Frank's Blog

Sometimes in small group world we get caught up in the present. We think about how to enhance my group situation this week. How do I find a better study, how do I encourage my group to share deeply, or how can we support others through stress in life. However, as leaders we must also be thinking about the future. In order to have our churches remain culturally relevant we must understand the social tools that people use, especially young people. Technology changes rapidly, and social media tools are changing the way people interact and in some cases even enhancing it.

I was recently pointed to an interesting article by media and tech guy Dave Knox that provided some interesting data:

• Nearly half of US online adults are social media users, but 71% of online tweens and teens connect to a social network at least once a week.
• There are more Paypal accounts than Visa card holders.
• Americans sent 75 billion text messages in June 2008, a 160% increase from June 07.
• 70 million of the 90 million homes in the United States that are online have broadband connection speed and 37 percent of US Homes have Wireless or Wi-Fi.
• 9 out of 10 teens considers themselves to be "video gamers" and more than half play video games at least 3 times per week.
• 29% of teens would rather shop online than in a store.
• Consumers aged 18 - 26 are spending more time using the Internet (12.2 hours per week) than watching TV (10.6 hours per week) according to Forrester.

If almost half on adults on the web use the web use social media, than these tools are not a fad. They are not going away, and we should explore how they can be used to enhance community in the church. When 71% of the coming generation is using these tools, it cannot be ignored. This fall there will be a number of breakouts at the Group Life Conference on this very topic. If you have thought about attending you will want to be sure to be there this year. Plan ahead and go to the conference this fall. I will keep you posted as I find out more.