The Barna Group takes another look at technology in Social Networking, Online Entertainment and Church Podcasts
Did you know blogs haven’t quite reached the tipping point? (not yet mainstream)

Maybe that’s why blogging is still fun.

Did you know blogs are more common among: “single adults, Northeast residents, homosexuals, those not registered to vote, and atheists and agnostics”.

I did not know that. I feel so ne plus ultra.:^)

Most everyone emails, 78% of US computer users emailed this past week. Email crosses all generations, texting is more popular among the younger demographic. 59% of Canadian surveyed felt disconnect anxiety when away from a cell phone, blackberry or computer.

This seems like an anomaly, but it makes sense.  Perhaps people who attend church regularly are more comfortable with the spoken word:

The study found that 38% of evangelicals and 31% of other born again Christians had listened to a sermon or church teaching via digital recordings available on the Internet (often called a “podcast”), compared with 17% of other adults. In macro-terms, an enormous audience of roughly 45 million Americans reports going digital to acquire church sermon and teaching content. In all, one out of every four adults - 23% - said they downloaded a church podcast in the past week.

The profile of people who had listened to sermon podcasts cut across generational lines, with older adults just as likely as young residents to listen in. Residents of the South (31%) were twice as likely as those in the Northeast (14%) to access church podcasts. Similarly, Protestants (32%) were more intrigued by such content than were Catholics (18%) and the same held true for non-mainline attenders (38%) compared to mainline Protestants (16%). African-Americans (50%) were very loyal listeners, especially when contrasted with Asians (14%). Furthermore, those who are economically downscale (35%) were more likely to listen to church podcasts than were upscale adults (10%). 

A friend called today and in the course of the conversation recommended I listen to a sermon by…
(I blanked right out typing this - ask me to listen to a sermon and I’m self-conditioned to zone) I’ve heard of the guy, I’ve read him, and I’ll remember his name later when I don’t need to. So I’m out of my mainstream with this trend.

I think this personal aversion to sermons and pod-casts is from being in broadcasting.
And being an identical twin. To this day we can confuse family on the phone.
In broadcasting you are constantly air-checked, performance reviewed, air-checking yourself, critiqued and being self-critical. You are the talent, and if you don’t get it right, there are lots of people ready to take your job. You learn to really listen to your voice, every inflection, practising tone, rehearsing delivery, diction, reading copy out loud to check your writing, wearing headphones. Talking while being talked to in an earpiece. Good reporters develop good listening skills. It’s work. Listening is very hard work. You have to be fully present, fully in the moment.
I tend to listen to technique first, like I’m directing, instead of being audience and consumer. I still do it talking to family and friends sometimes and I have to find the internal off-switch.
I’m not fun to go to a movie with and you wouldn’t want to watch a newscast with me.

I think a good preachers are performers and I’m missing out by being so adverse to listening to what they put online, especially when there is a veritable cornucopia of preachers and want-to-be preachers who believe we want to listen to them as much as they want to preach.
That is so not fair of me to say that, and it appears the stats are on the preachers side.;^)

This isn’t new news:

Political liberals were among the most active users of technologies. They were more likely than the norm to have a personal homepage, to maintain a blog, to post comments on other people’s blogs, and to watch online videos as well as above average in their use of search, texting, and email.

This has been known for quite awhile. It makes sense that Canadian law students would be filing privacy complaints about Facebook. 7 million Canadians use Facebook.

This next bit of information begs the question, if just 9% of teens learned something helpful about technology in church, what percentage of adults learned? As boomers age, this may be worth exploring as a way of connecting in real life, let alone in an online community. (similar to Nintendo grabbing the grey market with the Wii)

One recent study we completed among teenagers showed that just 9% of church-going teens had learned something helpful about technology in their church during the past year. As each new generation becomes increasingly enmeshed with technology, these discussions and choices cannot be left to chance. Control, image, relevance, immediacy, transparency, purity, truth, stewardship, and escapism are some of the many issues that technology brings to the surface, not always with benign consequences.

The piece ends on the proverbial up note and with the main point. You can find out what it is here.

via: Street Prophets