Filtering - a comment on #cnmac14

I visited Mary Arden's farm just outside Stratford-upon-Avon last week and while I was there listened to a falconer give a talk about owls accompanied by a cute Barn Owl and a rather intimidating Eagle Owl. One of the fascinating pieces of information she shared was that a Barn Owl can hear a mouse's heartbeat from 40 feet away and detect a mouse moving in the grass from 100 feet. Now gathered around the falconer and owl were about forty of us humans with hearts much bigger than a mouse's so the question was asked 'How can an owl detect the mouse with all the other noises around her in the wild?'.  The answer given was that an owl has to filter out all the extraneous sound to focus on her prey otherwise she would be driven crazy by all the other sounds she can detect.

On Saturday I was still on leave but followed a Twitter stream of comments from the Christian New Media Conference #CNMAC14 which I wasn't able to attend. I was also watching a football match while keeping an eye on Facebook and my Twitter timeline. Safari was open with several tabs including various news media outlets and sports feeds along with my blog with its attendant list of posts I follow from other bloggers. I avoided looking at my email in-box which had an 'out of office' message set up. The question I found myself reflecting on as I did all this is what stops us from going mad listening to, or seeing and reading, all this digital noise? The answer has to be filtering.

We filter out all the extraneous noise both consciously and unconsciously. I was following a hashtag Twitter stream which focused my attention on the conference, until the hashtag was hijacked for a while. I selected the digital media outlets I was interested in. My Facebook timeline is limited to a few people who I know personally in comparison to my Twitter timeline with the 873 profiles I follow. Within that timeline I can select lists of particular subjects related to my job and interests. As for the T.V., well for years I've made use of a digital recorder and watch more recorded programmes of interest than material broadcast in 'real' time. The football match I had on T.V. 'live' between Newcastle and Liverpool was boring, so I subconsciously filtered out most of what I was watching and nearly all of the vacuous nonsense being spouted by summariser Robbie Savage.

Filtering and focus are skills humans have always had to develop in order to survive and function in life, just like the Barn Owl, and that is no less true in a multi media digital age. The challenge is what we discipline ourselves to filter out and focus on. If we don't get that right then unlike the owl we'll miss out on the real meat.

USB typewriter

Up and down the land in many church vestries and clergy studies still lurks that once essential but now obsolete piece of office equipment, the typewriter. Do not fear, for just as you were tempted to dump the apparently useless piece of outmoded technology comes news of redemption. So now we can cling to the past while embracing the present and watch as parish administrators despair and secretaries throw themselves off the nearest cliff. And there are still some colleagues who have never forsaken the typewriter, convinced that, along with the ubiquitous Filofax, it is an intrinsic part of one's vocation conferred at ordination along with the Bible.

The USB Typewriter is a new and ground breaking innovation in the field of obsolescence.  Lovers of the look, feel, and quality of old fashioned manual typewriters can now use them as keyboards for any USB-capable computer, such as a PC, Mac, or even iPad!  The modification is easy to install, it involves no messy wiring, and does not change the outward appearance of the typewriter (except for the usb adapter itself, which is mounted in the rear of the machine).  So the end result is a retro-style USB keyboard that not only looks great, but feels great to use.  

Directions in a digital age

I took the dog for a walk this morning as we continued our attempt to map out the local area. I can assure my parishioners that I don't 'map' the land in the same way that Bramble does. As usual we got lost. Just an innocent left turn up an innocuous looking path and a few strides later we found ourselves disorientated. I have no sense of direction and the dog simply follows his nose, usually to the nearest message from a fellow canine.

Eventually we came to a clearing and two landmarks were visible above the trees, a church spire and a communications mast. Living in the birth place of radio there are plenty of masts around including one huge redundant construction visible from our bedroom which has a preservation order on it. The church spire is that of St. Mary's where I am Rector and the mast is in a field on the edge of the parish. So we headed for the spire and soon arrived home.


As I used the spire for our direction home I remembered that I had my mobile phone with me and I could easily have conjured up a map which would have displayed my current position and given me directions home. It got me thinking about the changes and challenges facing the church in the digital age.

