Theologian: Facebook and modern technology are killing churches

[karmakramer]

interesting story

 

Despite a recent uptick, church attendance numbers have been declining steadily in both the United States and Europe. Explanations for the trend range from the child sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic church to the antimodern cultural outlooks of fundamentalist and conservative evangelical denominations. But Richard Beck, a professor and experimental psychologist at Abilene Christian University, has advanced a novel theory: He argues that the internet, and specifically the social-networking site Facebook, has eroded the sense of community that people have typically obtained via church membership.

 

In an essay posted on his blog titled, "How Facebook Killed the Church," Beck writes that the notion of a more porous, just-in-time digital community has taken strongest root among the so-called Generation Y folk--people born in the 80s and 90s who are also referred to as "Millennials"--who obsessively use social media on mobile devices.

Beck originally published the essay last year, to little public notice. In recent days, however, social media observers revived it, passing it around on sites like Twitter, Tumblr, and, somewhat ironically, Facebook. He writes:

So why has mobile social computing affected church attendance? Well, if church has always been kind of lame and irritating why did people go in the first place? Easy, social relationships. Church has always been about social affiliation. You met your friends, discussed your week, talked football, shared information about good schools, talked local politics, got the scoop, and made social plans ("Let's get together for dinner this week!"). Even if you hated church you could feel lonely without it. Particularly with the loss of "third places" in America.

 

But Millennials are in a different social situation. They don't need physical locations for social affiliation. They can make dinner plans via text, cell phone call or Facebook. In short, the thing that kept young people going to church, despite their irritations, has been effectively replaced. You don't need to go to church to stay connected or in touch. You have an iPhone.

 

Sure, Millennials will report that the "reason" they are leaving the church is due to its perceived hypocrisy or shallowness. My argument is that while this might be the proximate cause the more distal cause is social computing. Already connected Millennials have the luxury to kick the church to the curb. This is the position of strength that other generations did not have. We fussed about the church but, at the end of the day, you went to stay connected. For us, church was Facebook!

While it is hard to dispute the general reasoning in Beck's argument, it's not only millennials who are maintaining relationships and building communities online. In fact, a new website logs the sinister reach of the elder set in social media bearing the eloquent name "Oh Crap. My parents joined Facebook." And in full recognition that we are in the midst of a bona fide trend here, "Saturday Night Live" produced a parody commercial for a new product called "Damn It, My Mom is on Facebook!"

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/theologian-facebook-and-modern-technology-are-killing-churches

[Guest Great Maker ShaiHulud]

Another reason could be that people are realizing god doesn't exist.

 

But he doesn't fucking love me enough for this to be true.

[Guest analogue wings]

analogue wings likes this

 

people definitely join churches for a sense of belonging first and foremost. dunno if facebook is a great substitute for that though...

[Guest Helper ET]

we must now kill facebook (jesus told me in a dream)

 

"but how does one kill facebook?"

 

.....kill mark zuckerberg!

[doorjamb]

twitter vs dictatorship

 

facebook vs organized religion

 

watmm vs ____________

[dr lopez]

yay!

[karmakramer]

not a bad idea ET... but what if we created a new facebook

 

one that took the church experience and put it all online...

...daily prayer updates, live chat with priests (video ofcourse for the kids), and instead of "liked" u would be "blessed"

 

and don't call it facebook... call it... thebook

 

it's cleaner

[Atop]

as long as it's cleaner....

[karmakramer]

cleansed

[Atop]

FB BLUE

[skotosa]

Well I didn't go to Church before I used Facebook. Heck I didn't even go to Church before I even got on a Computer. So his shit don't apply to me.

 

Now although he makes a valid point, I too also think it is are global IQ that is rising and fast spread of Knowledge (I guess you can blame computers for this too) that keep people educated and allow us to see things more clearly.

 

We are relying less on believing in magic like a child would and more on how things actually work/are.

 

More children are realizing that light isn't the product of some immortal man who said "let there be light" but in fact due to the pressures and forces of gravity acting on matter to produce a self-luminous sphere of incredible mass composed of a mixture of hydrogen and helium gas.

[azatoth]

Secularization has been going on for far longer than social media has been around. It could be argued that it started when people left their homestead and moved into cities and people no longer belonged to a community like they did out in the rural areas and society moved towards individualism.

[roasty]

not a bad idea ET... but what if we created a new facebook

 

one that took the church experience and put it all online...

