Quality Time is a lost art. Nothing feels worse to be ignored and second to a 3 x 5-inch screen or 65″ TX. Here’s the deal.

Digital distractions keep you from being present. They can placate your ego, offer vicarious experiences and inspire your fantasies. You can scroll everyone’s life for comparison, affirmation, and inspiration. That can be motivational but more times than not, it is useless information overload. It widens your community to an extent that is impossible to have authenticity.

Now I know a lot of people will say that they use it to keep up with folks. How can you keep up with 200-300-400-700+ people all day every day? When is the last time you asked someone this question? “How have you been lately?” Clicking like doesn’t equal connection. Typing one-liners that may or may not be read doesn’t offer lasting bonds.

Digitally people can be anonymous, gigantic, edited and scripted. There is a lot of fake courage pouring into the way people want to portray their lives. Unfortunately, some of that bad form and rhetoric spills over into their lives as their personal interactions become less intimate.

I know people say that they can inspire and do some good sharing the Gospel and sharing their experiences on social media. I am not maintaining that everyone jumps off social media and goes sing Kum Bah Ya at their local coffee house. I am saying don’t forsake being present with real people who need your influence in their lives in real time.

I can post the experience on social media and get 50 likes with very little connection to my hundreds of friends. It could have been an aha moment that was very significant to my life journey. It immediately becomes marginalized along with another generic post about the mundane. It will never have the effect of looking someone in their worn, weary face, and saying, “Me too. I have been there. This is how my life changed and it will get better,”

Nothing beats a warm hand, an understanding gaze, and seasoned words that pour courage into a person. Social media kills intimacy. Let’s be present more. We know better than to let a phone, tablet or TV be our gateway to the world. Whose in?

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.