Information whizzes bye at the speed of light, fiber optics, wifi, satellites in the sky...and here we are, recovering alcoholics who for the most part have a very difficult time keeping anything simple.
It took just 164 pages for our founding fathers to lay the ground work for the program of recovery we all know and love today. With in those pages the solution to our problem lay, who could have know 75 years later where we would be. In it's early days AA groups sprung up outwardly with Akron as an Epicenter. Word travelled with recovered businessmen on trains, travelling salesmen, and book sales. If a fellow and his family moved to the next town he would surely start a new group and do his best to maintain the fellowship he knew so well from the old town.
Fast Forward...Star Date 2010...Myspace is dead, but worry not, you can, in the touch of a button, connect to hundreds with Facebook, tweet Book Quotes from Twitter, you can even become the mayor of your homegroup on Foursquare (not advisable). However with the speed at which information flows the necessity for diligence grows exponentially. Everyone has an opinion and now they can deliver this opinion rapidly to the masses with very little effort. Our tendency is to believe that these Social Networks will help us to better connect to like minded recovering people, allowing us to network, share and befriend those that share our beliefs and views. Buyer beware...there is a very real possibility we will begin to substitute our regular meetings to stay home with a cup of coffee and interact online...why not it's so much more comfortable.
While the virtual meeting space, the social network, and even this blog can help us to feel connected, let us not forget to get out there in the real world and interact. We can be anyone we want out here in the www, that means anyone else can too. Before you share your 5th step with that person you meet on ICQ, take a minute to ask yourself why you don't have a sponsor that attends your home group? What are you hiding? What is that person on the other end hiding? While this may seem extreme, it should serve as a note of caution, we as a fellowship are crossing into a new domain and we need to be prepared not only as individuals but as groups and as a fellowship for the coming changes in an effort to safe guard our future. As easy as it is to do good out there in the www, it is just as easy to do harm. For every piece of positive AA material there are countless pieces of propaganda against us.
The Social Network will certainly maintain it's place in out fellowship for years to come, and can and will be a vital tool for those members who are in remote areas and unable to fellowship, but AA promises that we will become useful members of society, that we will get out there in the world and do great things and meet awesome people, so let's remember to maintain a balance...Anyone wanna be my Social Network Sponsor? Submit your resume on Monster.com, link me to your blog and twitter pages, friend me on FB and then let me review your Linkdin profile...see how easily we can complicate that???
It took just 164 pages for our founding fathers to lay the ground work for the program of recovery we all know and love today. With in those pages the solution to our problem lay, who could have know 75 years later where we would be. In it's early days AA groups sprung up outwardly with Akron as an Epicenter. Word travelled with recovered businessmen on trains, travelling salesmen, and book sales. If a fellow and his family moved to the next town he would surely start a new group and do his best to maintain the fellowship he knew so well from the old town.
Fast Forward...Star Date 2010...Myspace is dead, but worry not, you can, in the touch of a button, connect to hundreds with Facebook, tweet Book Quotes from Twitter, you can even become the mayor of your homegroup on Foursquare (not advisable). However with the speed at which information flows the necessity for diligence grows exponentially. Everyone has an opinion and now they can deliver this opinion rapidly to the masses with very little effort. Our tendency is to believe that these Social Networks will help us to better connect to like minded recovering people, allowing us to network, share and befriend those that share our beliefs and views. Buyer beware...there is a very real possibility we will begin to substitute our regular meetings to stay home with a cup of coffee and interact online...why not it's so much more comfortable.
While the virtual meeting space, the social network, and even this blog can help us to feel connected, let us not forget to get out there in the real world and interact. We can be anyone we want out here in the www, that means anyone else can too. Before you share your 5th step with that person you meet on ICQ, take a minute to ask yourself why you don't have a sponsor that attends your home group? What are you hiding? What is that person on the other end hiding? While this may seem extreme, it should serve as a note of caution, we as a fellowship are crossing into a new domain and we need to be prepared not only as individuals but as groups and as a fellowship for the coming changes in an effort to safe guard our future. As easy as it is to do good out there in the www, it is just as easy to do harm. For every piece of positive AA material there are countless pieces of propaganda against us.
The Social Network will certainly maintain it's place in out fellowship for years to come, and can and will be a vital tool for those members who are in remote areas and unable to fellowship, but AA promises that we will become useful members of society, that we will get out there in the world and do great things and meet awesome people, so let's remember to maintain a balance...Anyone wanna be my Social Network Sponsor? Submit your resume on Monster.com, link me to your blog and twitter pages, friend me on FB and then let me review your Linkdin profile...see how easily we can complicate that???
The Social Network Sponsor...