Dandelions and Social Media

I am loving The Next Story by Tim Challies. It is all about social media, and it is a real page turner. Whenever I settle in to read a chapter, I make sure to have my journal and a pen handy. He gives you so much to think about. As I was reading today, I was thinking about how social media may damage real life friendships. I thought of my friend Ryanoscovich and our shared passion for dandelions. We talk often, and dandelions will always enter into the conversation at some point. I don't know anyone else who loves dandelions like R does, so that makes him special. I think of R whenever I see a dandelion, as he does the same of me. Our shared dandelion passion sets our friendship apart and gives us a special and unique common ground to share. Now if R wrote at length on his blog about dandelions, I would be somewhat disappointed; that is our thing, not for public consumption. It is my opinion that we de-value our face-to-face friendships to some degree when we share all of our thoughts with hundreds of near-strangers. Having a blog, I do share my thoughts with hundreds (or maybe ten) near-strangers, but I set apart real, face-to-face friends, and keep our confidences and our conversations between us.