For generations the church spire has been the most visible landmark in the area, a symbol of permanence and continuity in a rapidly changing world. Now the communications mast rivals it as a marker on the landscape. In some places churches have allowed a mobile phone mast to be sited on the spire or tower, usually for financial reasons, while others have steadfastly refused to succumb to the inducements of the communications companies. I'm not sure what I think about this, though I understand the financial pressures facing some congregations that have influenced their decision.

However, I am convinced of one thing; the church cannot afford to leave the digital world outside the Christian community. It is essential for the church's mission and ministry that we embrace the digital world of communications and social media if we are to engage with the realities of our age.

I'm writing this blog from my iPad, a wonderful gift from my friends and colleagues in the diocese when I left my lay education and training role a couple of months ago. This little marvel has 3G and wifi, applications for just about everything I need in terms of running my office and a plethora of tools and resources including the Bible and various liturgies. It doesn't replace key aspects of my role like listening, praying and speaking with people face to face but it does enhance a lot of what I do.

So my question is this: Are we going to keep the digital world at arms length, on the margins of our life and witness, like the mast on the edge of the parish? Or are we going to embrace the digital realities of the world we live in both offline and online; placing the church and the Gospel we proclaim at it's centre, not uncritically but with Spirit led discernment and wisdom?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Phone box or mobile?

There was a very interesting observation made at a church leadership conference last week which I picked up via a re-tweet from Pete Phillips on Twitter:

We are standing at the phone kiosk in the age of the mobile phone.

This powerful image has been buzzing round my head for the last few days and triggering all sorts of thoughts. I realise that the image relates to the church’s relationship with modernity and post modernity, however, one thing in particular occurs to me and it is linked in with the season of Lent. In the lead up to Ash Wednesday I noticed several people on both Twitter and Facebook saying they would be giving up using these social media networks for Lent. The question that this raises for me is:

Do we still regard social media networks as optional, a luxury and an indulgence even, or are they an essential aspect of communication and community in the culture we inhabit?

This is a serious question because my impression is that many in the church still regard forms of digital communication as an add on, something extra that can be engaged with or not as a matter of personal preference.  I am amazed at how many people regard me as an oddity as a blogging, tweeting member of the clergy. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve had to preface comments in a meeting with an explanation of the main forums for social networking because people have that blank expression of incomprehension on their faces.

I understand why some are still suspicious of social media networks and forms of digital communication. I appreciate the reasons why some have decided to disengage for a period of time. Blogging can become an obsession; more about the blogger and their status, influence and statistics, than about what is being communicated or discussed. Twitter can come across as another form of displacement activity. There is a danger that Facebook looks like any other forum for frittering time away, gossiping and, sadly, even cruel bullying. I recognise that some people can become so caught up in their online relationships that they are in danger of ignoring those they are in physical community with, including family and friends.

Yet, these criticisms are not about the medium, they are about the uses to which these networks are put by the user. Why have people not considered giving up speaking, listening, reading and writing for forty days? Are the only valid forms of enrichment and refreshment during Lent verbal face to face contact and pre internet forms of communication and cultural expression? The questions sound flippant but they are sincere.

The Social Network

Not since Closer have I seen a film with such an unpleasant cast of characters, only this time the film was worth watching.

The Social Network recounts the origins of Facebook and the legal wrangles over who invented and contributed to developing the social media phenomenon. The genius of Aaron Sorkin’s script and David Fincher’s direction is that such an obnoxious group of individuals could make compelling viewing. The story of Facebook is recounted in a non-linear montage of scenes mainly focusing on legal depositions between the protagonists. This could have been both confusing and boring, however, no one makes people talking at breakneck speed in small rooms more interesting than Sorkin. We are taken into the world of Facebook from three different perspectives and the ambiguities about who is telling the truth and what really went on are never resolved and the viewer is left to draw their own conclusions.

The central performances from Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Garfield playing his best (only) friend Eduardo Saverin are convincing and the recognition coming the way of the actors is well deserved. Justin Timberlake is impressive with his portrayal of Sean Parker, founder of Napster, and he commits wholeheartedly to making Parker as unpleasant as possible. The supporting actors are all up to the mark and Armie Hammer as the Winklevoss twins, who claimed Zuckerberg had stolen their idea, captures a sense of arrogant entitlement perfectly. All of this simply reinforces feelings of admiration and disgust that such a group of individuals could have made themselves so unimaginably wealthy.

