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Live blogging from UYWI
By Jeremy | May 20, 2006
“Have You Seen Your Kids’ MySpace?”
DESCRIPTION:
Radioactive B!+@H, Suckanut Slut, Boyish Sex Machine, NaughtyXXXAsh - porn stars or teens on MySpace?
“Why should I care so much for everyone else when no one gives a s!*# about me?” “y do guys … say that they like u but make u feel like s!*#?” “I will get you drunk and help you plot revenge against the sorry b@$!@&! who made you sad.” “Why is it that life sucks?” “my mother … i can’t stand her!”
Welcome to the world of teenagers, in their own words. These are just a few of the online identities and comments generated by teens on Myspace as they wrestle with emotional conflicts, relationship dramas, family strife, sexuality, and purpose. Businessweek calls the 70+ million young people with Myspace accounts (plus millions using other online social networks) the “Myspace Generation.” How should the church engage?
Internet Usage
- 87% of kids 12-17 use internet
- Multimedia - 6.5 hrs/day watching tv, listening to music, playing video games, searching the web
- Multi-tasking - 1.75 hrs/day intaking media simultaenously
- Social networking - 1 hr. 22 min. /day (Myspace, Sconex, Friendster, Xanga, etc)
Myspace
- 2.5 times more traffic than Google.
- Membership quadrupled in 2005 to 40 million by december
- 79 millon today
- Rupert Murdoch bought Myspace for 580 million in 7/05
Theological Reflection
- Genesis 11:1-9 - Tower of Babel
Common language (v. 1), interconnected community (Shinar, v.2), and technological innovation (bricks, v. 3) meant: “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” (v.6) - Today, computers provide common language (first time since Babel), interconnectedness, and technological innovation.
- At Babel, competence without character corrupted community and created cultural chaos. Thus, God dispersed the people by confusing language.
- Could it be that today, God invites Acts 2 infilling of the Holy Spirit to redeem community, even in cyberspace?
- More here.
Related:
“It’s Nice to be Naughty”: Myspace and SEX
Get to know your teenagers
Behind the curve, again
The web is evil
When posts collide
What people are talking about on Myspace
Who holds Rupert Murdoch accountable?
Myspace and political activism
MySpace Invaders; New Online Star Streaking Past Google
Myspace Cheat Sheet for Parents
Boys help cops catch Myspace sex fiend
In case you missed this
Kudos where it’s due
8-14 year olds send 14.4 text messages and make 8.8 cell phones …
Techmission provides free software and other resources to protect children from pornography and other dangers online through www.SafeFamilies.org.
+ I missed this before UYWI, but Dimas mentioned it while we were away:The city Department of Education has quietly banned access to the wildly popular social-networking Internet sites Myspace.com and Sconex.com from classroom computers, citing concerns over raunchy postings and chat groups. ... [I]t began restricting access to Myspace and Sconex this school year after getting reports from schools that students were logging on in their classrooms and posting references to drugs, sex and fights. Article.
Topics: blogging, internet, myspace, training, UYWI, youth, youth ministry | 2 Comments »
January 24th, 2007 at 11:49 am
Amazing! Monday night as a “spiritual father” to the kids in our church I sat down with our youth pastor and we explored every one of our kids MYSPACE pages (as well as the friends they are connected with outside of our church). You really get to see how they view themselves as well as what type of individuals they are developing into. Please keep the issue on the front burner Jeremy. This is a very important issue and in my opinion a crisis that faces both youth and those that are called (not just concerned) to youth ministry.
June 15th, 2012 at 9:51 pm
[...] by Jeremy Del Rio on 01/23/2007 · 0 comments Mooks, Midriffs, Myspace and More: A Prayer Agenda for America’s Youth (Presented by Jeremy Del Rio at the Greater New York Pastors Prayer Summit 2007) Downloads + Powerpoint Presentation + Prayer Concert Audio + Intergenerational Conversation Audio – Part 1 / Part 2 Source Material + Why Should I Care So Much? And Other Christ Like Musings on Myspace + Merchants of Cool (PBS Frontline Documentary) + Websites Without Rules (New York Times, January 2, 2007) + Too Wired for their Own Good? (Time magazine cover, March 27, 2006) + Myspace Generation (BusinessWeek cover, December 2005) + Translating Truth from Babel to Cyberspace, TechMission Keynote Audio 2005 + Have You Seen Your Kids Myspace? [...]