Sizzle and Fizzle
I have always been intrigued with anything that helps me communicate with friends and those I want to encourage. Being a Barnabas by nature and a lover of people I tend to latch on to anything that connects me to others. Add to that my merry travels where the Lord allows me to meet so many very amazing people and I am so thankful that technology like Facebook helps me to connect.
When the phenomenon of Instant Messaging emerged I soon became a ferocious IMer, learning the lingo (lol, rofl, ttyl, gmta, etc) quickly and typing and thinking so fast I surprised myself at how many conversations I could follow at once. This was amazing—I could talk to a fellow in Derby, England, about my research on the Jesus Movement, hear about mission work from a 2+2 student in Asia, chat with Thom Rainer (one of my IM buds), and encourage the middle school child of a pastor friend all at once. She is now in college. And on a few occasions I was able to lead someone to Christ, another reason I like to learn new ways to speak to people. I just got an email two weeks ago from a dear sister in
But the sizzle of the IM soon fizzled. Sure, lots of youth still use it as do some adults, but the onslaught of cell phones and text messaging, email and weblogs, not to mention IChat, quickly moved IMing from sizzle to fizzle.
And that is how it goes. The cell phone phenomena cracked me up early on when only a few had them. I remember sitting in airports watching (hopefully) intelligent adults parade around while chatting on their phones, obviously doing so to ensure those of us peons who couldn’t afford a phone would notice. But again from sizzle to fizzle we went as the novelty was lost in proportion to the rising numbers of mortals who could afford them.
New things bring sizzle; when they become common they fizzle. Those savvy enough to figure out the technology the fastest become the next example of the airport cell phone ninjas. (I have a theory that new technology attracts the insecure more than anyone who capitalize on it to cover their insecurities, but I am no psychologist). The technology may yet be important and may help to move a society forward. But the impact for change lessens rather precipitously as the novelty wears off, and the ninjas quickly become the normal.
Now we have bloggers. I blog. I do so to encourage because I am by nature an encourager. I prefer the classroom and the office for drilling deep with thoughtful people who ask thoughtful questions, but I do enjoy my time blogging. I have read and been helped by some thoughtful bloggers. The thing that frustrates me about blogging is the lack of accountability. Compound that with the fact that, unlike IMing and cell phones, blogging is out there for everyone to see, and the lack of accountability quickly becomes problematic.
I am accountable to my president and to my dean. I am accountable to our trustees and to the SBC. I am also accountable to my wife (a really good point of accountability I wish all bloggers could enjoy!). Pastors are accountable. But a blogger, especially a clever one good with words (and there are many, as blogging attracts them the way IMing still attracts middle school girls) can vent and attack and assault and whine like a mule without accountability. Or, they can sound like geniuses while talking nonsense. That fact bothered me. For about two days. Then it hit me: like IMs and cell phones, the sizzle of blogging will soon fizzle. In fact, I think if one listens closely to one’s computer screen one will hear the decrescendo now.
Certainly blogging is a great example of a flattening world where everyone has a voice. Many have been helped by bloggers who deal with issues intelligently and with a helpful intent. But giving everyone a voice also gives a voice to fools.
It is really ok though. I think many in culture from politicians to religious leaders like Baptists underestimated the impact of blogging at its beginning. It may also be that some bloggers may overestimate their impact currently. The sizzle may be moving to a fizzle. After all, people can read and weigh the words on blogs like they do with newspapers and books. The novelty of blogging may have caught the casual reader off guard, but that has changed. I have decided if I see a blog I do not like I can do a remarkably empowering thing: ignore it. Or even better replace it with time spent with family and friends and Facebook J.
I have no doubt there will quickly be a replacement, the next thing after blogs. We may already have it with Youtube (I am having my college class do a youtube video to share Christ online, hoping to capitalize on the sizzle). But the next one will fizzle, as a young athlete who begins as the next great whatever will inevitably become the next forgotten memory. So while I cannot wait to have enough money (please email me to make a donation) to purchase myself a macbook so I can talk face to face with my wife Michelle on our Imac when I am traveling all over the country and missing her, I will remember that no matter the medium, relationships matter more. That one thought has too often been lost in the technology of sizzle.
August 23rd, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Yes, I do see this phenomenon out there in the blogging world.
Anyone can say anything, (including me and you) and there is an audience out there to listen to it.
But like you, there have been many blogs, or at least posts on blogs, that I have chosen to ignore, I am better for not reading some of them!
Blogging is intersting though, alot of people journal, in fact, I used to. But with blogging, it allows others to comment on your “journals.” People use blogs for a variety of reasons, I personally just like to talk about what God is teaching me or doing in my life… I know others who post every intimate detail that is going on in their lives.
It is certainly an interesting new thing that, like you said, has made our world a little more flat. I’ll be watching for that “fizzle”
Take care Doc, and thanks for blogging, many of us are blessed by your words!