Thesis on "Weblogs and Spirituality"

Thesis 20 pages (5256 words) Sources: 15 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Weblogs and Spirituality

The escalating uncertainty of economic systems, resulting lack of trust in financial, political and government entities globally have many people re-evaluating not only their purpose in life, but who they are.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 had the same effect, yet the global economic downturn in 2008 is causing a much more fundamental, pragmatic, and in many cases, immediate -reordering of beliefs. With so much skepticism, lack of trust, and fear of the future, more people are turning to Christianity to seek answers and guidance through these very difficult times. The intent of this paper is to provide insights into how social networking in general and blogs specifically can be used to communicate and provide examples of how God's love transforms lives. Arguably the greatest need today is for Christians, whether they be in the clergy, mission work or on careers God has guided them into, to share how God's love is the panacea to the panic increasingly felt today. Social networking in general and blogs specifically need to have an authentic and real voice to be trustworthy. The world is hungry for credibility, trust and peace. God's love and His guidance is the answer, and through the use of social networking and blogs, more people can be reached for His glory than ever before. The strength of God is what's needed in the world today; even the most educated financial planners have no idea of how the complex economic challenges facing the world today are going to be resolved. Yet the one constant, God's love and the strength He provides, is the foundation the world needs to live in hope and not fear. The intent of this paper is to first describe the many platforms of social networking, explaining how blogs are an integral part of this framework. Next, the factors responsible for the growth of blogs are discussed, and specifically how these factors are aligning perfectly with sharing God's love and peace. Third, the use of blogs as a means to evangelize and spread God's word is discussed. Allegorical to the Gospels and St. Augustine's Confessions, blogging today is about testimonials and discussions of how faith is transforming the lives of those believers who are bloggers as well.

Social Networking as a New Foundation for Spreading God's Word

The collections of technologies and applications that together comprise Web 2.0 have as their foundation the nurturing of collaborative, real-time and often highly interactive communication. Included in these technologies are blogs, both written and video-based. The exponential growth of Web 2.0 technologies is ironically traceable to how disconnected people feel, and how increasingly difficult it is to trust others (Cohen, 2008, 16-17). Our society continues to look for reasons to trust in others, and is invariably disappointed, because the only true source of trust is God. In Proverbs 29:25 it is said that" Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe." The fascination with social networking in general and blogs specifically is based on this point. Fearing man, many turn to the Internet and these collections of technologies hoping to connect with others and somehow alleviate the pain of loneliness and fear. What people are hungry for is someone to trust, and with the exponential growth of the Internet in general and social networking including blogging specifically, we as Christians have a fertile opportunity to accomplish great tasks for the glory of God. As with any social network, whether organized in a local community or around the world via the Internet, there is a social hierarchy that emerges. The growing importance of social networks in people's lives is that they are looking for guidance and insight into how to managing their fears and the uncertainty the world faces today. Psalm 40:4 says that" Blessed is the man who makes the Lord His trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods." Social networking is dominated by strong personalities that seek attention and adulation. Given how difficult times are today many people look to those that concentrate on self-promotion and self-righteousness and their self-proclaimed expertise as the sources of guidance they need. In the end however many people online searching for assurance and guidance find these online celebrities may be even more lost than they are. Clearly the opportunities to bring the love of God into these people's lives so they can experience a true foundation for peace and not have to seek out people who seek to be trusted and followed yet in the end are no closer to bringing the love to God to them as they are on their own. There is an urgent need to capitalize on the technologies discussed here to illuminate the love of God to others, on a global scale. It is unprecedented in terms of opportunity to spread God's message, yet must be approached through humility, honesty and truth. The Lord delights in honesty and the cornerstone of any social networking strategy, including any blogs written must embrace this value and even to the point of candor, make it abundantly clear what the true intentions are. Proverbs 16:11 states that "Honest scales and balances are from the Lord; all the weights in the bag are of his making" and in the 21st century let's add the weights and bags of reputation, specifically in social networking and blogging are the Lord's. With these concepts serving as the foundation of this discussion of social networking technologies, it's imperative to realize that the greatest missing component of these is trust. Christian bloggers are bringing much-needed voices to the social networking landscape (Rupp, Smith, 2002, 30, 31). The social networking conversation (Bernoff, Charlene Li, 2008, et.al.) is enriched by the voice of Christian bloggers, yet many more are needed to break through the noise level that dominates all forms of social media today.

Understanding Web 2.0 and its' Role in God's Service

The concepts of Web 2.0 and their impacts on social networking have specifically led to entirely new approaches and processes by which people, companies, and nations communicate with one another. It has the potential to create entirely new communities of believers online, with growth and adoption rates surpassing televisions' global reach that occurred in the last century. The totality of Web 2.0 as the foundation for greater collaborative communication, sharing and healing is illustrated in the collection of applications, tools and technologies that comprise this area, with social networking being a vital part. Table 1, Web 2.0 Applications, provides an overview of these collections of technologies, which has been assembled based on analyses completed by Forrester Research (Bernoff, Li, 2008, et.al.). Included the framework of social networking are blogs; mash-ups, which are the combining of two or more Web-based applications; peer-to-peer networking, which is illustrated by the popularity of Twitter, FriendFeed and other micro-blogging sites; the use of Real Simple Syndication (RSS), which is invaluable for delivering real-time updates of content to those that are following a given ministry website or blog; Social Media which is the term used for referring to these collections of technologies. In addition, social networking sites are those that allow users to create their own online networks. Examples of these included LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and others that promote the development of online communities by having users connect with each other. Blogging is often the catalyst to users connecting with each other on these social networking platforms. Tagging is the use of HTML technologies for making web pages easily accessible and recallable. This area has significant growth potential for spreading Gods' Word as key blog entries can be added to sites such as Digg to gain greater search of key ministry terms by Google and other search engine indexing technologies. The final technology mentioned are Wikis, which are useful for organizing collaborative content. Wikis would be ideal for use in organizing testimonies and sharing what God has done in a person's life.

Taken together the applications in Table 1 are evidence of the dynamics industry thought leaders Tim O'Reilly, founder and publisher of O'Reilly Books, and John Battelle, author and former design engineer lead at Google summarized in their definition of Web 2.0. Figure 1, Web 2.0 Explained, illustrates the underlying concepts that O'Reilly and Battelle found to be the catalysts of social networking's growth.

Web 2.0 Applications

Applications

Descriptions

Blogs

The term blog is short for Web Log, which is a website where short, journal-like entries are made. Blog entries range from being fact-based and informative to being highly opinionated views of the bloggers.

Online diary or journal entry on the Internet, which primarily supports text, photo (photoblog), video (vlog), and audio (podcast) formats

Google, AOL, and Yahoo offer free blogging platforms

Mash-up

Web service that gathers related content from more than one source

IBM's mash-up applications enable project managers to match team resources with a map to identify the geographical locations of the resources

Peer-to-Peer Networking technique… READ MORE

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