way.
Instead of road rage, we see web rage. Comment sections on many news stories, for instance, are filled with toxic language and malicious conjecture.
But, this is not the end of the story!
As we pull back and examine ourselves, we feel the call, even the duty, to do better. What may sustain that initial motivation and produce better actions and results is community committed to a higher way.
This is where The Spiritual Guidance for Bloggers Project enters the fray. It’s a spot where we agree to virtue over high blog traffic. It’s not just a place online to thumbs up “like”, but rather a community where we encourage each other to be more personally reflective as we encounter and broach challenging issues.
I ask you to be a part of the solution, not the problem of blogosphere rancor. Join at the Facebook community, where resources, support, and hopefully face-to-face gatherings will build better kinds of online interactions.
I’ll just bring up one more thing, and I ask that you would help me with your prayers and suggestions. I sense the entreaty to assemble a guided prayer retreat day for soul care for the weary blogger (essentially, for Creators & Communicators).
Maybe toward the end of August. I’m not certain what it would look like, or even if anyone would care to come, but I envision a consecrated time of rest, prayer, fraternity, silence, unplugging, renewal, and vision-casting. Will you help me figure it out?
I’m all for peace in the blogosphere, and not just because you used the word “rancor,” which is awesome. :)
In August we’ll have a new born, so I’m no help here. However, I was thinking about that book The War of Art. Pressfield has some great stuff about the angst and anger people who fail to create feel–they become critical. I’m not doing him justice and I don’t have the book handy, but the gist was something like those who waste their time are really unhappy, and they don’t quite know why. So they just get angry. If he’s right, it sounds like the internet is the perfect vehicle for both wasting time and expressing frustration!
That sounds right on. How many purposeless people just troll around online until something bugs them, and then cut some fury loose. I’ve been there myself. It’s good that someone like him can manage to point to the problem. I’d better read that book.