Here you have it, our first "real" assignment for training purposes on the blog. Go to:
http://fulleryouthinstitute.org/2011/02/maintaining-relational-presence-in-a-technological-world/
and read the article. It relates very well to our theme of "There's an App for That." After you finish reading, comment here about your thoughts on what you read.
This is an interesting and eye-opening article. I especially related to how much we are tethered to our devices, to the point of not participating in real-life relationships and interactions. I know I'm guilty of that too - how many Words With Friends games do I really need? The other idea that I found intriguing, especially as far as our campers go, is that many adolescents today don't feel validated as a person until they have been affirmed by their friends through Facebook or Twitter. I guess we all want to have our thoughts and feelings validated by our friends, but this seems extreme - "I can't have this thought or this experience without posting it!" Interesting insights - good article!
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ReplyDeleteChoir Camp offers many opportunities to give kids "undivided attention." It often takes place on walks with small groups of kids between activities. Such moments can be lost during hectic or rigid schedules. An anonymous nun said: "My vocation is, at each moment, to make the person in front of me the most important person in my life."
ReplyDeleteBecause technology is such a HUGE part of their lives, I hope we can give them tools or montras to help them consider how technology is shaping them when their technology "time-out" (mostly)at camp is over.
WWJT - What Would Jesus Text or Tweet? TTO - Technology Time Out or TS - Sabbath
TGG - Technology Good and God - How can we use technology to bring good and God to the world?
Lest we all suffer from cronic multiphrenia! (over saturation of multiple outside influences that can take us away from our "coherent identity" or inner core).
I think we have this as an important time in our camp for the time out, but I also feel like we should stress the good of technology, such as the stressing of the good and bad uses of the shovel. The fact that I can connect, stay in contact with, and still be a part of the lives of many people I still care about (such as former students and campers) is a wonderful use of technology. I think we should stress the good of that use of technology, but also stress the importance of being in the here and now with those people who we are present with.
DeleteThe current "Immerse" journal of faith, life and youth ministry http://www.immersejournal.com/current-issue/
ReplyDeleteindicated that 3 billion hours of online games are played EACH WEEK! An average gamer will play 10,000 hours before age 21, the SAME hours of schooling they will get between grades 5 - 12 (perfectly attended!).
I guess I hadn't consciously considered some of the issues presented in the article, but when one stops to really think about how prevalent technology is, they are not surprising.
ReplyDeleteI'm kind of in the "stone age" of technology. Yes, I have a laptop but no notebook or tablet or nook; my phone is still the kind where you push buttons to call someone, guess it does have a camera but I don't use it and I'm too cheap to pay for texting. Even so, I'm on the computer a lot and e-mail is my preferred way of communicating. It sometimes seems easier to write than have to deal with watching disappointment, anger, etc. in another when talking face to face. So I understand how a generation that has been born to this technology would find it so essential. (Remember a few years ago when all the cell phones were confiscated by the Dean as the campers came into camp? Things have really changed!)
I think a lot of the suggestions given in the article have merit. Maybe our biggest challenge will be in showing the campers that you can have relationships without technology. And the "apps" that are being worked on are a great start, as is communicating with the campers one on one, and in small groups. That's always been the best thing about camp, letting each other know that we care about the other!
I do think that the apps will be a great thing, the application of God's love, God's peace, etc. will do well, and if we can apply these "apps" in the here and now with them, I think we could have a great effect on them
DeleteI couldn't agree with the points made in this article more. And I think Twylia brings up one of the main reasons as to why this is so important: writing via technology is many times easier to deal with than gathering up the courage and compassion that it takes to speak face to face, or even over the phone. While the use of technology encourages and facilitates the passing of information, it in many ways is detrimental toward the development of sincerely legitimate human expression because it is essential one-dimensional. There is a wall between the one doing the expressing and the one reacting to the expression. And while social media (facebook, twitter, etc.) attempts to walk the wall, persay, allowing others to react to your expressions, what we miss is the body language, the eyes, the soul of expression itself. The subtleties of self-expression that we experience in face to face contact are lost behind that "wall".
ReplyDeleteMusicians and music educators have been making similar advocacy arguments for years-- that music expresses the ineffable, that which can not be stated or expressed verbally. That music, particularly live music, gives us insight into the human experience that cannot be obtained in other ways. A musician can make him/herself vulnerable enough to perform, but to do so over recording versus live is to compromise the audience member's abilities to react, or express their reaction back to the performer.
Perhaps this is an interesting link between our technology theme and our music making for camp. While technology allows us to interact with information and people that we otherwise would not have been able to, it also is limited (has boundaries) in its capabilities. True expression and communication includes far more that what can be implied by the abbreviations in a text message because true expression, musical and otherwise, is a two-way street.
I love the comparison to music that you brought up, which is something that I had never really considered about what we do at camp. We are lucky enough to be present to one another in our joys, weaknesses, and fears through the music that we make, and I think it could be a wonderful thing to keep as a theme to our time musically with one another.
DeleteLet me try this again. It's been so long since I read the article and tried posting a comment, I'm not sure I remember what I posted. I just skimmed the article again to refresh my thoughts about it. Yes, we can use our technology to keep in contact with others, but how many times do we read something on Facebook and say to ourselves, "Huh?" The reason being that the written word can sometimes be misconstrued. It needs the body language and facial mannerisms for us to truly "get it." I resisted FB for years until about 6 months ago, when I was coerced into it by Derik. There are days that I don't read anything on it at all. I prefer just talking to my co-workers as I sit at lunch, or interacting with friends from church in Sunday School, over reading a lot of meaningless statuses. Don't get me wrong, I work with technology nearly my entire work day; I guess by the time I get home I've had enough of it. Our theme at camp this year should appeal to campers, and we can present it in such a way that they will crave the here and now interaction with each other, as well as their texting and other apps.
