Americans spend more than 1/3 of their day with screens

Thanks to churchrelevance.com, I came across this article from the New York Times. A recent study has found that the average American adult spends 8.5 hours each day exposed to screens. This includes televisions, computers, cell phones, and even GPS units. Put another way, we spend more than a third of each day looking at screens.

One of the remarkable features of this study is that this average time holds steady for nearly every age group of adults. Television remains the most common form of media consumption, but this study proves that computer usage has replaced the radio as the second most common form. However, while the time spent looking at screens is roughly the same, the screens that they look at are a little different. For example, 18- to 24-year olds watch the least amount of television, at just 3.5 hours each day. This means that people in this age range are spending a full 5 hours each day of "screen time" doing things other than watching TV.

I think that there are real implications for the church here. People are using screen-based media for 1/3 of their day. We need to find tools and methods to use screens for minisitry. Too often, churches and ministries use technology for information delivery only. In other words, they have websites or Twitter or other things that serve the purpose of providing information. They are using these tools only to let people know when and where they can show up if they want to participate in ministry.

I think that we need to move beyond this. I think that we need to actually find ways to actually conduct ministry on-screen. We have to figure out how we can use the technological tools available to us so that we can use them to actually touch their lives for Jesus, not just provide information about who we are and where they can find us. When we rely on getting people to come to the church, we 0nly have a few hours each week to reach them. On the other hand, if we can effectively use on-screen culture to our benefit, we have the ability to connect with people during 1/3 of their lives, and nearly 1/2 of the time they are awake. If we don't figure out how to do this effectively, we're missing out on a real opportunity to affect the world for Jesus.

I'm not sure that I have answers to how to do this, but I know I'm actively asking the question.

The mindset of new college freshmen

It’s that time of year again. Every August, Beloit College publishes the Mindset List. The list provides set of things that are, and often have always been, true for people who are entering college that year. The goal of the Mindset list is to provide a look at the cultural touchstones that have shaped the lives of students who are beginning college. To the rest of us, it also serves as a reminder of the changing frame of reference of the younger generation. Here are some highlights from this year’s list:

· The class of 2012 has grown up in an era where computers and rapid communication are the norm, and colleges no longer trumpet the fact that residence halls are “wired” and equipped with the latest hardware. These students will hardly recognize the availability of telephones in their rooms since they have seldom utilized landlines during their adolescence. They will continue to live on their cell phones and communicate via texting. Roommates, few of whom have ever shared a bedroom, have already checked out each other on Facebook where they have shared their most personal thoughts with the whole world.

· It is a multicultural, politically correct and “green” generation that has hardly noticed the threats to their privacy and has never feared the Russians and the Warsaw Pact.

· Sammy Davis Jr., Jim Henson, Ryan White, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Freddy Krueger have always been dead.

· Harry Potter could be a classmate, playing on their Quidditch team.

· Since they were in diapers, karaoke machines have been annoying people at parties.

· GPS satellite navigation systems have always been available.

· Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.

· Universal Studios has always offered an alternative to Mickey in Orlando.

· Grandma has always had wheels on her walker.

· WWW has never stood for World Wide Wrestling.

· Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.

· Schools have always been concerned about multiculturalism.

· Wayne Newton has never had a mustache.

· IBM has never made typewriters.

· Roseanne Barr has never been invited to sing the National Anthem again.

· There has always been Pearl Jam.

· The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno and started at 11:35 EST.

· They may have been given a Nintendo Game Boy to play with in the crib.

· Authorities have always been building a wall across the Mexican border.

· Lenin’s name has never been on a major city in Russia.

· Macaulay Culkin has always been Home Alone.

· Their parents may have watched The American Gladiators on TV the day they were born.

· Caller ID has always been available on phones.

· Soft drink refills have always been free.

· Windows 3.0 operating system made IBM PCs user-friendly the year they were born.

· Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.

· The Hubble Space Telescope has always been eavesdropping on the heavens.

· Michael Millken has always been a philanthropist promoting prostate cancer research.

· Off-shore oil drilling in the United States has always been prohibited.

You can read the whole list here.

What I've been reading: They Like Jesus But Not The Church

I just finished Dan Kimball’s They Like Jesus But Not The Church. As the title indicates, the book primarily discusses people who have a positive opinion of Jesus, but who have a negative opinion of Christians and the church.

Kimball is the pastor of Vintage Faith Church in Santa Cruz, Calif., a church made up predominantly of twenty-somethings. In an effort to avoid becoming trapped in the bubble of Christian subculture, Kimball spends a significant portion of his time outside of his office meeting and building relationships with people who aren’t part of a church.

What he found, in the course of building those relationships, was that many people, particularly in the college and post-college age group, have very positive impressions of Jesus. They are often very open to discussing Jesus and what he taught and thought. However, they don’t share the same opinions about Christians or the church. When conversations turned to these topics, it became clear that, while they liked what Jesus stood for, they don’t think very highly of the church and don’t really want to be associated with it. Kimball backs up these thoughts using the words of the people he knows and has talked to about these topics.

