April 2009

Spirituality and Social Media: Where Faith Gets it Wrong

April 30, 2009 · 0 comments

Over the past month, we’ve taken an in depth look at the relationship between ‘spirituality and social media’. Gavin has taken us on a technological and theological journey – giving us a lot to think about as we continue on our paths toward enlightenment. In this week’s final installment of the series, Gavin discusses society’s dependency on the web, and how spiritual communities are failing to utilize social media to it’s maximum potential. Be sure to visit Gavin on the web at www.gavoweb.com and follow him on twitter: @gavoweb

Developing dependency for technology

As Matt has mentioned, I love South Park. In all its raunchiness I feel its social commentary is spot on. One of my favorite episodes is from season 12 called “Over Logging” and it deals with the loss of the Internet.

The episode goes something like this: The whole world is without the Internet and people don’t know what to do. There is no news. Towns become deserted wastelands. People do not know what day of the week or month it is. Eventually Stan’s dad (Randy) takes the family ‘out west’ to Silicon Valley which still has “limited inventory” - Eventually the family finds themselves into a displacement camp for people who are seeking Internet. The problem is that there is only enough Internet for people to have 10 seconds or so to be online. It is a telling episode on how we rely on the Internet for so much of our human conditions.

One of the other crisis’ is Stan’s sister (Shelley) has an online boyfriend whom she cannot talk to through all this. She pines and whines throughout the episode. Poignant, maybe prophetic, is a moment towards the end when Shelley runs into her boyfriend in real life in the displacement camp. They have this awkward moment where they have no idea how to communicate with each other in real life.

‘The old becomes the content for the new’

Marshal McLuhan, considered by many to be the most prophetic voice during the new media age of television in the 60’s and 70’s, would say that that, with the advent of a new medium the old medium becomes the content for the new medium. This is true for many practices of today’s religious institutions. I am even guilty of it myself.

If you do a particular search through iTunes for a preacher, church, denomination, or faith expression (Christianity especially) what you will find is an abundance of ‘sermon podcasts.’ Now, podcasting is or was not developed with the idea of sermon delivering. It was more the creation of using RSS and audio development technologies into crafting radio type shows, which even then is using an old medium content. But the religious players said, ‘Hey what do we have that makes for good audio? Sermons!” What do I think about sermon podcasts? I think they are lame. They are lame, not because you’re putting out some of your institutions created content, but because you are not going far enough. They are not search-able (no transcripts). They are not attractive to people outside of your own congregation, and if they are, its probably because you have a popular pastor who has written books or something that people have already conjured up an invested relationship toward and a podcast is just another outlet to continue that relationship.

It’s not limited to just podcasts. Early church or institutional websites were more an extension of the paper church newsletter. Churches are now starting to use videos and modern technologies to convey announcements. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and other web 2.0 sites are utilized not for cultivating conversations, but to direct traffic to a main website which, again, looks like the newsletter. I am not saying all this is bad, but what I am saying is that we in the faith community need to name what we are doing for what it is. This isn’t an outreach but more a communication to our own people with the same old stuff that they stopped listening too. No wonder people still ask me what this or that events are.

Your doing it all wrong!

I see two problematic paths that faith communities are going down with the increased use of social media. One, is that faith communities still continue to fail to see the true value of the social networking to promote conversations, develop extensions of relationship, and to reach out to people who are seeking answers/meaning/understanding/and so on. More often what we do is take these tools and repopulate them with our standard old medium messages that are speaking out to people and not with people.

Two, coming back to our South Park displacement camp, I feel that our faith institutions and individuals are spending so much energy in the realm of social media, speaking out to perceived audiences, that in the off chance they do happen to encounter someone in real life they’ll be at a loss for how to communicate. We’re starting to witness people becoming TOO engrossed and dependent on technology. I see this already in our youth culture who is willing to pour their heart out over the Internet and via text messages, but if we were sitting in a small group or chatting in a coffee house face to face, they bottle up and become much less transparent.

For many of us who grew up before a digital native was born we know what it is like to ask hard face to face questions, dive into ourselves and identify hurts and joys so we have the ability to lead them. However, if we have lose ourselves and fall victim to advancing technology, we lose a part of communication that is absolutely critical to the pursuit of faith and development. Technology is an invaluable tool, that if used correctly, can expand our influence and reach to virtually limitless boundaries.

