Communication(4) in a Virtual World

Is Communication as we know it

over the hill?

Is Literacy going the way of Harry Potter?

Snape?

Voledmort?

or Dumbeldore?

Should I be circulating my resume as Pastor-Dancerella?

I enjoyed a great article on SFGate this morning: "Kids reading fewer books despite Harry Potter hoopla" Read the entire article here.

Here's some of the excerpts I found poignant:

"We seem to be doing better than ever at teaching younger kids to read, but when kids enter adolescence, their reading - and reading ability - falls off. The power of the electronic, commercial entertainment media seems to be taking teenagers away from reading."

also

"While some experts worry that a drop-off in reading is an early warning sign of a culture in collapse, others interpret the results as part of a general shift toward electronic-based commnications, which will simply require new ways of measuring potential. 'You have to be careful when you say kids are reading less,' says Michael Kamil, a professor of education at Staford University. 'It doesn't mean they are incapable of reading. It means they choose to do other things instead.'"

It made me think:

1. Have the new medias and new techonologies available to us transformed the way we communicate in such a way, or to such an extent, that we can't go back? Is it all for good? Or is it a mixed bag? Maybe we are reading more - yet differently. Is it about quanity or quality? How do we quantify literacy in an image-based culture in which we spoon fed 30 second bits of information so that we don't change the channel, turn the page, or lose our attention?

2. What does it mean that children (those most immersed in our new communicative culture) read less and less? Is that a sign of the decay, decline and iminent destruction of our culture/society? Or is it an indicator/consequence of a radical worldview shift? Are we shifting back to some dark ages cultural world in which the priveleged (maybe in the future based on intelligence and reading capability) will rule the world in a big-brother-Brave-New-World sort of way?

3. What does this mean for the way we relate and communicate with each other? I've blogged a lot this past week about communication....are we struggling to communicate (an inalienable part of the human condition I believe) in new and particular ways because of the media shift that's emerging and already partially happened? Are we still fully human if we communicate principally and primarily via technology-enhanced means? It's like email converstaion...it's great! Helpful. Efficient. Fast. But I don't believe it can replace face to face conversations, dialogues and communication. I think it enhances it...but only in a complimentary not a sustitutionary way. Does it make us more passive and reactionary than active and participatory?

4. Specifically what does this shift mean for the way tha we relate and communicate with each other in the context of Christian community, in particular a local church? Here's an example: My daughter received her wildest-dream-come-true present for her birthday recently - Bella Dancerella. If you have no idea what Bella Dancerella is let me bring you up to speed. It's an example or incarnation of what the new media/technology are doing to our communicative reality. Basically it's a DVD dance class. It comes with all the goods - a ballet bar, some dance steps on a nifty plastic carpet (different carpets for different ballets) and some DVDs of Bella - the best ballet dancer (according to her)...who dances her way through swan lake while teaching the watcher the moves. Basically it's a dance class that you don't have to leave home to do. It's a dance community of like-minded friends that are all virtual. And Bella is also an expert at cheerleading, tap, hip-hop, you-name-it, she'll teach it to you in the safety, comfort and isolation of your own home. Here's a youtube clip I uploaded to give you a taste of what it's like.



It's a good thing. I love it. My kids adore it. Yet what does it mean? Are we headed towards some radical sci-fi futuristic imagined reality becoming what we live here and now? Will the future resemble somthing like the school scene in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure where the learning, teaching, and classroom setting are virtual? For education it is actually amazing - the new seemingly limitless opportunities. But what would that mean for things in which community - being with other people - is foundation, paramount and the raison d'etre? I think of Christian Worship - a time and a space in which we gather in community because our common faith gathers us together. Can you gather in such a way through virtual community? Does that cheapen the experience? Are we fooling ourselves into accepting the isolation that most of us seem to constantly be running from in our modern urban life? And what will happen to our gathering "worship" or "church" in which we gather around and are primarily gathered by a written text? Should I be circulating my resume or be enrolling in more programming classes so that I can create my own Pastor-Dancerella type worship videos that can be streamed live to every ipod/mp3 player and iphone in my parish neighborhood? Church isn't a spectator sport. You can't watch it, download it, or observe it. You have to participate in it. So what will the future hold?