Draw Something About Slavery
Everyone, including me, seems to be hooked on the new app, “draw something“. it is number one on both the free and paid apps charts in app store. In its first five weeks, it was downloaded 20 million times. Move over Angry Birds!
The app involves drawing a picture, from a choice of 3 (easy, medium, hard), and then sending it to someone else to guess. It’s the mobile equivalent of ‘pictionary’ and its incredibly addictive (at least for the first couple of weeks).
I woke up this morning to find reminders for 17 drawings that I was still to guess. 17 drawings! And the thing is, if you manage to get that list down to 0, which will take you a good half hour, as you draw the final drawing, someone will then send you another one to do.
For someone who needs all their jobs to be done, for things to be neat and tidy and to have no unread e-mails in their inbox, this is a nightmare. It is a game that you will never finish. There will always be another drawing to guess or draw.
It’s so easy to become a slave to something isn’t it?
Whether it be facebook, twitter, an app, or some other social construct, we always end up becoming its slave. It seems to be built into our DNA. Maybe we just like something controlling us. Maybe it gives us a sense of purpose, an identity, something to be part of.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
Paul was on to something wasn’t he?
What are we, or our young people enslaved by? What do we constantly need to feed?
Part of the joy of the season of Lent is to remind ourselves that we are not slaves anymore, that we have been set free.
What do you need to be set free of today?
Justin Bieber and Social Action
I’m not a fan of Justin Bieber‘s music. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it. it’s just not my kind of thing.
No one can deny however that he is many peoples ‘thing’. And he wields an incredible amount of power and influence.
So it’s great to see him use that power and influence for good.
To celebrate his 18th birthday, Bieber announced on Twitter Wednesday night that he’d be giving up his birthday for charity: water. He has asked fans to donate $18 to the charity and even consider giving up their birthday and having people send money to the charity instead.
This is the second-consecutive year Bieber has asked his fans to donate to charity: water for his birthday. When he turned 17, he raised $47,148 through donations made by 2,357 of his fans, most of whom gave $17. Bieber is promoting the campaign exclusively through Facebook and Twitter, two networks where he has nearly unmatched followings among celebrities.
So often celebrities use their influence and power to market products in order to make them more money. It’s great to see Bieber use his influence for good.
This could be a great little discussion starter for your youth group.
Said and Unsaid
Yesterday Apple announced its new OSX update, “Mountain Lion“. With over 100 updates, this update will allows macs to become more deeply connected with the online world- twitter, flickr and vimeo. Read more about it here
But what I found more interesting than what was said, was what wasn’t.
one word:facebook.
Facebook is not just a social media, it is the social media. 100 million active users testify to that fact. So why not have Mountain Lion integrate with Facebook?
It could be because of technical issues, the fact that (the enemy) Microsoft owns a small part of facebook or, more likely, facebook is too big a competitor and apple do not believe in the proverb, “keep your friends close and your enemies closer”. Language is fascinating isn’t it?. Often what we do not say has more power than what we do.
Consider again the expenses scandal. When MPs claimed they had done nothing wrong as there were simply, “following the rules”, what they were really saying was “I know what I did was wrong but the law allowed for it so its okay. I’m not too blame”.
When apple announced all the companies they were integrating with but did not mention facebook, what they were really saying is, “we do not want to work with facebook”.
It gets me thinking about the kinds of unsaid things that are said in the church I work for.
“We have a youth led service every two months” could really mean “we give young people their own service every couple of months so we can keep things the same the rest of the time”.
or
“we’re bible believing Christians” could really mean “we believe in the bits we agree with and ignore the rest”.
Now maybe that’s cynical and maybe that’s not what is really being said but I believe it’s a good question to ask.
So, what kinds of unsaid things are being said in your church and youth work?
Related articles
- Why Facebook Is Missing From Apple’s New Desktop OS (wired.com)
- Apple Has A Social Friend — And It’s Not Facebook (huffingtonpost.com)
Facebook Discipleship Research
I have been asked to do a guest lecture for a Youth Work Honours Degree course on ‘Discipleship and Facebook‘.
As I begin to research this, I want to throw out some questions that I would appreciate your comments on.
What are the positives in using facebook as a discipleship tool?
What are the negatives in using facebook as a discipleship tool?
What are the key differences between face-to-face discipleship and online discipleship?
What are the key issues with young people and facebook? (positive or negative)
Does your church/ organisation have a child protection policy when it comes to interacting with young people online?
I would appreciate your comments on any of the questions
Who Said Life Wasn't Complicated? 