Books I'm Reading
Friday, December 4, 2009?
I was about to finish reading the above book. I came across 1 very interesting chapter: E-Conflict. That remind me of 1 mth ago early in a Saturday Morning I log into my Facebook not knowing somebody accuse me of something publicly on FB. False accusation and negative comments by a few people were all around! I was well.. shock and sadden.
The tone was curt, accusatory, and some of the sentences was in ALL CAPS which is a universal sign for yelling. I feel everything that was been said was utterly false and I wonder what was the motives by them.
The book mention that using email or FB to mediate conflict is like baking a cake without a mixing bowl or an oven. The very ingredients that make reconciliation possible are absent. Reconciliation comes in the context of clear communication, meaningful listening, shared understanding, openness and a lot of patience. The medium of email and FB inevitably removes these delicate ingredients. This experience of e-conflict - whether via email, blog or facebook - is growing ever more common. Electronic text as a medium strunt our best efforts to resolve
conflict.
Countless hours and precious emotional energy are wasted combing over messages, parsing word choices, verb tenses and prefect digital response. And yet on mearly every occasion, such misunderstanding and hurt feelings can be avoided simply by speaking to each other directly. I fully agree on this statement! Look at Jesus, He understood this truth about conflict resolution. In the book of Matthew he tells his disciple, "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the 2 of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over."
Perhaps if Jesus was able to update his teaching for the digital age, He might add a new emphasis: "If your brother sin against you, don't email him or fb him about it. Instead go directly to him!" We all have a habit of throwing stones from a safe distance. And why not? Distance hostility is not only possible, it's encouraged by out culture and therein lies the problem.
Ya so to them, Jesus offers healing between God and His creation, peace between friends and enemies and peace within. yet often the only thing It takes to derail this wonderful fragile process is a thoughtless email or Facebook.
PS: Opps I have just blogged!
Grace and Peace 1:13 PM