This is a follow-up to my previous post: social media church
If this is the new world in which we live, how then might church change? How does this affect spirituality?
h/t to my e-friend Lori Deschene who writes:
“It’s easier than ever to reach a large audience, but harder than ever to connect with it.”
Of course it’s hard to connect with an audience that’s consuming so much media on a day-to-day basis.
A few other numbers I found:
- At the rate we’re producing digital content, about 99.93% of it will not be read or used by anyone.
- Jonathan Spira, Chief analyst at business research firm Basex estimates that lost productivity due to multitasking (emails, websites, etc) costs the US economy roughly $650 billion annually.
- According to an IDC survey, people now spend 32.7 hours per week online–equivalent to half the time they spend on all media (70.6 hours). That’s 10 hours a day on average.
- In a study of 18,000 people, Dave N. Greenfield of The Center for Internet Behavior–in conjunction with ABC News–found that 29% of respondents go online to “alter their mood or escape on a regular basis.”
Reid Goldsborough of Information Today suggests we’ve entered a state of “continuous partial attention” in response to information overload. He further explains that as the level of information input increases, our capacity to process and retain that information decreases.
Technological innovation is changing the way people behave – how are we responding? How could we participate and respond?
As a good Anglican I can only begin my response by saying, “Yes, and …”
People who have never before had an opportunity to “publish” their own work are being able to do so due to affordable and ubiquitous technology. Within this group are, I would assume, people publishing content for their own gratification and personal use rather than for mass public consumption. It follows, that, with so many more people willing to become part of the “pool” (a critical mass) some of those “hidden talents” will be realized, shared, and make a difference to others.
Multitasking is not a novel work ethic created by the internet. Observe any mother (or stay at home Dad)of small children. They are some of the most productive “types” I know. To me, loss of productivity and the significant development of internet applications is a counterintuitive correlation.
I wonder why it matters how much time people now spend ingesting media “online” vs. “offline.” If I listen to NPR podcasts or livestreaming vs on the radio, does the mode change the quality of the content? When we replaced exchanging gold coins for paper currency for checks for online transfers, is the value exchange diminished?
In conclusion, is it possible that rather than saying “more is better/worse” it is fairer to say “more is different.” The question raises the issue of organizing via indexing, tagging, etc… to enable connections, enable community-buiding. This, to me, is the extraordinary opportunity for the Church to provide leadership in the secular world. We’ve been in the community-building, discipleship business for a long, long time!
Thanks for the post. Sorry my comment is so long. I wish Lori D would read Clay Shirky’s *Here Comes Everybody,* Seth Godin’s *Tribes,* and Chris Brogan’s *Trust Agents.* I’ll be writing about these same topics on my blog http://www.sarahgbennett.MyWonderings
I’ve had a web page for 11 years now.(Onemansweb.org) I’ve contacted people I would never have contacted. But as for creating relationships?
One friend I’d never met; we correspond regularly
Several friends with whom I catch up more often
Fifty or sixty people who’ve emailed me over that time with a note of thanks or a question, and I’ve never heard from them again.
But still worth it; they would never have read what I wrote otherwise, and maybe it helped, just like all the pages I’ve read over the years.
It’s a bit like church on Sundays, really. Apart from a very few people, I have no idea what impact my preaching has. And it’s to far fewer people. Andrew