Where do you see our dependency on tech heading from here? How can spiritual affiliations and groups use social media tools to benefit their cause and reach their communities?

Changing My ‘Twilosophy’ (Twitter Philosophy)

April 28, 2009 · 48 comments

Simplicity = Success

Twitter is one of the most valuable communication and social networking tools to date – they have taken the KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) mentality and ran with it – which has been supremely successful thus far. Where it will go from here once advertising and these so called ‘Pro’ accounts come in into play (it’s inevitable folks), who knows what we’ll be dealing with. But today, right now, Twitter allows you to establish connections with like-minded individuals and companies in 140 characters or less.

One of the pitfalls I see forming within the Twitter community is this concept of ‘Follower hoarding’ – look no further than the Ashton Kutcher vs. CNN competition for a crystal clear example of this. Jun Loayza posted a great discussion on this a few weeks ago, labeling people as either ‘Twitter Hoarders’ or ‘Twitter Snobs’.

Hoarders vs. Snobs

Essentially, a Twitter Hoarder is someone who follows as many people as possible, thousands and thousands, in order to get those people and more to follow them back – doing this (to an extreme) makes it virtually impossible to form one-on-one connections with everyone. In short, a ‘Twitter Hoarder’ is missing the value and usefulness of social networking – their reach may be wide, but their connection and interaction is limited.

Then we have the so called ‘Twitter Snobs’. These people are very limited in who the follow – they claim to value the connections with those who they follow, and while they may have 1,000 people following them, they’re probably only following a select 100-200 back. They are very involved with the people they do follow, but neglect the rest, rarely taking the time to reach out and follow back.

So where am I in all this? I side with the latter over the former, or at least have been up until my recent epiphany. I only joined Twitter a few months ago, back in February – and already I have established a solid network of 400+ followers. The majority of these people are bloggers, writers, designers, people who have at some point come by and commented here, and personal ‘real life’ friends. I greatly value the relationships and connections that I have forged over the past several months – and my focus has really been to nurture and develop these one-on-one connections with a relatively small audience.

A Twitter-Epiphany…A ‘Twipiphany’

But then I started thinking. I asked myself, ‘Why am I not following half of these people back? Why am I making everyone come to me, when there are probably a ton of awesome people (such as myself) sitting out there waiting to be found? Why am I being a ‘Twitter Snob’? I had become so consumed in my own niche that I failed to realize the potential that’s out there, the virtually untapped market of awesome bloggers, entrepreneurs, marketing gurus, web designers, authors, and everyone else who could contribute to my community here at LWP, and who would more than appreciate someone like me being included in THEIR network (yeah, I’m modest too).

It was all this discussion lately on ‘reaching out’ and ‘stepping outside your comfort zone’ that made me realize that, while connections and relationships are the life-force of Twitter and social media, many of us, myself included, are pigeon holing ourselves by becoming so ‘exclusive’ in who we follow. I think there is a fine line between reaching out and expanding your audience and following and ‘hoarding’ followers. But here is what I’ve done, and what I believe all of you should think about as you travel down your path of ‘Twitter enlightenment”.

Step 1 – NIP/TUCK
Go through your follow list and take some time to do a little weed-pulling. There are going to be some people who you end up following that you’ve never talked to, never had a connection with, and provide nothing of value to your social networking experience – there’s no need for excess, so nip and tuck where you can, slim things down a bit before you expand.
Step 2 – FOLLOW BACK
There are obviously different beliefs on this – I used to think I would pick and choose who I would follow back – but now I’m willing to give everyone, at least, a chance. If someone reaches out to follow you, odds are, more times than not, there is a reason behind it. See who they are, check out their blog or website, find out a little more about them, then follow them back – forge a new friendship.
Step 3 – COMMUNICATE
This is probably the most important step in the process. Once you’ve established a mutual follower/following relationship – reach out and say hello, @ reply something to them, get involved in one of their conversations, or better yet, take it a step further, visit THEIR blog and comment on a couple discussions – People eat that **** up, myself included – we all love when new people come though and show us some love, but the old creed rings true “You get what you give”.
Step 4 – REACH OUT
Don’t wait for everyone to come to you – yes, I think part of all this should be natural, I don’t recommend getting out there and following thousands of people in hopes that they’ll follow you back. That isn’t what this is about. What it’s about is reaching out and forming bonds with meaningful people – people you can connect with. It’s possible to have a big following and connect with a lot of people. Maybe you won’t reach each person on a given day, but you can broaden your horizons without getting ‘too big’. I went to Monica O’ Brien and several of my other ‘trusted’ connections on Twitter and added some of the people they were following. Take a look at the people I’m following – 95% of them are people that are worth following and will follow you back – reach out and make some connections!
Step 5 – RINSE & REPEAT
This entire process is cyclical. Everyone you reach out to won’t reciprocate, even through all your attempts you may get some people who you never connect with. After a while, start back at step one – give it time, don’t expect everything at once, but if there’s no connection there, clean house a bit, rinse and repeat.

