Archive for September 2009
I recently joined Facebook (I call it “Faceborg” because I’ve been assimilated), and find it to be a fascinating reflection of how people live.
On one hand, it is fun to discover how broad peoples’ spheres of influence can be — relationships based on hometown, education (various levels), occupation, hobbies and personal interests.
On the other, it gives a person the opportunity to be who they want to be and control what others see about them. An individual can “spin” their image by what they talk about and present.
Delete the dragon-slaying, though, and you’re left with something much more mainstream: Facebook, a vast, interconnected universe populated by avatars.
Facebook and other social networks ask people to create a character — one based on the user, sure, but still a distinct entity. Your character then builds relationships by connecting to other characters. Like Dungeons & Dragons, this is not a competitive game. There’s no way to win. You just play.
This diverse evolution from Mr. Gygax’s 1970s dungeon goes much further. Every Gmail login, every instant-messaging screen name, every public photo collection on Flickr, every blog-commenting alias is a newly manifested identity, a character playing the real world.
So, when we’re blogging, posting our latest vacation pix or tweeting, what are we telling our audience about ourselves?
the faith of a child
a couple of weeks ago, we baptized 11 kids & youth. it was a great, encouraging time. we were at Hagg Lake, no preaching done except for the testimonies of the kids. the parents baptized their own children and it was a blessing to see.
as parents we certainly hope our kids’ faith will grow and sustain them into adulthood. but how do we help that happen?
newsweek raises a similar question in an article about what kids understand about God. two things from the article stand out for me — 1) kids have a better understanding of God than adults think and 2) how people parent strongly influences what their children believe about God.
i was also struck by this comment concerning raising teens,
Teens’ need to carve out a domain under their own control is very real. And they bring their frustration with their parents to their relationship with God.
In a recent study by Clark University professor Lene Arnett Jensen, conservative Protestant adolescents had some very mixed things to say about God.
The God of Adolescents is judgmental, disapproving, and unforgiving. He isn’t very loving. His supernatural gifts are akin to those of the Devil. On the whole, adolescents seem more negative – almost hostile – to God than at any other time in their lives. (Sounds to me like their God is a cross between a parent, a popular Mean Girl, and a college admissions officer.)
as if parenting wasn’t hard enough…
