The Internet & My Faith Formation
Earlier this week I spent 2 days on a Scripture Union on a residential for associate trust workers and we spent some time exploring the idea of ministry in a digital age and in doing so looked at how the current generation are growing up in a world where they don’t remember not having computers or mobile phones.
If I’m honest I think I probably join this group of digital natives (as they call them). We got our first home PC when I was about 8 but we’d always had computers at school up until that point and now my life is fully wired thanks to a collection of devices and websites.
However in all the thinking about this digital world I was reflecting on some of my own experiences of technology and faith.
Of course back when I was 16/7 Facebook didn’t exist…Bebo and Myspace did but neither did a huge amount however the most exciting place for me to be online was the Norwich Youth for Christ forum. In fact many of the people on that forum are people I still keep in contact with today.
As a young person exploring faith the NYFC forum gave me a place I could ask questions and explore ideas in a safe place (thanks to the moderators who lurked around keeping everything nice and friendly and sharing their wisdom) and I can truly reflect now and appreciate the chance it gave me to ask things that in all fairness I may have never got an opportunity to ask at youth group (so thank you Mark Tuma!).
But what role does the internet have on the faith formation of young people today?
My main critique of Facebook is that it’s stole traffic! The NYFC forum and CROPS Forum (which I helped to start in my gap year and eventually close a few years back) got quieter and quieter. I guess the novelty of hanging out somewhere online has gone and whilst I can’t fault Facebook for moving people I do feel like that opportunity to ask questions online has gone because even the discussion threads on Facebook don’t get used a huge amount.
Some ideas…
I still believe the internet has a huge role to play in the faith formation on young people. The answer to every question can be found on google but this is risky so is there a place youth workers and young people can engage in faith conversation? Here’s a couple of ideas;
Formspring – Whilst fairly annoying I think youth workers can use the opportunity to link it to Facebook and encourage young people to ask questions anonymously on it…it’s got potential but probably not for real discussion.
Facebook Page and Status – Perhaps the simple answer is to post a question on your Facebook page and wait for the comments…is this what detached youth work on Facebook looks like? (probably not)
Forum – Is the web forum really dead? I’m a little bit tempted to create one and find out!
Anymore thoughts?
Upon the recommendation of youth work magazine I’ve been tuning in to several episodes of Channel 4′s ‘The Joy of Teen Sex’; a TV show which aims to discuss teen sex problems and experiences using a team of experts in an open an honest way using their ‘sex shop’.
I hate the majority of Christmas carols…in fact sit me in a carol service and I’ll stay quiet for a majority of the lyrics or moan about the theology (or lack of) behind them!