...daily prayer updates, live chat with priests (video ofcourse for the kids), and instead of "liked" u would be "blessed"

 

and don't call it facebook... call it... thebook

 

it's cleaner

 

heartyLol

[azatoth]

 

More children are realizing that light isn't the product of some immortal man who said "let there be light" but in fact due to the pressures and forces of gravity acting on matter to produce a self-luminous sphere of incredible mass composed of a mixture of hydrogen and helium gas.

 

I really doubt that, considering how science education works in America. I would argue that kids are more against the authoritarian stance of the church.

[skotosa]

 

More children are realizing that light isn't the product of some immortal man who said "let there be light" but in fact due to the pressures and forces of gravity acting on matter to produce a self-luminous sphere of incredible mass composed of a mixture of hydrogen and helium gas.

 

I really doubt that, considering how science education works in America. I would argue that kids are more against the authoritarian stance of the church.

 

Yeah probably... Still more than before though :)

 

America ranks last in Math out of 30 Developed Countries and third on the bottom for Science.

 

But you know something it doesn't matter cause we rank Number 1 in confidence.

 

Thats right, suck on that "smarter" countries.

[Guest mrajh]

[tontonz1]

It'll all come full circle in the end. Sure facebook and interwebz is disconnecting people from social institutions, but then what we become adapted to ends up being what we adapted from all along....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[delet...]

analogue wings likes this

 

people definitely join churches for a sense of belonging first and foremost. dunno if facebook is a great substitute for that though...

 

I think if you looked at a graph of decline in church attendance, it would be pretty bloody steady over the last 40 years or so. So by way of an explanation, we say of the reasons, a modern education system and society, yes. And individual factors like singling out a particular generation or social media service, a resounding no.

[karmakramer]

analogue wings likes this

 

people definitely join churches for a sense of belonging first and foremost. dunno if facebook is a great substitute for that though...

 

I think if you looked at a graph of decline in church attendance, it would be pretty bloody steady over the last 40 years or so. So by way of an explanation, we say of the reasons, a modern education system and society, yes. And individual factors like singling out a particular generation or social media service, a resounding no.

 

Facebook is relatively new as well as the internet... the younger an american is the less likely he/she will be religious. I think this can be attributed to both a modern education system as well as a modern society which includes social networking and the internet. Also mobile internet plays a role with social interaction nowadays imo. If one were to get into a discussion about something with someone at the bar couple decades ago, they'd just bicker about it till they moved on. With mobile internet, one can simply fact check immediately to verify a particular point or argument. Beliefs though are not as black and white... but I would argue that because kids today now have a normality in having all knowledge inside their pocket this could lead to a change in psychology with how one learns. Rather then taking ones word for something, someone growing up in today's society would rely more on computers. The convenience and accuracy that a computer provides as well as it now being required to understand, leaves less chance for one to grow up with the psychology that one's word is more honest/factual than google/wikipedia.

[Guest mafted]

good. see, where i live, it's the land of churches. the road i live near has at least 30 or 40 of them, and i'm not even in the sticks. i say we torch them all.

 

http://www.epreciso.com/loja/product.php?id_product=722

[karmakramer]

Don't burn them, wait till they deserted and dismantle them then build schools or homes.

[Guest mafted]

idk, never seen an abandoned church. they get government grants and pay no taxes.. why would they close it down? lol. church and state, together forever..

[karmakramer]

Are you saying a church has never been shut down?

 

also I do appreciate how neat and simple that t-shirt is compared to the alternative, but resources are important! Plus that just sends an angry message which fuels emotion clouding logic.

[TwiddleBot]

With mobile internet, one can simply fact check immediately to verify a particular point or argument. Beliefs though are not as black and white... but I would argue that because kids today now have a normality in having all knowledge inside their pocket this could lead to a change in psychology with how one learns.

 

Yeah exactly it's the internet, not facebook, that's the 'threat' to churches if anything. EG If they teach you a buncha bullshit about science and you google it and discover they actually don't know what they are talking about you might start to question what else they are lying to you about. That was certainly the case with me. Facebook if anything is just another logical extension of that, it's another way to share information that they can't control

[Guest mafted]

Are you saying a church has never been shut down?

 

also I do appreciate how neat and simple that t-shirt is compared to the alternative, but resources are important! Plus that just sends an angry message which fuels emotion clouding logic.

 

i said i'd never seen one. the shirt is a joke, but the sentiment is there.