In case you missed it, here is a great video released last week on the rise of the Internet, called “Did You Know 4.0″.
The statistics in the video are startling for sure. But they confirm what we intuitively already know – as a culture, we’re completely overloaded with information, especially the younger up-and-coming generation.
As the communications director at a church that has a average age of 26 or so, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the challenges that the Internet creates for us – and the Church at large – in terms of engaging people with the gospel. I’m going to be sharing here some of my thoughts on the subject over a few posts.
In this post I want to discuss why I think the Internet, and specifically social media, is ushering a fresh and new challenge for the church that I don’t think we’ve fully articulated, and that I’m not sure we are adequately prepared to engage. To be clear, I’m figuring out my thoughts on this as I go, and hope to open a healthy dialogue on this topic. Input from you will be much valued.
Post-Modernism is Dying
If you’re like me, much of your ministry training in terms of apologetics has been focused on contextualizing the Gospel for a post-modern mindset. And while this is important, I’ve got this sneaking suspicion that we’re fighting a battle that has already been lost in some respects. While we decry post-moderns, the reality is that the world has pretty much wholesale accepted this philosophy, which has been moving full force since the 1960’s. My concern is that as a church we may be fighting old battles and not seeing the new threats on the horizon.
I’ve been thinking that post-modernism is dying. It’s on it’s last legs. Taking its place is what I’ll call Digitalism. Whereas Post-Modernism (in simplified terms) was the subjection of truth to cultural context, Digitalism is the subjection of truth to personal context.
In a post-modern world, there was still some semblance of universal truth, granted it was solely within the realm of culture. But the reality was that you were still held accountable to the truth by those whom you interacted with within your culture. The reality of day-to-day interactions necessitated that people would call you on your crap and bring you in line with cultural truth. Why? Because whether you liked it or not, you were forced to be exposed to people of varying opinions, and more often than not, the majority opinion – public truth – was still upheld, and you were expected to adhere to it.
Whereas Post-Modernism was the subjection of truth to cultural context, Digitalism is the subjection of truth to personal context.
In the world of Digitalism, we are no longer forced to interact with those who disagree with us. Through our various Internet interactions, especially our social media platforms, we can easily delete friends from our lives who would dare to question our version of reality – our personal truth. For the Digitalists, the ego is supreme. Truth is derived completely from within, all reality is subjectified to personal taste, preference, and experience – and most importantly, only those who carry the same truth, or who are willing to not question that truth, are sought out to become part of community. Digitalists are creating worlds within worlds. Worlds that are not bounded geographically, but instead ideologically.
So my question is: How Does the Church Engage the Digitalists?
Part two of this series will explore some of my thoughts on what we are doing right and what I think we might do better to engage this cultural shift in its early stages. But in the meantime, I’d be very curious to hear your thoughts.
1. Do you believe that post-modernism is dying? If so, what are your thoughts on the concept of digitalism I’ve presented here?
2. What do you see as the important strategies we need to employ as the church to engage the Digitalists?