The Face in Facebook
Recently I was contacted by a friend from Canada whom I haven't seen in twenty years - he found me through Facebook. I remember him as a more reserved introverted type of person, a real gentle soul. Therefore it was surprising to see how social and active he had become in the online community.
The social network websites and online communities serve a good purpose by enable people to socialise and communicate to virtually anyone in the world from the comfort of their homes, in addition it enables many to have a social life who otherwise wouldn't.
However, when communicating through a computer screen something very vital is lacking - Body language, a very important part of communication. When a person says something but their body language is saying something else, the body message will override the verbal one.
Delia Thompson in her book "Body language and communication" writes "Research shows that 55% of communication is conveyed by the use of body language. Which includes eye contact, gestures and facial expressions. Only 7% is conveyed in the words we use. This is actually a scary statistic as when planning a presentation all our time and effort go into planning what we are going to say."
Based on this, when one communicates through the computer, or in any other scenario where body language is lacking, very little of the real person is actually filtering through.
Did you ever notice, when some people pray or study torah they sway back and forth, It is called "Shokelling".
King David in Psalm 35 says "My entire being should declare - Lord who is like you?" It is not enough to verbally say something, One's entire body must also be involved. Body language represents the involvement of the entire human being. When one Shokels it is a way of saying "my entire being is saying it" - the ultimate expression of body language.
When one is pursuing any good task especially a mitzvah one must try to bring their entire being into it and not be distracted by other things.
Facebook can be a good thing, however to get the body language and the better picture try youtube.
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Yanky Berger
ב"ה