At the end of a very enjoyable couple of hours I was left with one overriding thought that we forget at our peril. Everyone involved in Facebook is looking for the best way to make the product as successful and ubiquitous as possible. So those of us who complain when Facebook changes privacy settings, location information or links to other companies, products and services need to remember that these guys aren’t in it to serve our interests. Zuckerberg and co. aren’t interested in creating a social network, they are interested in making Facebook the biggest beast in the digital jungle and the message of the film is that they are prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve that end.

Now I’m off to double check those privacy settings on my Facebook profile.

Tweet If You Heart Jesus

A few weeks ago my blog post on the Pope and the digital age was picked up by Religion Dispatches thanks to Dr Elizabeth Drescher. In checking out Elizabeth’s work I was interested to learn that she has written a book called Tweet If You ♥Jesus. The book is published later this year and the blurb describes it in the following terms:

From an emerging scholar and writer on contemporary spirituality comes a fascinating exploration of new social media and religion that connects ancient and medieval wisdom to the digitally-integrated practice of faith by believers and seekers today. In Elizabeth Drescher’s Tweet If You ♥Jesus, ministry leaders will learn how changes in everyday communication have begun to reshape how we relate to one another, how we form and sustain communities, and what that means for churches and other religious organizations that hope to enrich and extend their service and become more relevant in the world today.

I was particularly interested in some of the quotes from the book which reflect on the opportunities and challenges afforded the church by social media.

The Church is at a critical juncture as it attempts to respond to dramatic cultural changes related to new mobile, digital social media. Some of those changes are wonderfully liberating, inviting creative involvement in the practice of faith and the nurturing of community by believers and seekers of all stripes around the globe. Others, such as the restructuring of concepts of privacy, self-presentation, and relationship that seem to undermine notions of interpersonal, communal, and spiritual intimacy that are at the heart of much Christian practice, feel more troubling. Threatening, even.

I like the suggestion that a way forward may include drawing on the riches of the Christian tradition, particularly the practices of religious communities in relation to the emerging social networks.

New digital communication practices provide the opportunity to share the riches of ancient and medieval Christian traditions that ground much of mainline religious practice while also opening our churches to the diverse spiritual perspectives of the many believers and seekers who, while they may not wear an Episcopalian or Lutheran or Presbyterian badge on their sleeves, are nonetheless engaged by religious questions as they respond to the challenges of life in the wired world today.

There is also challenge in this book and a timely warning for ministers who want to embrace the possibilities of the new forms of communication and interaction.

If we get annoyed when the Facebook advertising automatons don't know us well enough, imagine how it feels when our priest or pastor keeps posting or tweeting stuff that betrays no understanding of who we are or who we hope to be.

All good thought provoking material and I look forward to reading more when the book is published. I’ll finish with a final quote which has got me thinking and I look forward to engaging with the thesis in more depth.

The counter-intuitive reality is that without digital social media, it would be impossible…for leaders in ministry to so richly witness to the significance of face-to-face relationship and grounded spiritual presence.

Benedict getting digital

Apparently this is the 45th World Day of Social Communications and Pope Benedict XVI has issued his message Truth, Proclamation and Authenticity of Life in the Digital Age.
It is difficult to read the statement online as I have an aversion to Times New Roman type face on a light brown speckled background. It doesn’t help that I have a 22inch wide screen monitor that makes dense paragraphs of text almost impenetrable. The language of the message is also rather stilted but that may be more to do with the translation.

Nevertheless, the message has some interesting and challenging points to make and is very upbeat. Here is what the Pope says about the opportunities that digital media makes possible.

The new technologies are not only changing the way we communicate, but communication itself, so much so that it could be said that we are living through a period of vast cultural transformation. This means of spreading information and knowledge is giving birth to a new way of learning and thinking, with unprecedented opportunities for establishing relationships and building fellowship.

I’m not sure how ‘new’ these technologies are as they’ve been around for quite a while. I guess viewed from the ancient confines of the Vatican new is a relative term.

The Pope goes on to remind his readers that the medium is there to serve humanity not the other way round.

As with every other fruit of human ingenuity, the new communications technologies must be placed at the service of the integral good of the individual and of the whole of humanity. If used wisely, they can contribute to the satisfaction of the desire for meaning, truth and unity which remain the most profound aspirations of each human being.

