FIRST GLIMPSE: Going Social

“Dad, I don't see your phone anywhere.”

Glancing in the rearview mirror, I saw a deeply concerned look on my daughter’s face.

“Did you leave it at the hotel, maybe?”

“I don’t remember you picking it up,” my wife chimed in.

My heart sank. I didn’t remember picking it up, either. Only a few miles from our ocean-side vacation destination, we were hours from the previous night’s stopover. A quick call to the hotel confirmed our fears. My phone had been left behind. Relieved it wasn’t lost, I made arrangements to pick it up the following week on the return trip. With a deep sigh, I consigned myself to being disconnected for a week. “How bad can it be?” I thought. “This is vacation, after all. I don’t really need my phone.”

Seven eternal days later, I had learned several things about my phone…and myself:

• My phone has become my primary source for news and literary consumption.
  

• Despite poor texting skills, I message others far more than I realized.
  

• I have been cheating vacations to check emails, make calls, and stay in touch with the office.
  

• When friends can’t reach me, they call my wife. That’s all I am going to say about that.
  

More importantly, I also learned:

• The world did not end because I did not have my phone.
  

• I need to lose the “digital leash” more often.
  

• After the first day or two, I really didn’t miss my phone. Truthfully, I didn’t want it back.
  

I admit I am uncomfortable with this level of transparency. It sounds as though I am addicted to technology. I confess that since our vacation, I have taken deliberate steps to put my phone back in its place—notifications turned off, phone silenced and put away during conversations, unnecessary and time-wasting apps deleted, and social media reduced to a bare minimum.

Still, my phone-less week also confirmed ONE Magazine’s need for a greater digital presence. The grim reality is today’s reader consumes far more content on screen than in print. Even harsher is the truth that news in 2018 is instant—here today, gone tomorrow (or the next day), but definitely not bi-monthly.

With these realities in mind, ONE Magazine has ventured bravely into the world of social media. Find and follow @onemagazinefwb on Facebook or Twitter for frequent updates, breaking denominational news, links to articles and notes, and bonus content that may not appear in print.

Does “going social” mean the print version of ONE has become irrelevant or is headed for the scrap heap? Absolutely not! A presence on social media simply expands the vital role of the magazine to a larger audience. We can all “like” that.

About the Columnist: Eric K. Thomsen is managing editor of ONE Magazine and president of the Evangelical Press Association. Email: eric@nafwb.org.