MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Orkut, MyPraize, Xianz...what are all of these online sites/communities and are they "safe"? MySpace, in particular, has recently gained negative media and public attention after being linked to the immigration protests of the past weeks, weekend party violence, and inappropiate relations between adults and minors. In hopes of saving her 13 and 11 year-old daughters from the "sin" and "dangerous people" found on the likes of MySpace, my boss recently banned her 2 pre-teen/teen girls from participation in any related online community.
I am just on the fringe of the generation that is really utilizing and connecting through these various online communities. Facebook hit the secene as I was finishing up my undergrad degree at TCU , and I just never really got in to any other online forum. What is the draw to these communities and other personalized media? RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com offers up some suggestions in a recent post titled Our Own Private Paradise.
Online Communities and the Church
So in the world but not of it...MySpace or MyPraize (MyPraize was created by Joshua Holmes, student at Liberty University)...are online communities a wise choice for Believers...should Christian parents highly moniter or ban their children from them? I think these are all good questions for Believers to consider and figure out. My husband teaches high school and frequently tells me about the significant role that MySpace and Facebook play in his students social interaction. As these forums grow and their users do the same (in years that is), the significant role that online communities will continue to play in the lives of people will most likely increase, and I think that the Christian community would be missing out on understanding their culture if they were to completely ignore them.
Cheese Factor
I didn't have to spend too much time on Xianz's site to realize how much I don't like it....the banner line for Xianz... "It's not MySpace or YourSpace...It's HIS space!"
More Exellent Information about online communities
New Blogging Tool for Christians by tallskinnykiwi.com
How Your Church Can use MySpace by churchmarketingsucks.com
Tags:MySpace , Online Community , Facebook , social networking , web 2.0 , Church , Christian , xianz , MyPraize
No comments:
Post a Comment