May
9
2011

Social Media and Genuine Conversation

An article by Matt Comments

Last week I had a great time at the Cultivate Conference. The experience was like drinking out of a fire hydrant, and was probably one of the better conferences that I have been to in quite a while. What I most enjoyed about the conference was the format… gatherings went from eight until noon, and then there were smaller gatherings, I hesitate to call them breakouts, scattered all over the community. You could be discussing multi-site communication with Kem Meyer of Granger Community Church and Lori Bailey from LifeChurch.tv over tacos, and discussing branding with the guys from Holy Cow Creative over Chai Lattes. This desire to enable the offline conversations that really get people thinking freed us up to be able to go places you normally don’t go at church conferences.

In one such offline conversation has really had me thinking over the last few days. During the panel discussion on social media, a gentleman with a great British accent asked the question that I think we all ask: “we place so much importance on using social media to connect people to one another, but are we doing this because people don’t know how to have conversations in the hallway anymore?”

Granted, this was a less than popular idea in a room full of people whose jobs rely on leveraging social media in the church world. But, I think he was on to something. During a conversation over the next break a group of us were discussing whether Facebook, Twitter, and the like are really community building tools, or if they are something else.

I remember back when social media began to take root people would talk about how it empowers people to enter the dialog around them. There was talk about conversation and community. While I understand what they were getting at, I don’t know that anyone realized that it would become what it has. I also think that few people expected the culture changing implications that it has had.

In thinking back on the conversations had about social media even five years ago, I think we missed something else… I don’t know that it has enabled people to enter the dialog so much as it has redefined the idea of dialog and conversation in our culture… changed the meanings of conversation and dialog to mean monologuing together.

Think about that for a minute.

More and more it would seem that in our daily interactions people are not so much discussing ideas and concepts as they are waiting for a moment to get a word in edgewise and get their sound-bite out. The wall format on Facebook, the tweet, as well as talk radio and TV news trains us to get our basic thought out and have people react to it… not discuss it.

I realize that by writing this that I run the risk of being labeled as one of those who “just doesn’t get it”, or as being too old to understand (perhaps I am a fuddy-duddy at 35?). I write this because I realize that the cat is out of the bag and that social media is here to stay. I write this because I am trying to figure out how to leverage social media to develop a sense of true community in the church… and I need help.

How have YOU seen social media leveraged to empower genuine conversation and authentic community?