The Organ of Meaning

After a particularly disgusting display last night where I “tweeted” 5 times in reference to Late Night with Conan O’Brien and then reading a particularly well thought-out post from eminent pastor, thinker & speaker John Piper on why he has decided to use Twitter and how he is planning on using it, I have found it necessary to re-think how I make use of and interact with social-media.

As of today I own, run or use regularly:

• 3 Twitter accounts.
• 8 blogs/mini-blogs/”best of” feeds
• 1 Friend Feed account
• 2 Facebook accounts (1 account and 1 page)
• 1 active Google Latitude account
• GChat
• AIM
• Facebook Chat

Beyond this, I have many of these integrated. My personal Twitter & Facebook accounts are updated when I post to 4 of the blogs (you probably got here from the link on one of them). I often use my GChat, AIM and Facebook Chat accounts through one program that connects to all of them simultaneously. Also, my Google Latitude account updates my GChat status automatically. My Twitter account automatically updates my Facebook status (I tried to make this work with GChat, but failed), my blogs also automatically post into my Facebook account as notes. All of these are integrated into my Friend Feed account and I have used Yahoo Pipes to integrate all of them in to one master feed.

In addition to all of this, I have increasingly tried to make it easy to get to any of these pages by creating redirects.

• Want to find my blog? – blog.jaysonwhelpley.com
• Want my Twitter? – twitter.jaysonwhelpley.com
• Facebook? – facebook.jaysonwhelpley.com or fb.jaysonwhelpley.com
• FreindFeed – ffeed…
• Google Reader Shares – share…
• Amazon Wish List – wish…
• You can even find my personal calendar if you’re follow the pattern.

In the past weeks, I’ve also found myself more defensive towards people who mock those of us who are more connected using these “tools,” which is usually a sign for me that I am taking myself or these interactions far far too seriously or imparting too much importance to them on the whole. After reading the well thought out statements that Piper wrote, I have decided that I definitely need to rethink what I’m doing here. Do I need to pull the integration plugs? Do I need to close accounts? Do I just need to pull the plug altogether?

What are you doing to keep yourself connected, but also focused on reality and real lives? What limits have you put in place to keep social networking from becoming an idol?

Okay. I need to post in response to the responses on my post (they’re mostly on Facebook).

I should have made it clear that my beef was mostly with people who are Christians undercutting and slandering someone else who is also. The whole socialism is a peve of mine, but not that big of a deal. I apologise if anyone feels offended by how I presented the comments about socialism, but I will not be apologising about the ones about slandering a brother in Christ. Take it as rebuke or whatever you want to call it.

To summarize: dis your brother and I’ll get pissed, but dis politics all you want I’ll just debate it with you.