A few years ago, all the youth ministry buzz was around connecting to students through social networking devices. At the youth ministry conferences, you could attend sessions on "Building Your Ministry Through Facebook" and other such "connecting points" with students. It seems as though that balloon has been deflated. I wonder why?
Well I think I know why. I think the bottom line with social networking devices and teens is they use them because they are there, but deep down that is not the sort of community they are looking for.
Andrew Zirschky, a PhD candidate at Princeton Theological Seminary who is focusing his studies on teens and technology says that a total embrace of technology to be "incarnational" is not a true theological response. It's not theological because it tells us nothing of ourselves, God, and the world. It simply provides another vehicle to communicated and "connect".
Andrew goes onto to say that was students really long for is not connection, rather it is communion. Communion that is exemplified in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and expressed when Christians are gathered.
This is a reality that I think is important to sit with. Instead of embracing technology, perhaps we should be more thoughtful and listen to what is happening to understand what God might be doing in it. I do believe that through social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace, God is using the culture to remind us that there is shallow community being built out in the world. What we as the Church can cultivate is deep community.
Have you thought about the "theological reasoning" behind why you use social networking sites? Is it good or bad theology?