ReplyDeleteThis is defiantly an eye opening article and a good one for the retreat that I was just on, and in much the same way that we treat technology at camp.
ReplyDeleteI like the talk about how technology can be used for good and for bad, I have recently experienced a twitter account that was used for such incredible harm, calling myself and other teachers horrible and disgusting things. I think that the talk of technology as a tool either for good or for bad, it is not a neutral thing, is a very important thing.
I also like the idea of writing a hand written letter or note to someone and/or something. I think that we will be using our "twitter posts" in a good way if we can do this, but I think I will also really try to stress this a great deal with my cabin. I am lucky in that I will probably know most of the guys in my cabin very well, so I could start this very easily, perhaps coming to camp with a hand written letter for each of them in hand. I will try to stress to them the importance of hand writing a letter or note, and try to get them to do this at least once a day.
I think our biggest challenge is talking about the issue of technology. Kids today (myself included) are so plugged in and online all the time, we don't really know a world without it, and much of the time, we have a hard time seeing both the good and the bad with it. I think starting this dialogue early at camp will be a great thing as we move through the week.
I really like the idea of letters - could we have a "mailbox" for letters to campers and counselors? If campers all wrote a letter every day imagine the blessings for all of us!
ReplyDelete“My vocation is, at each moment, to make the person in front of me the most important person in my life.” This quote sums up for me the importance of making sure that technology is the tool not us! I really enjoyed the article and though I don't personally use alot of electronics I can see the pros and cons of this medium for youth and adults. The hope for me is that we use this technology to create a closeness that helps us facilitate ways to get face to face! Then once we are in the same space together we put the tools away and focus on each other.
ReplyDeleteIt really erks me when I'm at a restaurant and see a couple at a table and each person is focused on their phones. I know I'm not with the technology times and probably considered a dinosaur, but I come from a family where we were all expected to be home for dinner each and every night. Of course, there was no TV in the room.
ReplyDeleteA couple years ago when Terry first announced we would have a time and place set aside for "technology time" so the campers could call home or connect with the outside world; I internally disagreed. I had to enforce the rule of "no cell phones/calls" the previous year and saw this decision as a road block in moving away from homesickness and community within camp. However, I now see it differently.
Terry was far more advanced technologically and in tuned with this generation. Now I know these kids are so accustomed to instant conversations with friends, research and let's face it, the world, that we really have to allow them time to connect outside of camp.
We have to be on alert for campers who will stretch the boundaries, but by allowing them time and space to use their devices we are showing them we trust them and welcome them back to the camp experience with a renewed focus.
We can't stop what happens in the outside world during the week camp is taking place; sometimes the adults have to pull away to check on home or work issues as well.
I'm still dragging my feet on technology, but I can assure you, if you want to share a meal I will not whip out my phone! You'll have my undivided attention. --Margaret
I like the use of reflection and of being face-to-face to access our use of technology and the impact of technology on us. I think that we swim in so much technology that for much of our time there in a surrender to its pressure. I recently finished reading "Amish Peace", by Suzanne Fisher. I must say that it has had a profound effect of me. The apparent rejection of so much technology is based on a desire to be better connected to community, to family, to God. There is communal selection of what technology is allowed to press into the human experience, regardless of its utility. It is refreshing to see the question lifted to us, in the article, to examine how our ever-racing technologies are effecting us. There is an unaddressed tendency for us to marvel at how much technology can do, at break-neck speeds, and we end up surrendering so much of our space, our time, our connection to life to the various machines. I marvel at those who understand the dance between the rejection of technology and the use of technology that enhances living with God. Owning the responsibility for the use of tools/technology in bringing greater living in our journey is an awesome duty, but one that we have to invite grace into. There is already enough that separates us; we need to bring our gifts to balancing the immersion of the technological experience in the human experience. I pray it is not the other way round.
ReplyDeleteI will be honest in that I am very guilty of being a person who does not do much "face time" anymore. A lot of my interactions are with technology. Even at home, dinner is in front of the TV, sometimes with all of us watching the same show but not always now that we have wireless cable boxes. We talk, but it's during the commercial breaks. I truly enjoy my time with my family when we are in the car going someplace. It seems to be the only time that we aren't interrupted with technology and even then, my little sister usually has her ipod on or the portable DVD player depending on how far we are going. I miss the days when I was younger and we had to play outside or with actual toys and make-believe instead of computer games, television, twitter, ipods/phones/pads. At the same time, technology has brought other cultures and countries closer to the fingertips of our children. America may be a melting pot, but our children still don't understand what it means to live somewhere else, that they are the lucky few. I firmly believe that God wants us to understand, accept, and respect everyone and technology helps bring that closer to the younger generation. A foreign pen pal instead of weeks of "snail mail" now can be communicated with in seconds. I just wish there was a way to use technology to communicate directly with God. But, that's me seeing technology taking over classrooms and teens lives and wanting to keep that connection with Him or it will eventually be lost. Does anyone know if God has a twitter account?
ReplyDeleteP.S. This is not meant in disrespect but an attempt to bring the two worlds together.