Online Community, Part 2

It’s been 6 weeks since a bunch of us joined facebook. I have some observations, and many more questions. Pick one and comment away!

We have 35 people on our “WECA Young Adults” group page, about a dozen more than the number coming out on any given Thursday night (to have community in person). Online - we send cute messages, post bizarre pics, and find long lost friends... When we get together, we joke around about the popularity of facebook, and explain it to the people who haven’t heard about it yet. But does this conversation piece lead to any deeper connections? I suppose it could, I’m just not certain it has. I do find that when we see each other (Thursdays, Sunday etc. We do talk alot about facebook topics... coffee in church, that funny photo of you, Stephen Harper is my friend etc. So maybe this online community could be a spark igniting deeper stuff? Is it like any other common interest... be it a favourite TV show, NHL playoffs, or the weather? Which leads me to the following question...

Is it possible that we just don’t know how to make the leap from surface relationships to meaningful community? We’d like to, we just don’t know how.

Does facebook fill a void in my life created by my inability to deepen my relationships?

Or am I making too much of this whole thing?