MNB- Monday Night Blogging

I figured that the MNF might be over with (yet still there is football on Monday nights, go figure) but the MNB is just starting for us.

I have to say that the more that I am reading this Flickering Pixels book by Shane Hipps, the more I am seeing this author as more of an 'internet is an entity' type of lad (thanks Haley for helping me find a good l-word). The chapters we were assigned to read tonight focus on a few technological marvels and how they changed the way we used technology (the telegraph and camera to be specific) but more and more I am drawn to his prior profession.

Hipps is by former profession a marketing chap. I wonder if his former profession really has had an impact on the way that he views technology.

In class this morning we seemed to agree for the most part that all technology is really a tool that can be used by every culture for its improvement or detriment. Upon reflection I go back to Dennis's image of a hammer: there have been cultures in which the hammer was majorly used, almost exclusively, as an instrument of war (i.e. the warhammer) and there have been cultures in which hammers as bloodletting instruments seldom if ever appear. I wonder if in our own conversation this morning we were content sitting in our context and did not think about the use of technology outside of our specific context.

I go, then, to Tormod's wise interjection about being aware of those people in our congregations for whom the internet technology is beyond their utilization for any number of reasons. With that in mind, my struggle now this night is one of this: when we avail a congregation or preacher to the near limitless amount of information of the internet, how can we blame these people for struggling to use it effectively? As Hipps suggests and I think about it, I think that it is possible that even the most savvy internet users can still struggle with our internet wisdom. Even the most avid internet user probably has not used the internet as most people know it for more than twenty years. In many cultures, apprenticeships regarding production of fabrics, tools, furniture and more require that amount of time before being labeled a master, let alone an artisan. Heck, even the real, honest to God glassblowers achieve only like 30% production numbers. When you involve all the tricks and pitfalls of information, technology, and the global community, how can you expect a congregation or pastor to overcome the wisdom gap so quickly?

I can say this a bit in humor too, as my searching for fruitful religious blogs came up seriously lacking tonight. I've created two websites to date, written many faqs and walkthroughs for online usage, but still struggle in finding accurate ways of sifting through the information available on the internet to find a seemingly simple search.

Fortunately, I turned to our little article book earlier tonight and found a few websites that bring up many different blog locations.

With that being said, I'm off to have myself a frozen Twix bar- so good!