Social Media « One man’s voice

3Nov/090

Corraling Christians, Twitter style

Earlier today I ran across a tweet from Jon Brodkin (@JBrodkin) on Twitter that I thought was unusual, odd and somewhat counter to what Christianity teaches Christians:

are you Christian? Do you think Twitter has too many heathens? It's time to start posting on Christian Chirp! http://www.christianchirp.com/
11:15 AM Nov 3rd from TweetDeck

Now I have no idea if Jon is a Christian, if he has something to do with the site or anything at all about him. I just want to make sure that I am clear about that in this post. Whatever I say here has nothing to do with him, his beliefs or anything at all related to him.

In looking at that site my first thought was "why would Christians want to further alienate and segregate themselves in a society in which few people see them in a positive light?". Seriously, Christians have taken a bad rap for a lot of stuff over time and have given many people a lot of reasons for thinking the way they do about them. As a Christian I struggle sometimes with the call on me and the way that those that I look to for leadership represent that call. I wrote about that a few days ago and the struggle that I feel with how complacent Christians have become - in my opinion - and how far off the mark it seems that we have become in doing what we have been commanded to do.

In looking at ChristianChirp.com I can't help but see that all over again. I can understand why Christians would want an environment for themselves. I mean, after all, churches have been doing that for ages. But why would Christians choose to run from "heathens" when there is a huge potential for ministry in social media? Hanging around a social site filled with other Christians seems totally counter to "going out into all the world and preaching the gospel". I mean, Christians should be going into the dark places and pulling down strongholds, reaching out to those in need regardless of whether there might be heathens there, stepping into those areas where those that need the gospel the most are lurking.

The more I see things like this crop up the more I think that Christians are losing their collective minds as it relates to the great commission. I can't save a single soul if I am trapped in a room full of saved Christians. And while I appreciate the need for Christians to have a place to mingle amongst themselves for a time, I still think that church should be that time and the rest of the time we have should be spent ministering first to our families then to those immediately around us.

And I can't see at all how we can do that when we are only mingling with and interacting with Christians.

Tagged as: Christianity, Social Media No Comments

8Aug/080

Interview with Miss Mota Mouth Michelle Naranjo

I am a social media hound. I love the social web and all that it encompasses. And as a web developer I love finding new instances of technology in use around the Internet. In the arena of Internet technology no where has there been as exhaustive an explosion of technological advancement and the inventive use of said technology as in the social media space.

It would go without saying then I have a pretty deep place in my internet <3 for social web sites that kick ass when it comes to the use of modern technology (or older technology with a modern, inventive spin on it). Of those sites, my favorites are Twitter, BrightKite and FriendFeed. I am not really sure if I like Plurk and Kwippy just yet, though I do use them. I also have accounts at Utterz, Pownce and Identi.ca, and I tie them all together with Ping.fm. I am not at all a fan of Flickr or Picasa or YouTube or Facebook or MySpace. There is just something so nasty about all of them that I only visit those sites on occassion and, when I do, it is usually only for short amounts of time.

Enough about my fascination with the social web. Today I was asked by Twitter's own @missmotormouth herself, Michelle Naranjo, to be Interviewed because some of the recent Tweets I have made regarding fuel prices and the effects of said prices on families, outings and the general economy of the home. I have used the social web for a while as a medium to voice some of my discontent with rising fuel prices. I have used this blog to voice a lot more of the discontented feelings I have regarding lots of stuff. A lot of what I feel makes its way into the social circle, including my thoughts on homeschooling, marriage, finances, work, programming and many other issues that I hold dear to me.

In talking with Michelle about fuel prices we also got on the subject of homeschooling. We talked briefly about her daughter's challenges in public and private schools and her success with homeschooling before being admitted to a magnet school. We talked about the current state of the California education system. We talked about Christianity (mildly) and we talked about the economy.

We also talked about Toyota and the trail they are blazing through the auto manufacturing sector, the experience I had with NUMMI (a GM and Toyota joint venture plant), some of the knowledge I had gained from knowing the Toyota Production System and some of the other things I have experience with, like car sales, design, time to market and customer experience. In the end it was a great hour or so spent talking business, economy, children and experience. Plus I was asked if, in the future some time, I might consider writing a guest blog for an as yet to be named site (not sure how I would do that seeing as I can barely keep up with mine).

But of all that I could take from this experience the one thing that stood out to me the most is that the social web can be used in today's business world if used properly. Not all socializing on the net is young men stalking young women hoping to "hook up". It is very possible to find lots of useful information, and to provide lots of useful information, when you use the internet in an appropriate way. It has given everyone an equal voice and a platform by which to project that voice. And I have used that platform, sometimes thinking that I was the only one on the internet, to broadcast my thoughts, rants, feelings and commentary. And lo and behold, someone was listening.

Socializing with me
If you ever want to know what I am up to when I am not totally neglecting this blog...
http://twitter.com/RobertGonzalez/
http://brightkite.com/people/RobertGonzalez/
http://friendfeed.com/robertgonzalez
http://www.plurk.com/user/robertgonzalez
http://www.kwippy.com/RobertGonzalez/
http://www.utterz.com/RobertGonzalez
http://pownce.com/RobertGonzalez/
http://identi.ca/robertgonzalez/