Connected…and Not

There are so many tools that allow us to be connected to the rest of the world in a mere instant, and yet we sometimes lose the connection to our local world, which is most likely the more important of the two.

RSS (that’s short for Really Simple Syndication) is a “tool” that allows you to pull down all of the headlines for your favorite site (if it has an RSS feed) and fly through them quickly. I use Google Reader as my RSS feed reader of choice. This allows me to check up on my favorite sites without actually having to visit them. It’s a great time saver. However, I’ve found that it’s made me become even more of a “scanner” reader than I was before. Ask Danielle. She says I scan everything. RSS lets me stay connected to the world, whether through news sites, blogs, etc. in an instant. That’s great.

Ask me about Virginia Tech, or global warming, or Don Imus, or a variety of other national news stories, and I’ll probably have something to say about all of them.

Ask me what’s happening in my local town, and I would be hardpressed to give a good answer. Ask me what’s going on in my friends’ and family members’ lives, and while I might have a sufficient answer, it’s not as good as it could be.

It’s great to know what’s going on in the world and to be informed, especially on issues that you feel passionate about. It’s not great when this comes at the expense of your interpersonal relationships. I told Dennis Miller last night that sometimes I feel like I’m information overload. It’s coming faster than I can keep up with it.

I have had such great experiences with friends and loved ones lately, whether it be fourwheeling on a sunny afternoon, playing rope golf out in the backyard, or just spending time together talking about life, and I realized that I don’t want to miss out on any of those experiences.

So, the feed reading will probably get cut back a bit. Maybe I won’t be on the cutting edge of The Latest and Greatest, but that’s fine with me.

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