Mentoring... The Anti-Internet

                                                                       As I was reading through The Lexus and the Olive Tree, an interesting paragraph jumped out at me.  Friedman wrote the following:

"Because we rapidly move into a world in which the Internet will define commerce, education, and communication, there will be just two kinds of businesses:  Internet businesses and anti-internet businesses.  Internet businesses are those that can either be done over the Internet, everything from book selling to brokerage to gambling, or be significantly enhanced by the Internet, which applies to everything from management consulting to inventory control.  Anti-internet businesses are those that cannot be done over the Internet - such as preparing food, cutting hair or making steel - and those that are in some ways a reaction against the Internet.  This would include things like shopping centers and Starbucks coffeehouses.  Starbucks and the shopping center are anti-internet businesses because they benefit from the fact that the more people are home alone with their computers, surfing the Net, the more these same people will want to get out of the house, go to the mall or Starbucks or Main Street or touch someone, smell something, taste something or feel something.  Products will always need exposure in a way that people can touch or feel; people will always seek community, whether on Main Street or in the mall."

What really caught my attention was the "anti-Internet businesses that are in some ways a reaction against the Internet."  I draw a parallel to this with mentoring.  In many ways, mentoring draws young people out of a modern world that is shaped by school, family life, Internet, music, video games, cell phones, or many other types of technological distractions.  Mentoring is like drawing someone out of the matrix for a few hours.  So, mentoring is not necessarily a reaction against the Internet, but more so a reaction to being overly self-absorbed in our modern Western culture.  This also impacts the recruitment of new mentors, which often involves the elaborate process of influencing an average adult to forsake their own matrix once a week for a few hours in order to sacrificially spend time with a young person they've never met (often living in a neighborhood they've intentionally avoided for many years).  Even though the process of matching mentors and mentees is challenging, there will always be a tremendous opportunity here because, as Friedmann pointed out, people will always seek community.