Being and Becoming Virtually Religious

2012/03/27 By 1 Comment
faith communities today

“Virtually Religious: Technology and Internet Usage in American Congregations," the latest Faith Communities Today (FACT) report, provides insight into the current role of technology in churches by means of an aggregated data set that includes responses from over 11,000 congregations affiliated with over 120 denominations. Congregational use of technology continues to increase: During the most recent decade (2000-2010) congregational use of email and websites more than doubled: email Read More …

Filed Under: Trends Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Women Are Smarter Than Men

2012/03/01 By Leave a Comment
pew-privacy-social-networks-men-vs.-women

Jeff Bercovici's recent article on Forbes.com explains the key findings of the latest poll by the Pew Internet & American Life Project: When it comes to managing their social media profiles, women, on average, behave more like mature, responsible adults while men act like impulsive adolescents. Some of the gender differences include: Allow only friends to view content: two-thirds of women - less than half of men Have deleted people from network: 67% of women -  58% of men did Read More …

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: , , ,

No Longer Divided: Virtual and Real

2012/02/25 By Leave a Comment
Drescher

Elizabeth Drescher is the author of Tweet If You Love Jesus: Practicing Church in the Digital Reformation and co-author of the forthcoming Click 2 Save: The Digital Ministry Bible (2012).  In a recent guest post for Union Theological Seminary's New Media Project she provided one of the best brief explanations of the shifts in life on and off-line: Social media participation has clearly become a real part of the lives of almost every American in nearly every demographic grouping we might Read More …

Filed Under: Discipleship, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Social Media Interaction with Students

2011/11/19 By Leave a Comment
slant33

Earlier this week Slant33, a part of Barefoot Ministries, posted the responses of three youth ministry experts to the question: "Where do you draw the line on social media interaction with students? Why?"  The responses vary widely: D. Scott Miller, director of the Division of Youth and Young Adult Ministry of the Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore, has a personal policy to never friend anyone under the age of eighteen on Facebook.  Additionally, he believes this is the best policy for all Read More …

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Do You AudioBoo?

2011/10/22 By Leave a Comment

Earlier this week I discovered AudioBoo.  I invite you to listen to a two minute message I just created using that tool: My Initial Experience with AudioBoo (mp3) So What? AudioBoo seeks to "be the one platform you use when you want to record audio, share it or keep it safe for the future."  Currently you can record new content from your computer or iPhone, Android and Nokia devices.  Soon, you will also be able to do so using Blackberry and Windows Mobile. AudioBoo is an Read More …

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Reconnecting

2011/10/16 By Leave a Comment
friend

It used to be very unusual for me to hear from someone I had not communicated with in years.  Now, it occurs on a somewhat regular basis.  More often than not, these contacts occur because of (and often through) social media. It is easier than ever to reconnect with someone you lost touch with some time ago and for whom you no longer have accurate contact information.  The ease of finding and contacting someone means that some will leverage this opportunity for something apart from genuine Read More …

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From Social Media to Silence

2011/10/10 By Leave a Comment
silence outdoors

Each year a theme is selected for the Catholic Church’s World Social Communications Day: 2011: “Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age" 2012: “Silence and Word: Path of Evangelization” So What? While many found the pope's message this year to be progressive and thoughtful, next year's topic is the sort that could have been selected for any of the prior years in the day's forty-five year history.  However, according to a Catholic News Agency Read More …

Filed Under: Prayer, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , ,

Do Church Members View Your Website?

2011/10/06 By 2 Comments
PT Cover

In the July/August 2011 edition of Presbyterians Today, Joelle Anderson and Ida Smith-Williams wrote an article about trends in how Presbyterian congregations communicate digitally.  They reported on research that shows a significant increase, between 2001 and 2008, in the percentage of congregations who use e-mail and websites to communicate with members. So What? While congregations have moved toward websites, perhaps congregants have moved beyond them.  More specifically, while 63% Read More …

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Reflecting on 500 Blog Posts

2011/09/27 By Leave a Comment
500

In 2009, I moved from an observer to a participant in the growing world known as social media. In January, I joined Facebook.  Within a few months, I was logging in to Facebook several times a day. In May, I secured a domain name.  In June, I launched this blog.  Initially, I wrote a few posts a week In September, I joined Twitter.  Within a few months, I was tweeting several times a day. As I wind down my third year in social media, I recognize that statistics tell a very Read More …

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Review of The Church and New Media

2011/09/09 By 1 Comment
The_Church_and_New_Media

Meet the Authors Brandon Vogt is a Catholic layperson who blogs about theology, technology, social justice and books at ThinVeil.net.  Vogt contributes the text's introduction and conclusion while relying on authors with varied backgrounds and expertise to contribute the chapters:  Father Robert Barron, Jennifer Fulwiler, Marcel LeJeune, Mark P. Shea, Taylor Marshall, Father Dwight Longenecker, Scot Landry, Matt Warner, Lisa M. Hendey, Thomas Peters, Shawn Carney.  Additionally, the book Read More …

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