Networking vs Connecting

(Alternately: “The Most Important Thing I've Learned from Writing Historical Fiction” or “The result of watching 'Mr. Roger's Neighborhood' for the first time in almost 20 years and then thinking too hard...”)

Once upon a time—oh, say, any time before the 1990's really—there was a world whose inhabitants were forced to rely upon each other. They had to go to stores and interact with cashiers if they wanted to buy something. They had to ask a librarian to request a book for them, instead of filling out a form from the convenience of their home. Most of their days, probably, were spent with or among other people.

"The Good Samaritan" by Rembrandt

A little further back, people had to rely on each other for things as basic as entertainment. There were no such thing as video games. Going to see a movie was something that brought you closer to your neighbors—and a few years before that, going to the theater was something which enabled you to watch your neighbors in the very act of creating art as they interacted with their audience.

The further back in time you look, the starker the contrast to today. By the time we get to the 1700's (at least in America)—and then back on through time—you relied on your neighbors for pretty much everything you needed. Women quilted and sewed and knitted together for efficiency, using yarn and cloth they had made, from cotton they and their neighbors had grown or wool from sheep they raised. Men built houses and barns together—using wood cut from local forests by local lumbermen.

People needed each other.

People still need each other.

But instead of relying on actual communication and interaction, we have the very dangerous world of “networking.” Now, obviously, I don't think the internet and the paths to connecting it opens are bad—this blog being the proof of that. Though I'm not “on” Facebook, I don't have a problem with it in itself.

But... I do think it is very sad when the medium of the internet is used as a disguised replacement for what we as humans really need. It's easy to check up on your hundreds of Facebook and blog friends without giving them a second thought later in the day. It's easy to meet thousands of people and lump them together mentally into a group of practically nameless, blurry faces or symbols. Do your internet friends really need you? Do you need them? Hundreds of years ago, humans were forced to be much more tolerant of each other and giving of themselves—because life, welfare, entertainment...everything depended on it. Now, how easy it is to write off our next-door neighbor—we'll never need to ask to borrow an egg or butter, after all, because it's become easier to zip out to the store and go through the self-checkout lane without having to look at or speak to a single soul. It's something to think about...

Enough negativity, though. :) I want to thank all of you who read this blog, who comment here, and whose blogs I enjoy, for making the networking world of the internet one in which actual connection is involved. Thank you for writing about things you care about, for caring about the things I write about, for caring about me. It makes me so happy to see a comment in which someone asks for prayers or support—I will always give them. And the prayers and support I receive from you have boosted me through some of my difficult days—my most sincere thanks for that.

I like the idea of the blog world having the potential to become a renewal of the sort of medieval village where people turned to each other. Maybe it's that writers and readers and artists tend to steep themselves in the past a bit, anyway, but that is what I can find here, with a little bit of searching.

(On that note, if anyone has any handmade yarn lying about, I'm in the market. :)

Ok, I'm done here. I was going to include the text of Luke's Good Samaritan parable, but it's longer than I thought.... Anyway, if you happen to read it soon (it begins around Luke 10:25), it is interesting to think of the words “Who is my neighbor?” in this context...