Fr. Colin suggested that I read the book “The Shallows – What the Internet is Doing to our Brains” by Nicholas Carr. I’m just getting started with it, and I’m not reading it, but rather listening to it (probably not the best approach given the topic of the book). It has already had a big impact on the way I think of communicating with our parishioners. And it is answering some questions that I’ve had too.
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| Not pertinent to this post, but humorous. |
Interestingly, interacting with the Internet has changed the way the most educated folks in our society, like professors, scientists, Ph.D. students, etc., engage with books. To keep this brief: they don’t. They don’t interact with books anymore. In fact, they can’t. The Internet has trained even those with the most robust brains to digest knowledge in a sort of networked way, rather than a linear way. Networked = Internet. Linear = Book.
I’m purposely writing this in a very “networked” way. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. And for those who know me, you know that this is absolutely antithetical to the way that I write. Even the way I talk. And the way I think. I’ll have to fix that part too I guess. “Sermons in the Internet Age” might be a book I write. Or, more likely I’ll be a case study in such a book of how those trained in one information age struggle to succeed in the next information age. Or maybe it won’t be a book, but a series of short videos. Or something like that...
I’ve often wondered: why does it happen that we send out super high quality, solidly written pieces with proof, support, investigation, citations – and folks don’t react? We spend a lot of time on this stuff, but it has little impact. According to Carr it is probably because folks don’t read past the first few sentences. Or they jump around on the page looking for key words. But folks don’t sit down, as a rule, and read things from start to end. And that is a pretty big paradigm shift for me, at least. I mean, I do, but I’m thinking I’m more of a dinosaur in this regard in these days. And I’m just figuring that out now.
So going forward we will try to communicate in succinct, impactful, focused clips (words, videos, etc.). That will be the first layer. Then there will be a link to get to the second level, which will have all the usual materials that us dinosaurs know and love and embrace. Hypothetically, this will make it possible to get all the information that is needed for everyone to everyone. We’ll see. :) But we will try. And we will keep trying. And we will ask you to keep telling us how we can do it better.
Because there are unlimited GREAT ideas in our parish, but most of those traditionally stay in the head’s of our parishioners. Let’s stop that keeping good ideas to ourselves. We WELCOME your input. Write us a letter if you are a dinosaur like me. For the non-dinosaurs, click here and fill out the form. Help us make our parish the best it can be by sharing your ideas with us!
Asking Your Prayers,
Fr. Gregory
