This quote, from a political context, contains a challenge for us in the church as well:
"The only way to attract these new faces is through building real, ongoing relationships with others over a long period of time."
"We need to get re-acquainted with the notion that the relationships that really matter are not made through Twitter and social media. Real relationships take time to grow, and they begin with a genuine interest in the stories, dreams and challenges harbored within each of us."
-- Jeb Bush, speaking to his fellow Republicans at a recent CPAC dinner.
This begs a question: As we seek to connect with people via social media, how does this impact our desire to build authentic, grace-filled communities that care about the "stories, dreams and challenges" of others?
In some cases technology dictates the kind of interaction that you will have with a person (twitter is primarily a broadcast medium). That being said, social media is a tool, as is the telephone, pen and paper, and many others.
ReplyDeleteI was recently reminded of this as my 14 year old son was playing a chess game over the telephone with his 10 year old cousin who happens to live in Montana. Not so long ago, this would only have been affordable through letters, and probably wasn't done by very many.
I inferred in the above statement that the author feels that the use of social media is inherently at adds with building authentic grace-filled communities. Do I misunderstand?
I do agree that if we as a church have a goal, "to connect with people via social media", then we have a problem. Social media is just a tool. The goal should be "to connect with people", and social media should regularly come up as a tool in the list of tools we might try to use to do so (but only one of the tools).
Dave,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful reply. I personally don't think social media is at odds with building authentic relationships, but I don't know whether it's sufficient for fully knowing and connecting. That may be wrong; my 17-year-old maintains many relationships via text, IM, etc. It's a question I have.
I appreciate Dave's insight that our goal should be to connect with people, and that social media is a tool. Jesus Christ, after all was incarnate, not virtual, and the use of social media should be to invite people to be with each other. I find social media useful, but ultimately defective in terms of the ultimate goal of incarnate presence with each other.
ReplyDeleteJonathan