Fanning the Flames?

I am starting to wish I were Amish. I readily admit that I have always been a tech junkie. I had Facebook and a Blackberry for a while before they were popular. Ask anyone who works with me and they'll tell you that I am constantly multitasking. I have not counted lately, but I am guessing I send between 100-150 emails a day. I know I receive that many. If I'm awake and not driving or in a meeting, then a laptop is probably on and within arms reach. This used to just be me and my personality quirk. It's not anymore. Now it seems that everyone is blogging, facebooking, and twittering.

I don't know why, but in the past few weeks I've started to feel smothered by the electronic connectedness of life these days. Are we really more effective? Are we really contributing more? Is this really socially healthy? Is the Kingdom of God truly benefiting?

I'm in publishing. And, yes, I (and we) most definitely care about the ministry impact of the books we publish. And, yes, we genuinely want to connect the message with the masses because we believe it will change their lives. But, the reality is that the publishing industry has changed drastically in the last several years, largely due to technological shifts and trends. As such, everyone is trying to figure out how to communicate a message in this new world while doing so efficiently and at minimal cost. We want to be good stewards of message and resources. The business realities require that we exhaust all available channels and mediums to communicate our message. Only I'm starting to wonder if we're all just exhausting ourselves and each other as we seek to squeeze every bit of opportunity from online networking.

I'm not sure what the answer is. I know that I am grateful for some ministries I've seen born out of blogs. The truth is that if someone has a blog that tens of thousands of people are following, then that means that they have a message that people clearly need (although not necessarily as a book). Yet, I can't help but wonder if we're in some way fanning the flames of over-networking because we know it helps us manage an increasingly challenging business model. I'm not sure, but the more I have thought about this post, I'm wondering if what I'm wrestling with is the tendency for us to try to encourage or create the mass followings online.

I'd genuinely like to hear how you reconcile the ministry with the frenzied craze of online networking. I'd especially like to hear from editors, marketing managers, and authors. I know there's genuine value there, I guess I'm just wondering how we can maintain and foster authenticity.