Final thoughts, Jerry Springer style

So there you have it, in great detail, my transition process and my new-found open-minded approach to social media as a platform. The bottom line is: You get what you give, and the more willing you are to reach out and invest in new connections and relationships, the more you’ll be reciprocated. As we continue to talk about reaching out and increasing our influence and impact as bloggers and entrepreneurs, utilizing these tools available in our arsenal are absolutely critical to achieving widespread success. BUT, always remember to never forget where you came from, and never forget the people who helped you get where you are today. Forming new connections is key, but nurturing the old ones is just as important. Take care of yourself, and each other.

Don’t Get Too Comfortable [Video]

April 26, 2009 · 22 comments

Yes, another video blog while driving. Danger’s my middle name

As bloggers. As writers. As human beings – we all strive to create our own comfort zones. We establish communities around ourselves that make us feel safe, accepted, and content. But often we fail to realize the impact and influence we (can) have on others. Challenge yourself to step outside the box and try something new, leave yourself vulnerable to criticism, don’t always do what’s safe, ignore the critics, do what YOU want, and say what YOU want to say. Don’t just be content with where you are, push yourself to reach new heights. Seize today, and every day, as an opportunity to challenge others and allow yourself to be others as you navigate through this thing called life.

Reach out and touch someone new

This concept especially applies to bloggers and entrepreneurs. Recently, I wrote an article on ‘How to Take Over the World With Your Blog‘ – the emphasis here us to ultimately challenge yourself. It’s SO easy to settle in our communities of bloggers – and while I more than appreciate those of you who frequent the blog, I want to continually grow the community here – in fact, I never want it to stop growing. So I (attempt) to reach out and ‘touch’ new people with each post I write – sometimes I am successful, other times not so much – and a lot of it has to grow naturally, some of it is on you all to tell a friend or two about something you read here. The moments that I see a completely new person come through and care enough to post a comment, are the moments that I know I am achieving at least some level of success as an online journalist.

Write about what others’ will not

Second, and maybe even more importantly – engage in CHALLENGING topics. Write about topics you have a strong opinion on – do so tastefully, but be honest, be real. Genuine writing is the most effective writing, whether people agree or disagree, more times than not, the majority will respect you for speaking from the heart, maybe not focusing on eloquence and being nice, but instead saying ‘what has to be said’ or what others may be afraid to say. In doing this, allow yourself to remain open for criticism – it’s OK to stand firm in your beliefs, but maintain an open forum for discussion – odds are, I’m no more ‘right’ than you are – so we’re both allowed to have totally different opinions – and that’s fine. I think we (myself included) get caught up in writing almost TOO objectively, trying to appeal to the masses, and in doing so, at times, we lose a little bit of our own voice and our own opinion.

The teacher becomes the student

Hopefully you will take some of this to heart as you move forward in your blogging and entrepreneurial endeavors. YOU all are what keep ME inspired, motivate me to keep doing what I do, writing, enlightening, inspiring (hopefully), educating, and entertaining – but this blog is just as much of a learning experience for me as I hope that it is for you. All of you who come through here and take the time to write your thoughts have opened my eyes and my mind to new ways of thinking. In the end, that’s really what it’s all about.

So this week, MY DIRECT CHALLENGE TO YOU, is to write an OPINIONATED blog post. Be daring, be bold, and most importantly, be REAL. Whatever the topic is, speak your mind and share some raw emotion. Don’t necessarily write for the sake of controversy, but be subjective, it’s OK, it’s your blog – so make it your own. And if (when) you do, if this inspired you to do so, come back through and share the link to your post with the rest of the community. Teach all of us something new!

