I hear enough times, from certain generations/economic classes/ethnicities, that the idea of “community” that has some grounding in “electronic connectivity” is somehow less genuine and less effective than other methods. Of course, these comments tend to come from people groups where there’s been at least a few generations where the social stream has been disconnected from the family/village narrative, so I can understand why that perception lies so.

In this age of information and connected-ness, can one afford to not connect via the methods of the age/class/culture? Sure, we can make choices about some streams (I know I do when it comes to FB, Google+, etc.) – but we’d be missing the conversation of the age if we didn’t connect with it right? Here’s something to that point said in a recent Harvard Business Review piece:

…As the kind of connectedness that social media and technologies like Skype facilitate crosses and blurs the boundaries between social and professional networks, the depth of the relationships that result is often profound. For me, the insight is more important than the size of the input: a light-hearted quip is often more helpful and insightful than a long post or link to a book, or more often now, an eBook. It is about sharing ideas, developing them together, and putting them jointly to good use — this depth increases with the degree of connectedness you have, and in turn sustains it over time.

The most interesting part of social media is how it enables more meaningful connections with friends, colleagues, and advisers. Connectedness in this sense is also about the seamless way in which our communication continues, irrespective of whether we are meeting over a cup of tea or meeting over Skype, sending each other direct messages on Twitter or writing on each others’ Facebook walls, or sharing links and holding conversations in LinkedIn or Google Plus…

Read the rest of What It Means to Be Connected at the Harvard Business Review blog.

While you are considering how you will broadcast your/our faith to todays generations and generations to come, are you also subscribing to the understanding and wisdom present in the behaviors of connections taking place?