Oddly enough, this particular blog has been inspired by seeing the reactions of people to the updates that have just occurred on Facebook. Changes to the interface, changes to the modes of interaction - changes. The changes have some good in them, and some bad. The formatting has its ups and its downs, and the inability to simply deactivate the new features can be annoying. And the reaction has not been terribly positive overall. It's been extremely negative, thoroughly contrarian, and utterly reactionary in nature. I don't necessarily disagree with some of the complaints, but the overall reaction has been interesting to watch. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, there are some significant points to note by observing a mass reaction of literally hundreds of thousands of people. (The number of people in the primary group opposing the new changes has climbed by 5000 - yes, you read that right - in the time I've been writing this blog so far).
What is there to learn from this? People fear change. I've observed the same reaction to every single change that the facebook team has made, though never quite on this scale. Every time a new component to the sstem ha been implemented, people have reacted in much the same way: the new thing sucks, make it go back to how it was, or at least let us opt out of it. I can understand where people who react this way are coming from. But at a fundamental level, the question is not about facebook anymore. The question is about the reality of human nature. We hate being forced to adapt, to change, to deal with a new way of doing things. And facebook just happens to be showcasing that.
As people made in the image of God, we have an idea that there ought to be some kind of consistency and order about the world - that it ought not be so mutable and so quickly (and easily) altered before our eyes. We have a sense that there ought to be something stable and secure. But in a fallen world, there is no such thing. Heaven will be stable and secure. But this earth has not been and will not be. This is a good thing for us, because it makes very clear to us that the only truly solid thing in our existences is God Himself - that no other foundation will ever rest truly secure, because in the end, every other thing shifts, changes, crumbles away into dust.
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I'll edit this when I can type. My wrist is getting worse, to the point where I can't type at all without significant pain. I love you all, and God bless!
- Chris
What is there to learn from this? People fear change. I've observed the same reaction to every single change that the facebook team has made, though never quite on this scale. Every time a new component to the sstem ha been implemented, people have reacted in much the same way: the new thing sucks, make it go back to how it was, or at least let us opt out of it. I can understand where people who react this way are coming from. But at a fundamental level, the question is not about facebook anymore. The question is about the reality of human nature. We hate being forced to adapt, to change, to deal with a new way of doing things. And facebook just happens to be showcasing that.
As people made in the image of God, we have an idea that there ought to be some kind of consistency and order about the world - that it ought not be so mutable and so quickly (and easily) altered before our eyes. We have a sense that there ought to be something stable and secure. But in a fallen world, there is no such thing. Heaven will be stable and secure. But this earth has not been and will not be. This is a good thing for us, because it makes very clear to us that the only truly solid thing in our existences is God Himself - that no other foundation will ever rest truly secure, because in the end, every other thing shifts, changes, crumbles away into dust.
...
I'll edit this when I can type. My wrist is getting worse, to the point where I can't type at all without significant pain. I love you all, and God bless!
- Chris
Ouch. Silly boy. Now I can write anti war protests without retrobution......:)!
ReplyDeleteHow's the arm?
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