Wired, Worries & Wonders: Technology & Soul

presentation by Adam Walker Cleaveland

Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, Palo AltoMarch 13, 2011

Me

• Husband

• Pastor

• Blogger

• Designer

• Social Media Consultant

• Gadget Geek

Wonders & Worries?This will help frame our conversation this morning.

Wired: Technology – It just is.

• This is the water we’re swimming in - it’s not going away

• Technology changes at a rapid pace

• This isn’t a new conversation

• Technology expands our world

• Use & moderation will look different for everyone

• Nothing should get in the way of our calling to love God & love others, whether that’s technology or anything else

The air we breathe...

The Today Show - 1994: “What is internet?”

• “What is Internet” Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUs7iG1mNjI

Web 1.0 & Web 2.0: What’s the difference?

• Static content

• Enhancing knowledge

• Information download

• Little to no interaction

• Users are passive recipients of information

• FINDING

• Dynamically generated content

• Enhancing creativity

• Information sharing

• Collaboration

• Users are required to engage with information, create it

• CREATING & SHARING

Did You Know 4.0

• “Did You Know 4.0” video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

Wonders: Creativity, Connection & Collaboration

Creativity...

Pomplamoose covers Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”

• Pomplamoose: http://www.youtube.com/PomplamooseMusic

• Single Ladies cover: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIr8-f2OWhs

Connection...

• Example: Connecting with members of church

• New communities are formed

• Deeper connection are made within already existing communities

• Connection with the world: Iran, Egypt, Japan...

Ambient Awareness

"They call it “ambient awareness.” It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does — body language, sighs, stray comments — out of the corner of your eye. This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating." (source link)

Collaboration...

Collaboration...

• Wikipedia is more accurate.

• New ways of working together

• Open-source preaching

• Liturgy & worship that truly are “the work of the people”

• Is our worship & ministry operating from a 1.0 world mindset or a 2.0 world...?

Web 1.0 & Web 2.0: What’s the difference?

• Static content

• Enhancing knowledge

• Information download

• Little to no interaction

• Users are passive recipients of information

• FINDING

• Dynamically generated content

• Enhancing creativity

• Information sharing

• Collaboration

• Users are required to engage with information, create it

• CREATING & SHARING

Worries: Privacy & Too Much?

Privacy...

• Young people often don’t get this

• Once it’s out there, it’s out there

• Must know & understand privacy settings on social networks

• Privacy connected to safety

• Caveat: Publicness is good

Jeff Jarvis on “Publicness”

“In Public Parts, I’ll argue, as I have here, that in our current privacy mania we are not talking enough about the value of publicness. If we default to private, we risk losing the value of the connections the internet brings: meeting people, collaborating with them, gathering the wisdom of our crowd, and holding the powerful to public account. Yes, I believe we have a right and need to protect our privacy – to control our information and identities – but I also want the conversation and our decisions to include consideration of the value of sharing and linking. I also want to protect what’s public as a public good; that includes our internet. We have plenty of privacy advocates. I want to be a publicness advocate.” (source link)

Just too much...?

• Facebook friends

• Pre-school reunion???

• Relationships used to last for seasons, not we carry them all with us

• Too much sharing? Potential for narcissism?

• Always connected

• Smartphones in bedrooms?81.5% said YES

So where do we go from here?

#1: Enjoy it!

• We live in an EXCITING time

• Embrace the awesomeness

• Use technology for good

• Connect with and help out other people

• Get creative

#2: Vibrate: OFF

• Spiritual direction

• Make yourself “unavailable”

• There was life before smartphones

• Rejoice in the WIFI connections that go down

• Connect with God (whatever that looks like for you) and not with others

#3: Be aware.

• Work on your awareness

• Use common sense

• You will know - or your spouse/partner/child will let you know

• Notice when it’s becoming a distraction to your spirituality and connection with God

Questions & Responses

Sources

• New York Times article: “I’m So Totally, Digitally, Close to You”http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/magazine/07awareness-t.html

• “What is Internet” Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUs7iG1mNjI

• Pomplamoose: http://www.youtube.com/PomplamooseMusic

• Jeff Jarvis & “Public Parts”http://thefastertimes.com/mediaandtech/2010/05/20/jeff-jarvis-we-have-plenty-of-

privacy-advocates-i-want-to-be-a-publicness-advocate/

• “Did You Know 4.0” video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

Wired, Worries & Wonders: Technology & Soul

Connect with me here:

Email: cleave@gmail.comFacebook: facebook.com/adamwcTwitter: @adamwcWeb: www.adamwc.comSlides available here: www.slideshare.net/adamwc