I was listening to radio 4’s technology show the other day and there was an article on young people and technology and one thing that stuck out was the comment that the reason adults struggle with new technology is that it breaks into our world and have we have the choice of interaction. However young people inhabit / live in the world of technology. It was the inhabiting word that struck me. There are lots of articles on how computers are changing the way we think, but I wonder now if as digital natives young people have already been socialised in different conceptual frameworks and if this is some of shaping factors the changing approach to commitment and faith.
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It is true that technology changes the way we think and perhaps even aspects of our worldview but we have to be careful not to give too much power to social media and technology.
There is an old computer programming phrase GIGO “Garbage in, Garbage out” In essence if you write in a programme – you get garbage out.
Technology can be embraced and used to engage with young people or it can have a negative impact… That perhaps is our challenge.
There is a whole question on whether social media is contributing to “shallow friendships” and the ability to delete friends.
That however is not new, its just different. We have always had friends at different levels. The nature of human beings is that we can’t be friends with everyone and even in our personal friendships we have people who may “journey with us through life” (which are few) and others that are on different levels.
Can technology change our commitment….Yes but it can be in either way. Technology allows me to communicate with you, although we have never met. We can debate, discuss, problem solve and support one another in ministry.
I can communicate and connect with mission partners, on different continents (at the same time even) and give them support and encouragement instantly. Years ago that could take weeks or months with letters. Other there is still a lot to be said about writing a letter of encouragement!!!
My church sent a bunch of teenagers (some as young as 14) to Zambia to help SU there. Technology has influenced them in that trip…Whether it was the plane that enabled them to get there quickly, or mobiles, skype, blogs or even social media for them to keep in touch with the people at home and now with the people they met, so the relationship can be developed and sustained.
Technology can have good as well as negative aspects….just like so many other things.
Our challenge as ever is engagement and making it a positive experience.
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Hi Tricia thanks for the comments I agree the potential is for good but the socialising effects of technology are interesting, a good example would be digital photography. Years ago photos helped people connect and remember a sense of place, a shared history they would be kept and treasured. Now for many photos are temporal and rarely printed out and often not even kept on the hard drive. They are shared in or shortly after the moment, usually via the web, or bluetoothed on a phone then deleted.
I would be interested to hear what people have done with the photos from the trip and relationships and particularly how these have deepened say in two or three years time and what has happened to the photos in three years time. I am not criticising the idea, you or the young people but I wonder if the feeling is of more connection but due to the ease of an email etc exactly how the relationship is moved on?
I suppose time will tell that …..not sure what the digital age brings that is new, maybe just different and whether that really alters the commitment. The fact its digital means people tend to take more pics and filter the bad ones. In the good old days you paid for processing and sometimes got duff pics.. lol.I also have some very dusty photo albums! Again its the nature of relationships rather than the digital age aspect. Some relationships are sustained, some are not….its always been that way.
I can think of leaders that I met on mission 20+ years ago that still keep in touch and others I have lost contact with. Likewise there are people I went to the missions with I have kept in contact with and others not.
Infact there are some I have re connected with recently via social media sites. Relationships take commitment and work, like faith. It has to be nurtured….not sure yo can “blame” technology for changing someones attitude to commitment and faith. Everyone makes choices and we can not say technology has that much power and influence over a persons mind.
Perhaps the notion of deleting, pics gives that harsh impression but our life experiences always leave an imprint.