Getting with the times

In the mid 1950’s the landscape of the United States changed drastically. Once a community that revolved around the home, the 1950’s family began to change. The 50’s was the dawning of the interstate system across the United States. Something that our world takes for granted today, rapid and easily accessed transportation was once a novelty that extended communities. As communities were extended, family dynamics and community dynamics changed. Our culture went through a portal and was changed forever. People’s lives, geographically, were no longer centered on their homes. One of the byproducts of this change is that our communities were no longer as closely knit as they once were. Clay Shirky, in his book Here Comes Everybody writes, “Both the distance between the grocery store and home, and the fact that travel between the two is highly enclosed, reduce the likelihood of chance social encounters (and as a result reduces the raw material for building social capital,” (201).
As a culture, we have recently gone through another portal. This portal was the advent of the internet and the use of social media to organize and connect culture. One would think that with more time behind a computer screen, people would become even more isolated but actually, the internet has had some positive effects on connecting people. As a result, in many ways, we are more connected as a society than we have ever been before. Shirky talks about the ways in which technology has reshaped the way organizations and communities function. People are gathered as a result of and gather in social media. Shirky writes, “The internet augments real – world social life rather than providing an alternative to it,” (196). The internet does not reduce the amount of social interactions that people have, it actually can enhance the ways in which people meet up.
With this in mind, we must begin to think about how social medial will affect and can be leveraged as community builders in our churches. This is a highly debated topic. Many questions arise as a result but the advantages can be huge. Connecting in the cultures language is a great way to connect people to one another and to the Gospel.