Proximity in Internet World

As I write this entry, I am listening to online radio stations on ITunes. I have a favorite station within the Jazz category, but tonight I decided to browse a few others. There are stations from New York, Canada, Iowa, Arizona, Wyoming, and many more. As I browsed several of these, I first felt a sense of awe--"Wow, I'm listening to music all the way from Canada!". Then I realized that it did not matter how far away the station is. With the Internet, basically everything is at our fingertips. It's kind of like being in a room with people from all over the world; talking to any of them is easy since they're all in the same room. This is true with streaming music, pulling up websites, or communicating via e-mail or social networking. In the natural world, some things are close, some are far away. However, you never really have to think about proximity in the Internet world. As I try to wrap my mind around this, I have to look beyond my proximity mindset.

As a children's minister, I am part of a network of children's ministers in the Indianapolis area. We have a Google Group, which we frequently use for asking questions and sharing thoughts. This has been a wonderful experience, and there's no reason that I couldn't join an e-mail network in Orlando or Seattle. In fact, I am a member of a social networking site for children's ministers, and it is exciting to read what other people write.

As exciting as this is, I wonder if there are any downsides to it. For example, if everything in the Internet world is literally at our fingertips, does anyone feel crowded? Do people get sucked into spending way too much time exploring thousands of sites in the Internet world? Do we lose depth of relationships by connecting with 100 people around the world instead of 10 people in our neighborhood?

I've been using the Internet now for about 12 years, increasingly more each year. As I move forward, I expect to continue using the Internet more and more, but I'd still like to avoid the pitfalls of it.