Redeeming Social Networks
Kathy Sierra wrote an interesting post earlier this year at her blog, Creating Passionate Users. In it, she asks, Why Are We Still Going to Conferences? and discusses her keynote presentation at this year’s SXSW:
I started my keynote by asking if anyone was live-blogging. Hands shot up across the room. Someone yelled “Twitter!” The whole thing was recorded on video and audio. So… if nobody needed to be there, why were they?
Many people sited reasons for coming to an event, such as the “hallway conversations,” networking, and the creative inspiration of interacting with others in the room. But mostly, I think people are looking to connect with other human beings in a meaningful way.
Social Networking sites are rising in popularity. These are your sites like Flickr, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, MySpaces, and many more like them - sites that share information about you with other people for the purpose of connecting.
The Vox Pop Codex blog links to a great video explaining social networks “in plain English.”
Many groups within these social networks schedule periodic “meet-ups” for an opportunity to talk face to face with many of the people they’ve been getting to know online. Flickr groups get together for photo walks, bloggers get together for networking events, and so on.
Over the last two years Bryan and I have had the opportunity to participate in many different social networking groups. These are fun, energetic, creative events in which we have met great people - many have become friends.
“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). As a Believer who lives within culture, Jesus continually puts me in people’s lives - both in person and on the internet - through my social networks. I have a story, everyone I meet has a story, and I have found that many of our stories intertwine and have common themes. Occasionally I get to see Jesus take someone’s story in a new direction, as was the case when a friend in one of my social networks attended the recent baptism service with us at Alki.
Jesus is at work, even within social networking, redeeming people to himself.
What are your social networks, whether online or off?
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Right, connecting with human beings is really powerful. The original knock on Twitter was that it wasn’t useful because nobody was posting useful information. They totally discounted it as a tool to connect human beings. Of course face-to-face is even more powerful. But it’s not easier. Especially at conferences there’s a lot of friction around finding the people you want to talk to and then a lot of social anxiety about introducing yourself.