Sixteen Connections

Sixteen. After a quick count off the top of my head, I came up with 16 electronic accounts for which I have to keep track of log-in and password information. About half of these are work related. A couple more are for personal on-line purchasing, and the rest are for personal use (e-mail accounts, this blog, etc.) A couple of the accounts I rarely use, so in spite of warnings not to write down account information, I have to for those particular ones or I would never remember the log-in information when I need access.

Wow! I was shocked when I did an actual count. When I think of all that information that I store in my head, and then think of the actual time spent doing stuff with those accounts, it’s no wonder life seems overwhelmingly busy at times. And yet when I go through the list there are only a couple of them that I can easily say, “yup, that’s a no-brainer, I can get rid of that one”. Most of those accounts help me interact with other people in significant ways.

In the culture we live in, personal one on one interaction is often replaced with e-mails, chat rooms, blogs, texting, and several other ways we connect to each other that leaves out face to face, voice to voice encounters. On the one hand it saddens me to know that this is a fact I will live with for the rest of my life. On the other hand I’ve gotten to know many people that I couldn’t have just 10 years ago.

My life has been enriched by the friendships I’ve developed with people I have never met in person. And with most of us having easy access to travel, there are eventually opportunities to meet face to face with those we have only known electronically before. I recently had the pleasure of meeting several people in person that I had developed e-friendships with over the months and years. It was a truly awesome experience.

And perhaps that is the goal of all of this electronic communication. It is a more expansive way to find others of like mind and common interests and share our lives with others outside our small world that we would typically limit ourselves to. So I guess in all the busyness we’ve brought into our lives, the silver lining is the people who touch us and that we touch in return in some way that enriches our lives and makes this globe a better place to live.