The nature and quality of human relationships are of concern to Christians and non-Christians alike. How will cyberspace change those relationships? In this chapter we examine the impact of cyberspace on friendship, neighbourliness, communities and church fellowship. Cyberspace lacks the ability to connect people physically in time and space, but it is able to provide new opportunities for real relationships. Nevertheless, we need to be aware of its possible positive and negative consequences as we learn how to relate to people in this new medium.
What is happening to relationships in Western societies, and will cyberspace make them better or worse? Relationships have been a major focus of attention among those looking at the impact of new communication technologies. Science fiction, including the book that introduced the word cyberspace, quite often has a rather depressing image of the future of human communication: often it is one of people stuck in rooms unlit by daylight communicating via some kind of screen. That fear can be reinforced by the behaviour of some teenage boys, who behave like that for a time (though most come out of this stage perfectly well). Then we read in the newspapers of a company that offers to analyse all the email messages a person has ever sent and reply in the most likely manner to new messages sent to that person - when that person is dead. On the other hand, the same newspapers describe men and women meeting through the Internet and even marrying. Mothers and fathers keep in touch with their sons and daughters at university through email. So what is likely to happen with relationships?
There is no doubt that some social structures are changing anyway and not
just because of cyberspace. The number of families in Europe and USA with children
and their two parents staying together is declining. There are more people living
on their own, or as single parents. There are more old people, especially women.
Where people live is also changing - more are living in towns and cities. It has been pointed out that town and city dwellers see more people in a day than most saw in a lifetime two centuries ago. There is an increasing size of the potential group from which we select friends.
Despite the increasing numbers of people we meet, the number of neighbours we know and number of friends we have has stayed remarkably even. There is more concern over lack of participation in community life, but whether this is due to a shift towards an individualized way of living or technological environment or some other reason is hard to determine.
People have been saying 'Why were the old days so much better?' for at least the last 3,000 years. Were they better? Evidence lends little credence to this view. The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible said: 'Do not ask why the old days were better than these; for that is a foolish question' (Ecclesiastes 7.10 NEB). Nevertheless this chapter will ask if there is any evidence that cyberspace is changing relationships! We consider in turn friendship, neighbouring and community. We cannot, however, ignore the vision that Jesus offered of a new social structure characterized by complete mutual love and self-giving. Therefore we also consider 'fellowship' - the relationship to be found in church which transcends gender, race, age, class, personality and personal circumstance. Will cyberspace have any impact on this?