When I think about social media, I think about how strong kairos is. Twitter is a great example for this in some aspects because millions of people are able to voice their opinion on a topic immediately when the scenario is happening. But twitter can also expose bad kairos which a lot of people are either completely ignored for because of their timing or they are just laughed at. For example, the situation between Kanye West and Taylor Swift due to Kanye's lyrics in one his songs. Many people immediately responded to it via twitter and celebrities were using their fan's tweets to back themselves up. But a few days later the topic was out of everyone's minds yet people were still posting their opinions. And even the celebrities themselves voiced that the issue was over and that people needed to let it go; while their level headed fans sat back and laughed at how concerned other fans were with these celebrities's social lives when many more pressing issues were occurring.
Once I took a moment to reflect on my decision making process and the way I do things, I realized how much I unintentionally use kairos. From simply just asking my parent's permission to do things to participating in conversations with someone else that had a differing opinion than me. My parents always used to tell me, "there is a right time and place for everything" which is exactly what kairos defines. But on the downside of 'good' timing, I've often been told I need to move on in conversations because my mind is still so caught up with the original topic. So my statements have no relevance anymore because as kairos demonstrates, relevance is everything.
My hometown has a program named Kairos, which is a church retreat designed for many juniors and seniors in high school. I never really understood the name until I learned the true definition. Their slogan for their retreat lies on the "the right timing for God", which all makes sense now!
From Saint Anne's Church
The idea of kairos changing at a rapid pace due to technology is an interesting and, in some ways, frightening one. Twitter trends can change in a matter of days or even hours, and the window of opportunity for tweeting about an event is much smaller than the window for writing an article about it. While Twitter allows more people to seize the moment, the shorter time frame also means that topics, even important ones, are forgotten much more quickly.
ReplyDeleteComing to this class I figured there's always kairos in our everyday lives. You managed to point out between a good kairos and bad kairos which is amazing to say the least. And wow, to have a program about kairos certainly gives the students a deeper understanding about their own religion.
ReplyDeleteI think it's so awesome to hear about your church retreat and how you've come to terms with the meaning behind it. This post does a really effective job of showing how a concept so prevalent in your life reappeared in way that you had somewhat of an epiphany. With an even more clear picture, you were able to pull our so many good examples of kairos.
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