Faith and social media

I went to head Vicky Beeching at Greenbelt, who was very good, and there are some interesting issues that came from her talk.

She was talking about social media, and the importance of it. I was reading this week an interesting book, including the claim that people will take any sort of technology and use it for being social with. The core reason is that we are social beings - yes even the most antisocial geeks. SMS texts were originally included because they could be, and no-one thought anyone would use them.Today, there are billions of messages sent every day. People took a piece of technology, and used it to be social.

Some of the biggest and most heavily used web sites today are social networks - twitter and facebook in particular. Emails - ignoring the spam - are very heavily used, although the precise number that are "social", rather than strictly business is hard to identify. The internet - which is the most significant technological development of our age - is substantially used for socialisation.

Some people argue that all of this technology is depersonalising communication. I don't agree, although I understand the concern. The problem is not the technology, it is the people, who depersonalise the recipient of their comments. We should remember that, whatever, there is a real person on the other end of the message, and consider their feelings. I still struggle to understand the mentality of people whose only communication with particular people who they choose to follow on twitter is to be rude or offensive to them. If you don't like what they say, don't follow, and so don't listen. Seriously, your views are not that important.

My experience is that electronic communication can be very personal. It is possible to make friends - real friends, who care and pray and do what they can to help - within ever meeting them, but purely through social media. What is more, I think more and more people - especially, but not exclusively, younger people - will define their social interactions substantially though electronic means. Whether this is swapping mobile numbers, or finding each other on facebook, this form of interaction is often the first and most important way of cementing the start of a relationship.

That is why it irritates me when clergy and other church leaders shun the use of social media. Or, even worse, seek to control the use of it. The truth is, as I see it, that the church of the future will be a virtual church, where the core communication, interaction and organisation will be done through these networks. This is not to say that people will not meet up, but that this will be organised online, and it will be just a part of an ongoing interaction.

And interaction does not just mean setting up a twitter account to tell people what is going on. It mean engaging and listening at least as much as taking. Engaging, not controlling. That, I suspect, will be too much of a shock for some leaders.