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Tuesday, January 21, 2003 |
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On page 200 (in Habits of the High-Tech Heart), there is something to which I can say "amen" rather than "now wait a minute". He writes:
A giving servant seeks to be responsible, not successful. A Servant hears the call to responsibility, listens to those being served, and then ministers to them....when we divorce our high-tech endeavors from the goal of serving others responsibly, we become amoral technicians.
It seems that for Christian organizations to be truly serving their "audience" that seeks information and perhaps more, they must let go of the "success story" and the expectations that online community will happen by itself; and that when it doesn't it isn't scrapped as "impractical" or not promising enough of "sufficient ROI"; "if we build it, they will come" isn't a promising strategy. It takes real istening, and it takes some searching to identify with what the users of an online system are seeking. This is true even for Christian or religious groups that seek to sell resources online. They MUST fight the good fight of building relationship; to discover the stories of their users so that they can truly "serve the people" by helping them with the very things which attracted them to the possibility of using the resources in the first place. It's not pushing a Product at them. It's helping them with the search to find the best resources --- often these resources are not Publications but other people. Publishers will do well to realize that.
11:40:57 PM 
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In Chapter 8, Sojourning With Heart, Schultze observes:
Many lonely, rootless individuals seek solace online, particularly when they cannot find it in person. Although a digital "place" cannot possibly provide the levels of neighborliness and hospitality we need for community, some of those surfing the cyber-diaspora do find temporary comfort there. (p.191)
So my question is this: At the very least, is there not a "call" implied here? Is there not a ministry in "being there", at least for the desperate ones? I am not so condescending toward the cyber-community seeker (as in those "lonely , rootless individuals" who go online because they are some kind of social misfits). My expererience tells me that these "save havens" that supposedly exist in traditional communities and religious traditions that Schultze holds up as the "solutions" have failed in so many cases, and many of the people leaving these failed insititutions have ventured online, and some find personal contact, and so me do not. Online, failure happens, too. It's not as simple as "most people who seek online community are lonely , rootless individuals". There's much more to it: Read on in Too Quick to Judge
10:37:06 PM
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A defense of Schultze's arguments (from Habits of the High-Tech Heart) without having to agree in "Legitimate Theological and Sociological Exploration of Online Community" (and then I proceed to say why I don't agree)
9:00:12 AM
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In Speech vs Online Interaction, I take issue with the suggestion in Chapter 7 of Habits of the High-Tech Heart that online is not as dialogical, not as personal, and not as "communal". This seems to be the theme of Schultze's discussion of Virtual Community. Schultze often takes up the phrase "Real Community" and usually in comparison to "Virtual Community", which is one of my biggest peeves.
8:30:42 AM
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