“We’re alone in public…”

  In the most recent issue of Time Magazine, Mark Dery, author and cultural critic, observes:

“A lot of technologies, such as Flickr, blogging and the iPod, seek to turn the psyche inside out, to extrude the private self into the public sphere.  You have people walking down the street listening to iPods , seemingly oblivious to the world, singing.  More and more, we’re alone in public.” 

After spending a long thought-provoking day at GodBlogCon 05, I have been churning in my head about how excited a group of bloggers were to actually put down our laptops and talk to each other (with lots of coincidental live blogging, of course).  The conversation about blogging and Christian Community ultimately brought us back to both genius and the limitation with the blogosphere: we can “connect” but not touch, we can talk but not see, we can hear without knowing. 

Most of us were far more impacted by conversation, handshakes and lunches together than by anything we have written or read so far.  And part of our excitement is recognizing and embracing the limitations of blogging.  For, example, part of what we realized is that we all continue to need more diversity, more interaction, more voices, more relationship, not less. 

In the same article, David Brooks wonders if the internet is actually hindering what he calls “demographic diversity” even while it helps create more “geographic diversity”: “There once were millions of people in Elks Clubs and Elks Clubs were incredibly diverse.  These days, with say, online dating, you can screen people who aren’t demographically like yourself.”

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins said that organizations who wish to leave an enduring legacy need to recognize that technology is nothing more or nothing less than an “accelator” of the core values, vision and beliefs of a group.  Or as Esther Dyson, said: “The internet is like alcohol in some sense.  It accentuates what you would do anyway. You can be a loner or you can connect.”

What was reinforced for me at the conference and reiterated by suggestions like Bill Rice’s is that genuine Christian community, discipleship and cultural transformation cannot be brought about through any technical medium if the commitment to Christian community, discipleship, and transformation are not the “hardware” that is at the core of all we do. 

As someone deeply committed to enhancing healthy, faithful, missional Christian communities, I need to keep thinking about both the potential and problems of this technology, with this one clear conviction: Blogging is not an answer, but a tool.

Tomorrow, I'll leave GodBlogCon behind and jump back into more reflections on Becoming a Kingdom Community.

Comments

[Bill Rice]

Pastor Tod,

You put into words in a much clearer way, what I was thinking and working through post GodBlogCon.

Blogging and the internet are like you say, tools, or a means to an ends, but not an end in itself.

I ordered the Jim Collins book today, the workbook (download from Amazon in PDF actually) and another of Mr. Collins books. They sound like though provoking reading.

Bloggings greatest strength is the ability to express ideas globally and instantly in writing at an execptionally low cost. Its greatest weakness is that is does not come with a warm cup of tea or coffee and a new friend across the table from you talking about their ideas and life.

Kind regards,

Bill Rice

[Glenn]

Tod,
Amen. Emodiment, embodiment, embodiment. I enjoy being in the blog realm, but nothing in it trumps embodiment outside of it.

I've started to question things I used to take for granted, like screens in worship, and video campuses for worship. If I'm visiting a church that projects an image of the pastor on huge screens, I watch the pastor intently, not his mediated image. In discussing this, friends call me crazy-- "communication" happens better when you can see the pastor's face clearly on the big screen. Maybe I'm just clinging to consistency, trying to privilege the embodied reality of the preacher over the mediated image. But give me embodied reality any day.

[No King But Jesus]

In the most recent issue of Time Magazine, Mark Dery, author and cultural critic, observes:

“A lot of technologies, such as Flickr, blogging and the iPod, see to turn the psyche inside out, to extrude the private self into the public sphere. You have people walking down the street listening to iPods , seemingly oblivious to the world, singing. More and more, we’re alone in public.”

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

No, no, no...those people singing to iPods in public don't imagine themselves to be alone. Not for one minute. They are performing! That's the whole gig, don't ya see. Same with C-phones. To have a phone conversation on the subway, with 20 people held hostage to your self-importance, is the glory of every wanna-be movie star or pop artist in the country. It's all a show, don't ya see. That's what American culture is...an everyone-look-at-me show. And Christians are no different at all.

And it's why most people blog as well. The best bloggers are simply trying to advance what they believe to be in the best interests of God's Kingdom and church, but for many it is a performance. People want attention, and if they have writing skills, they blog to get it.

Alone in public? Are you kidding me? The public square has become a ubiquitous stage for every wanna-be performer out there. And the modern American citizen is little more than that...a small souled performer in search of attention. From teenage girls to Madison Ave executives they are all the same.