Kimball spends a significant part of his book discussing a number of recurring complaints or criticisms about the church that he has heard. He recognizes that not all of these perceptions are accurate, and even if they are accurate to some extent, they certainly don’t apply to all followers of Jesus. At the same time, he recognizes that the perceptions are real. If we are going to successfully reach and minister to people who have that mindset, we need to be able to overcome these perceptions.

I particularly like the way that Kimball handles these criticisms. He gives some practical ideas for how we, as Christ followers, can talk to people who raise these issues and address their concerns. Kimball doesn’t level wholesale criticisms at the church, but rather suggests that we ask ourselves questions about how we are perceived and how we go about having an impact on people who have this mindset, particularly those who are in their twenties. If you are of this mindset, or know anyone who is, this book can be a huge asset to you.

I thought that They Like Jesus But Not The Church was excellent. I highly recommend it.

Working with Child-Men

I came across a post on Think Christian today about the phenomenon in our society of Child-Men. It discusses how many single, young men remain in a kind of eternal adolescence. It talks about how many single men in their 20s and 30s remain promiscuous, restless and slobby. They do this largely because they can. There is nothing that is pushing them out of this kind of adolescence and essentially to "grow up." In the past, marriage and children was a primary force in making many men transition out of adolescence. In our society today, however, young men have the ability to push that off into the hazy future of "someday."

The underlying message is not that these young, single men are idiots because they continue to spend their days playing video games. The true message is that society has failed these Child-Men because it has failed to provide them a purpose that extends beyond their own lives. The article argues that young men "need a culture that can help them define worthy aspirations." Instead, they have a culture with examples like Enron to show the value of landing a respectable job and a divorce rate to show the value of marriage and family.

Following Jesus Christ should provide exactly the kind of purpose that is currently missing in their lives. And yet we, as followers of Jesus, seem to be failing to present a compelling alternative to this endless adolescence. And it has to be us who are failing at communicating, because clearly God is capable of providing that purpose. While God certainly can work without us, people are generally more receptive when we are doing things that he can work through. We need to do a better job of demonstrating the purpose God can provide to people who otherwise don't really have one.

It's a very thought provoking way of looking at ministry to people in this demographic. It's worth reading the entire article. You can find it here.

More reasons to not like early classes

When I was in school, I never liked early classes. I never felt like I accomplished much in them, and I didn't learn as much as from classes later in the day. I know that many current students feel the same way. Now there is some scientific evidence that explains why.

According to this article in the New York Times, the body clocks of adolescents are different than the ones of younger children or of adults. In most adolescents, the body doesn't start producing melatonin, the hormone that produces sleep, until about 11 p.m. and it continues producing it until about 8 a.m. This means that the body is still producing the hormone that causes sleep after many students, particularly high school students, have started class. Studies indicate that as many as 28% of students fall asleep in their first class of the day.

Some schools have seen dramatic effects by simply starting and ending their school day later. In 2002, high schools in Jessamine County, Kentucky, changed their starting time from 7:30 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. Attendance immediately went up, and standardized test scores increased and have continued to increase each year since. Similarly, schools in Minneapolis and Edina, Minn., moved their starting times to around 8:30 and saw grades increase while lateness, behavioral problems and dropout rates all decreased.

So moving anything important involving adolescents to after 8:00 in the morning can have a dramatic impact on the results.

Teens and Social Media

Pew Internet & American Life Project recently released a study on teens and social media. There is nothing particularly new, but it does provide solid data to support what we already knew or suspected. You can find a nice summary of the data in this Ypulse article. Ypulse is not a Christian site, but it generally does a good job of keeping its finger on the pulse of younger generation, particularly when it comes to media and marketing issues. Here are some highlights Pew Internet study:

Girls are more likely to engage in content creation online than boys are. 35% of all online girls blog compared to 20% of online boys. 54% of online girls have posted photos online compared to only 40% of online boys.

While much of this online presence is about keeping the conversation going among friends (particularly among girls), 39% of online teens do share their own artistic creations, such as artwork, stories or videos. 26% of teens remix content they find on the internet into their own creations.

The one area of online content creation that boys dominate is in posting video online. Boys are nearly twice as likely (19% to 10%) to post videos on the internet than girls.

Teens are creating this content for an audience -- that is, they want people to see it. Almost half of online teens have posted photos where other people can see them, and 89% of those teens report that people post comments about their pictures at least "some of the time." However, teens are picky about the audience they are posting for. 66% of teens with social network profiles restrict those profiles in some way, and 77% of those who post pictures restrict who can view those pictures at least "some of the time." Compare this to the only 54% of adults who restrict access to their pictures.

Social media is also replacing email as a means of staying in contact with friends. 54% of teens send messages to friends over social network sites daily, compared to only 22% who send email to friends daily. Text messaging is also replacing email, with 60% of teens reporting that they send text messages to friends daily.

Teenage brain - good accelerator but bad breaks

In this article, experts confirm what many of us have known intuitively. Their research has found that the brain is still developing into a person's early- to mid-20s. Even in their late teens, young adults are more impulsive, aggressive, emotionally volatile, likely to take risks, reactive to stress, vulnerable to peer pressure, prone to focus on and overestimate short-term payoffs and underplay longer-term consequences of what they do, and likely to overlook alternative courses of action than adults. As a result, the teenage brain is like a car with a good accelerator and bad breaks.

It's an interesting article. Well worth the read.