FACEBOOK NATION
OK, so if you are not a FACEBOOK kind of person, you are going to feel a bit antiquated in the world of adolescents. Since I saw this coming many years back (ok, so Walt Mueller told me about it), I joined Facebook just to see what others were doing. It felt like I was graduating from MySpace with the tassle turned to a whole new world openning up.
Confession, The fastest way to reach me is still on my mobile phone (24/7 except for a 1hr. work-out & 2 min. shower), next is by texting me, next an email and finally Facebook. I would catogorize myself as a cultural user – ie: dont really need it, like it but could do without it. Usefull, yes, worth the upkeep – not so much. But hey, if you want to be culturally relevant and teach others who work with students to at least give the apperarenc of relevancy, you gotta be on Facebook – at least until twitter becomes a household name. So, for now we are a Facebook nation with a Twitter curiosity. I would not mind having one less thing to learn in our every changing culture of technology
We are ministering to: The Most Connected, Yet most alone Generation in history. How is that the case when they seem to be connected to everything and everyone? Because students today are connected electronically rather than being connected relationally.
A bit of Facebook trivia to make you feel relevant!
Facebook, formerly The Facebook, is a free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. The website’s name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some Universities and prep schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.
Mark Zucherberg founded Facebook while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges and Stanford Univeristy. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 175 million active users worldwide.
It is estimated that 13 percent of Facebook customers access the site using their phones.
Facebook already has applications on devices such as Apple’s iPhone and the BlackBerry, which let users post updates and send messages to their friends. The company is working with phone makers to tie Facebook more closely to mobile devices, allowing users to merge their phone contacts with their Facebook friends.
Who knows one day, we may not even have Deacon’s Meetings, we might just Facebook our thoughts on the Wall!