And Christians are little different.

[DLE]

Tod,

First time poster to your blog. We were mentioned in the same sentence over at 21st Century Reformation.

Have you read Eric Brende's Better Off? Although it does not pruport to be a spiritual tome, Brende does a great job noting how technology is distracting us from true community. Much to think about there.

I've written extensively on this issue of true Christian community over at my blog Cerulean Sanctum. Would love to trade thoughts.

Blessings.

[Paula Masters]

If you know any Christian women that are going through a trial or hurting please have them check out www.TSMwomen.org

[Ben]

No King: You have a very reductionist, pessimist view of blogging. I think your opinion, while valid, is oxymoronic in that you chose to express your apparent disdain for blogging via that method. I think there is more to blogging than ego stroking.

[mark swanson]

I came back from GBC posting similar thoughts. The incarnation has to inform our lifestyles. OTOH, blogging is no more impersonal than books or radio so it is a valid tool, just as this conversation is a meaningful exchange.

[Bill Rice]

King,

I have to disagree with your view as a generalization and side with Ben. Blogging is often contributing back to an online community. It takes a person's time, costs money except for the select few top bloggers, and requires, if done properly a great deal of thought.

At GodBlogCon, Pastor Tod spoke on writing items of passion to him, like Christianity and the environment and bringing change to AIDS ravaged Africa that didn't help his hit count. He wrote about them because they are personal areas of concern to him. I think most bloggers write about their interests, hoping others will find something mutual in the discussion.
Blogging is one of several mediums, but I don't think it should be described as a performace. Hopefully it can sow some seeds of greater community by challenging people with new ideas, information and different personalities.

Kind regards,

Bill Rice

[Charlie]

In the South where I grew up there is an old tradition of testifying before the church about what God has done in your life. I can remember many services where men and women stood and shared with the group about an answered prayer or an insight from the Word, and these testimonies were how we acknowledged that the living God was transforming each of us, and the church, in real-time.

One of the ways that I am edified by blogging is that I have an opportunity to testify before the church gathered on the internet. And as I do so, as in all such situations where we have our hearts open to what God might be saying, those who are listening may well be touched by the Spirit through my words.

It's absolutely true that we must seek face-to-face community. I worry about those (too often young men) who seem to become lost in the online world and never come up for air. But perhaps blogging is one of the ways that God will spread leaven throughout the internet. I hope so.

[brad]

I 100% agree. I would like to do a project or magazine type thing where, we do more testimony and reflection. The blog benefit is that the technology requires no capital so it is accessible to poor folk like me.

Also, obviously, the opportunity to have influence is available to the little guy too. BUT the lesson is that to create real momentum requires community and teamwork. Blogging is a fluid means to network but without real network over real vision and a real hardware on the ground what really is the point. Great thought, Tod.

[Rhett Smith]

Tod,

I think a lot of us bloggers, are asking the same questions. I just posted today, without even reading your post, a little about the importance of not forsaking to meet together (Hebrews 10:25), and how technology can really be a temptation to forgo true fellowship and community, but can never truly be a substitute. We tend to lose a sense of our own humanity in the process.

[Frank Johnson]

Tod:

Thanks for a thought-provoking post. I've thought a lot about the fact that many people, while more and more connected virtually, are actually more and more alone. I think that people in Western society are becoming more and more alienated from each other, withdrawing into their own cocoon of influences. Your language - connected by not touching, talking but not seeing, hearing without knowing - really sums it up.

But while technology cannot create community in itself (I think it can supplement and enhance community which already exists), I do think modern-day technology gives us a unique opportunity to introduce believers to authentic Christian community.

It will take a shift in our thinking about the best use of the internet, but I am sensing rumblings in a good direction.

In order for the internet to serve as a bridge between the physically disconnected lives of society (many in today's society are becoming more virtually connected but are becoming physically disconnected by losing the depth of face-to-face relationships which are more real) and authentic Christian community (of the face-to-face kind).

In order to accomplish this, we will need to start thinking locally, because that's where authentic Christian community of the face-to-face kind is lived out.

And so, the question for me is how can we use the internet to facilitate local, face-to-face relationships between unbelievers and believers.

That's my passion.

Frank

[Sue Arnold]

Your post relates to a conversation in my neck of the blog-woods. Hope you dont mind I link to this wonderful post.

-Susan