Technically speaking, that is. I don’t like learning new things on computers, cell phones, pdas, pdfs, iPads, ipods, blackberries, blueberries, Burberrys, or schnozberries. I don’t like technological change (my granddads would be so proud).
"Schnozberries"
An unfortunate fact is that technology does change, and with it, the way our lives socially operate. It never fails on nights when I’m out with friends that at least two of them are playing Words with Friends on their iPhones. Few hours go by where I do not pick up my smart phone to send a text message. I even recently opened a Twitter account, something I once said I’d never do. Apparently I do have the capability to become a conformist, but I won’t adapt to anything else. That is until I get my next phone.
The truth is it’s difficult to navigate through life today without some sort of connection to the ever-fluid multi-media rat race. How do you stay connected to your real-world social network if you aren’t connected to an online social network? Think about the last get-together you attended. How did you hear about it? A text? An e-mail? A direct tweet? A Facebook message? No matter the channel, you most definitely did not hear about it through someone knocking on your door, and you probably didn’t even get a phone call. Even among close friends, frequent face-to-face interaction has been passed off to electrical wires and hi-speed connection.
My wife and I recently had a discussion revolving around the inescapability of electronic communication. She is a kindergarten teacher. She had to be trained on a Promethean smart board so she could teach 5 year olds how to stare at a screen and move images around through the power of touch. A part of me wondered why children are being taught this way so early. It didn’t take either of us long to realize the necessity of training kids at a young age with the latest means. They will be using it when they get home, so to not prepare them in their most frequent interactive means is a great disservice. This became painstakingly clear when we were visiting the family of a little girl she used to nanny. The child, whose diapers Anne changed just 2 years ago, taught us (in broken toddler English) how to use Steve Jobs’ iPad. It goes to show the role of rapidly-emerging technology in the future and the way in which younger generations will be better prepared to use it.
"Kid with iPad"
This fall, I am serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The courses I will be teaching are in communication. I was surprised (though not anymore) to see that the textbook from which I teach dedicates more than one page to electronic communication. Text messaging is even a key term in the book’s glossary. And truthfully, it should be. Though I’ve run across many in the academic world opposed to these “high-tech” approaches, resisting them may not only diminish students’ ability to function in the real-world at the highest level, but it may also limit professors’ adequacy to relate to their students.
What does this mean for the Church? You’d be hard pressed to find a church whose pastor does not text, whose worship leader does not tweet, or whose website doesn’t have an interactive feedback option. That being said, we often don’t know how to properly use these channels. From a PR perspective, organizations long ago understood the power of the web. Churches have unintentionally done the same, as they use their websites to highlight service projects, connection to their cities, suburbs, and towns, and ministry opportunities existing within the church. On an interpersonal level, however, I believe church leaders fall prey to a common problem among other organizational executives: engaged while e-communicating, but disconnected to their immediate settings.
Mike Thompson, whose book The Organizational Champion I’ve recently referenced, warns executives and leaders of the danger of this approach. “You never see [organizational champions] pick up their mobile device and grab a text message during a conversation,” he says. A simple enough thought that few leaders practice. And why don’t we? Because leaders have to multi-task.
With great power comes great responsibility. – Peter Parker (a.k.a Spider-Man)
Being able to handle multiple moving parts is one of the reasons leaders are given leadership. And when involved in ministry, work never stops (sometimes even for us volunteer leaders!). There is never a shortage of something that needs to be done. While tens to hundreds to thousands of people rely on the hard and constant work of their spiritual leaders, multi-tasking often comes with a price.
When you are talking to someone who is constantly looking around, staring at their computer screen, or texting, does it make you feel like you are being listened to? Of course not – because they aren’t focused on you, which means they cannot react to everything you say. I read this and for some reason think I have the supernatural ability to focus on the person in front of me while sending a text message in response to a tweet that someone sent me from their iPhone which conveniently also sent to my e-mail inbox. The fact is I cannot give someone my attention while electronically interacting with others. It won’t happen – at least not the way I am needed in that moment that someone comes to me to have a discussion.
As church leaders, we need to be able to multi-task. But many times, we are needed more to focus on who is in front of us. When we are engaged with the people we interact with, our communication is more clear, our understanding is more precise, and the meaning we create with those people is valuable to them as well as us. Multi-media brings about convenience and many time-saving solutions. But in adopting the latest e-trends and adapting to a faster-paced world, we cannot lose our ability to stop what we are doing and give the person in front of us our eyes, our ears, and our focus.