You Can’t Change the World in a Day [Video]

April 23, 2009 · 20 comments

Today, while driving across the fine state of Arizona and into Las Vegas, I was inspired to put together a makeshift video post ala Sam Davidson style (while driving). Note: It’s unedited, The sound sucks, the picture isn’t fantastic, but the message is powerful and is hopefully something all of you can connect with.

We are a generation hungry of change – we want to me a difference – we want to make the world a better place. But, these lofty goals won’t happen overnight, They take hard work, determination, and above all, patience. Don’t worry about changing the world, it’s impossible for one person to do it all. But what we can do is reach out and inspire change in those around us, set a spark that starts a fire, plant seeds and watch them grow, and take strides toward making this crazy world a better place, one day at a time.

Re-Prioritize Your Dreams

April 22, 2009 · 28 comments

Never give up on your dreams, but don't be afraid to work hard to get there

Great, you have a dream, now what?

What are your dreams? How about your passions? Where do you want to be ten years from now? What do you want to do with your life? You would be surprised at the number of people who can’t answer that question. Some of you might be surprised that I can’t answer it myself. Not because I don’t know what I’m interested in, not because I don’t have things that I think know I’m good at – but because I don’t know how I’m going to use my inherit abilities and interests to become successful, make money, and do something I love. I’m willing to bet a lot of you all reading this are in a very similar place. I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine who recently graduated from college and is taking the initial steps into the career-world; it went something like this:

Me: ‘What do you want to do now that you’re done with school?’
Friend: ‘I’m not sure.’
Me: ‘Fair enough, well what do you want to do in life? What are you passionate about?’
Friend: ‘I don’t know. I want to make a difference, start my own business, not work for ‘the man’, inspire other people, do something good for society, leave an impact, build community, and love what I do.’
Me: ‘Sounds great, but those are pretty ‘broad’ ideas, how are you going to start a company with no money? Do you really expect to not do SOME work you aren’t going to love? How will your passions become a reality?’
Friend: ‘I don’t know man, I just know I have a lot to offer and want to make a difference.’

This conversation illustrates what a lot of us are going through as young twenty-somethings entering into the ‘real’ world. The huge success of young entrepreneurs in recent years (Mark Zuckerberg, Chad Hurley, Matt Mullenweg, to name a few) has gotten into our heads and has led us to believe that the sky is the limit to what we can accomplish. We’re all in search of discovering that next big thing. And, more importantly, and perhaps tragically, it’s put the idea into our head that anything less than doing exactly what we want is just mediocre. Each one of us wants to change the world, we want to break away from the ordinary, quit our mundane 9-5′s and embark down the path of a startup entrepreneur.

Our passions are both a blessing and a curse

Passions drive and motivate us to be all that we can be, but they blind us to the realism that everything isn’t going to happen in a day. One thing our generation lacks is patience, we are a generation of ‘instant results’ – Fast food, the internet, digital media downloading, these are all products of our need for instant gratification. We’ve become ‘spoiled’ in a sense that many of us have lost sight of good old fashioned hard work, determination, and above all, patience.

So what’s the point? I titled this post ‘Re-Prioritize Your Dreams’ because I don’t think anyone should ever give up on their dreams and passions. Doing what you love and having an integration of work and life is supremely important to a person’s well-being. Having dreams drives you, it motivates you, and it defines who you are.

My point, and hopefully the take-away for all of you here, is that it’s OK to re-prioritize your goals and aspirations. Maybe you can’t quit your job and start your own business today, but you can follow another passion and work on writing your first novel (like me) while you continue to work at your current employer, gain experience, and save money. Maybe you can’t change the world tomorrow, but you can start volunteering, reaching out to local non-profits and startups, forming connections, friendships, and partnerships. There are things you can do today, right now, that will set you up for the success you dream about in the future.

Keep your eyes on the prize

Never lose sight of your dreams, but take some time to sit back and look at the bigger picture – yes, life is short, but it’s not so short that you don’t have time to build your way toward your BHAG’s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals). Be realistic about the opportunities you have in front of you, and capitalize on them. Odds are, if you are proactive and you have a little patience, you’ll get to where you want to be sooner than you think. Try new things and reach out to new people in fields you’re interested in (and even ones you might not be). You’ll form irreplaceable bonds and friendships, and increase your professional network.

Think back to the conversation I talked about above – in reality, that dialouge wasn’t between a friend and I, it’s a conversation I’ve had with myself time and time again. But having a little patience and putting in the hard work will get you from wanting to ‘change the world’ to figuring out how to do it.

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