There are several mentions of what are perceived to be problems with digital communication.

The clear distinction between the producer and consumer of information is relativized and communication appears not only as an exchange of data, but also as a form of sharing. This dynamic has contributed to a new appreciation of communication itself, which is seen first of all as dialogue, exchange, solidarity and the creation of positive relations. On the other hand, this is contrasted with the limits typical of digital communication: the one-sidedness of the interaction, the tendency to communicate only some parts of one’s interior world, the risk of constructing a false image of oneself, which can become a form of self-indulgence.

Entering cyberspace can be a sign of an authentic search for personal encounters with others, provided that attention is paid to avoiding dangers such as enclosing oneself in a sort of parallel existence, or excessive exposure to the virtual world. In the search for sharing, for "friends", there is the challenge to be authentic and faithful, and not give in to the illusion of constructing an artificial public profile for oneself.

I don’t think Benedict is right to say that digital communication is a one-sided interaction; it can be but it does not need to be. I do agree that there is the danger of presenting a false image of oneself. He also has a challenging question which deserves attention for Christians engaging with social media.

Who is my "neighbour" in this new world? Does the danger exist that we may be less present to those whom we encounter in our everyday life? Is there is a risk of being more distracted because our attention is fragmented and absorbed in a world "other" than the one in which we live? Do we have time to reflect critically on our choices and to foster human relationships which are truly deep and lasting? It is important always to remember that virtual contact cannot and must not take the place of direct human contact with people at every level of our lives.

I was interested in the Pope’s suggestion that there is a distinctively Christian way of maintaining an online presence.

It follows that there exists a Christian way of being present in the digital world: this takes the form of a communication which is honest and open, responsible and respectful of others. To proclaim the Gospel through the new media means not only to insert expressly religious content into different media platforms, but also to witness consistently, in one’s own digital profile and in the way one communicates choices, preferences and judgements that are fully consistent with the Gospel, even when it is not spoken of specifically. Furthermore, it is also true in the digital world that a message cannot be proclaimed without a consistent witness on the part of the one who proclaims it. In these new circumstances and with these new forms of expression, Christian are once again called to offer a response to anyone who asks for a reason for the hope that is within them (cf. 1 Pet 3:15).

What most appealed to me in the message was the acknowledgement that the digital world is part of human life and therefore needs to be embraced. This is a very affirming observation for those of us wanting to take engagement seriously.

I would like then to invite Christians, confidently and with an informed and responsible creativity, to join the network of relationships which the digital era has made possible. This is not simply to satisfy the desire to be present, but because this network is an integral part of human life. The web is contributing to the development of new and more complex intellectual and spiritual horizons, new forms of shared awareness. In this field too we are called to proclaim our faith that Christ is God, the Saviour of humanity and of history, the one in whom all things find their fulfilment (cf. Eph 1:10).

And there is a reminder that in this area, as in all aspects of human activity, how we engage is itself an important witness to the Gospel we seek to proclaim.

The proclamation of the Gospel requires a communication which is at once respectful and sensitive, which stimulates the heart and moves the conscience; one which reflects the example of the risen Jesus when he joined the disciples on the way to Emmaus (cf. Lk 24:13-35). By his approach to them, his dialogue with them, his way of gently drawing forth what was in their heart, they were led gradually to an understanding of the mystery.

One of my reservations about the Pope’s take on this subject is his assumption that digital communication and social media are primarily the preserve of the young. Perhaps his emphasis is dictated by his focus on the upcoming World Youth Day in Madrid. I hope it isn’t a reflection of an ignorance in the corridors of the Vatican that people of all ages are engaging in these networks. However, I want to be positive about the statement and finish with the Pope’s concluding remarks.

In the final analysis, the truth of Christ is the full and authentic response to that human desire for relationship, communion and meaning which is reflected in the immense popularity of social networks. Believers who bear witness to their most profound convictions greatly help prevent the web from becoming an instrument which depersonalizes people, attempts to manipulate them emotionally or allows those who are powerful to monopolize the opinions of others. On the contrary, believers encourage everyone to keep alive the eternal human questions which testify to our desire for transcendence and our longing for authentic forms of life, truly worthy of being lived. It is precisely this uniquely human spiritual yearning which inspires our quest for truth and for communion and which impels us to communicate with integrity and honesty.