Tag Archives: sociology

Identity and Depth

The other day, a friend and I were talking about the use of a call-in service for Bible searching, reading, and evangelism. In a sense, looking at the market of those folks who might be still tied to a paradigm of looking towards a voice for information (rather than having content on a screen, sent passively, or directly searched). One of the things that was striking in the midst of this conversation is how he stated that at his church, that the age and culture of the population poses some resistance towards those who use electronic devices for Bible reading in the community (a trait that John Dyer once spoke towards very well). In that, I wondered a lot about this idea about the identity of the Christian in this changing society and if there is something to be said towards these devices, services, and experiences that are gathered about these days.

You see, for those of us who pay attention to these things, there’s a clear sense that the identity of the Christian is being challenged on several fronts. Emotionally, there’s a drawing towards more expressive (some would call this transparent, others would call it performance) means of showing one’s views/feelings. Socially, there’s a bent towards urban centers in some metropolitan areas with pockets of intentional communities. While in more rural areas, there’s a bent towards a (romantic) preservation of the community and faith that was remembered by those who haven’t moved to urban centers. Theologically, it seems that just about every branch of the Church has not only gone through revisions of the text into a common language, but seen a shift from the leanings of the West towards something more charismatic and dynamic – moving south and east while doing so. All of this is happening in different shades across at least three existent generations of people groups. That’s a lot of shift to account for.

And yet, here is that nearly always present mobile. I like how Jan Chipcase squares this topic of identity alongside this totem we carry:

Much like the paradox of the toga in ancient Rome, some objects can connote high status in one culture and low status in another. A suntan on someone who lives in London or New York is a sign to others that that person can afford a tropical vacation, or at least a trip to the tanning salon. On the other hand, a tan in China or Thailand is a mark of peasants who toil in the fields. Thus on the shelves of pharmacies in Bangkok you’ll find dozens of skin products with whitening ingredients; in the United States, expensive moisturisers are tinted. Does this mean that the people who use these products are all that different from one another?

What are we saying if we are affirming or denying the use of mobile devices in community gatherings? What if part of the impact of what we are saying is that your identity has to have more depth than what you carry? We could stand to have a faith that does that. It would mean though that those making such a declaration have to be able to been seen without their totems as well.

Or, what if we said that you can carry it, but that it has to have an influence beyond just being your own screen? What does it mean when we cultivate the personal content and activity of a mobile device, but in some social situations mandate that it has an open or community-accessible aspect to it? Not just “you can see the photos I just uploaded to Facebook either,” but a more sincere – “here, let me help you understand why I took that kind of note” kind of feature.

What I thought about my friend’s declaration about his church’s specific culture is that they asked for folks to affirm the church’s identity, but gave nothing in return to those who needed a bridge to become that manifested character. If you will, “live the way I tell you, but I won’t give you my eyes to do it.” For many today, their identity is tied very tightly to what’s in their palms. The style of phone, the case on it, the ringtone, and even the applications preferred are a part of who they are. When we ask them to remove the device from the presence, we are asking them to set aside themselves for something they are not. In a sense, ignoring the traditional declaration of “come as you are.”

If I am also what happens on this little screen, then to engage the depth of who I am means that you have to be as willing to dive into me, as you want for me to unplug into you.

Thinking about Decay As Much As Create

Coda electric sedan coming off assembly line

Despite the frequency of posts slowing down a bit here, there’s still a lot of thinking and positining towrards this idea that mobile devices, services, and expereinces facilitate part of the lens by which we should look at faith in these times. In a most recent reading about steamboats, landlines, and cars, the challenge was not to think about it in terms of creating something new, but what it looks like when technologies and practices decay. Here’s a snippet:

…Some niches eventually grow to replace the prevailing regime, as cars themselves once did. But that process is equally dependent on so much more than technological invention. Look at how the cell phone has evolved to replace the landline. Our need for cell phones didn’t arise in a vacuum. Work practices changed. Commuting times got longer, creating the need for communication inside cars. Batteries got smaller. Cell phone towers proliferated.

These are the unnoticed events that happen in the slow course of technological transition. We didn’t even recognize that the car was a fundamentally new thing until around World War I, Cohen says. Until then, many people viewed the car as just a carriage without a horse.

“The replacement of the car is probably out there,” Cohen adds. “We just don’t fully recognize it yet.”

In fact, he predicts, it will probably come from China, which would make for an ironic comeuppance by history. The car was largely developed in America to fit the American landscape, with our wide-open spaces and brand-new communities. And then the car was awkwardly grafted onto other places, like dense, old European cities and developing countries. If the car’s replacement comes out of China, it will be designed to fit the particular needs and conditions of China, and then it will spread from there. The result probably won’t work as well in the U.S., Cohen says, in the same way that the car never worked as well in Florence as it did in Detroit…

What Steamships and Landlines Can Tell Us About the Decline of the Private Car at Atlantic Cities

In thinking about the implications of this tech, are we also paying attention to what decays in order for mobile to rise? And then futher, when mobile decays, what will arise from there?

Learning w/o Help

Earlier this week, we asked the question of where you might be framing what you learn life from. And here at the end of the week, we find that given enough time and curiosity, that what you learn doesn’t just have to be about what surprises yourself, but also those around you who might have felt they should be your teachers as well:

…We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He’d never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android…

Read the rest of Given Tablets but No Teachers, Ethiopian Children Teach Themselves at MIT Technology Review (via Dvice and Gizmodo)

Personally speaking, I like to experiment on my own. I know how that comes across in groups where credentials and such merit the starting point for discussions. But when we consider the reach and opportunity not only of the technology, but also of people who might be more entranced with their thoughts of social/spiritual good, than any other kinds of implications, there’s a lot that’s possible that we rarely scratch the surface of. We know that experiments like this have been done before (similar results), and even that parents can attest to just leaving a kid in the room, and magically learning of a tool, and later of context, happens.

That’s one of those paradigms that we are not usually wanting to consider, especially here in this faith space. Can a person, if just exposed to the Bible, learn all that is needed for them to live well? If I were to listen to one of the many stories from an old friend, I’d hear again how daily exposure to the Scriptures related complex ideas such as salvation, hell, and restoration. We have Paul’s words which demonstrate that there’s a purpose and office for the teacher (Romans 10:15), and also John’s which indicates that the best teacher is already with us (1 John 2:20-27). Such an experiment can affirm the ability to learn, but deny the (ego) attitude of the teacher.

We are left then with several questions, none of which have easy answers. Can a group of people, given only the utensils to learn and share with one another, teach themselves not only how to use the tools, but also maintain it and turn it into an indispensable aspect of their culture? Or, does the introduction and use of this tech just make as another control point for the learning and culture models that we already have in place?

If we can hack a tool, can learning also be hacked? And if so, what could its aims be if learning happened without the help of a teacher?

Communication Arts: Learning to Be Happy

DK Holland, via Commuication ArtsWhen I started reading the Communication Arts article Learning to Be Happy, I had not expected to leave it with a huge smile on my face. Personally, it was because the author, DK Holland, was able to hit on so many points about technology, language, education, culture, and even religion, that I couldn’t help but to be tickled to a sense of joy about the core goals for MMM.

I’d wager that some of you might find similar reasons to smile after reading this – even if there are points in this piece that you don’t agree with. To be challenged to take ownership of the implications of technology and culture is how we truly learn to be happy. And then what you do with what you own… well, that is a story we well know which has its own set of results.