Evolving forms of communication

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

In 1997 I was able to collect email addresses for only 19% of all deputies
and first alternates.   That figure jumped to 77.4% in 2000, 93.3% in 2003,
90.3% in 2006, and 94.6% in 2009.

The HoB list itself has long had hundreds of participants, most of them
silent, but staying to be informed.

I am now working myself around Facebook (FB), not as an alternative to HoBD,
but as a different experience altogether.

I joined  FB reluctantly.  Initially FB seemed not very promising.   I don't
want more information so much as better information.   My early exposure to
FB reminded me of sitting in a huge computer lab at Rutgers filled with many
who are typing messages back and forth for hours to persons sitting right in
the same computer lab.   What a mad obsession! Why not go have coffee and
talk faster than you can type?!  Or much better:  why not go to the library
to read the more considered reflections of some great minds, some of them
long dead?

Yet participation levels suggest that FB is here to stay for a while, and it
is certainly not all idle chat.   I even have found a way to turn off the
chat feature so that friends can't see when I am online and interrupt my
work.

FB  is changing how millions of people spend their time in communication.
Even the major networks turn to Facebook for some of their stories, as
well as for reactions to the stories they have told.

I have discovered FB pages for 74 Episcopal bishops, plus quite a few more
for bishops elsewhere in the Anglican Communion.   I have found pages for
about one-third of the House of Deputies.   I have found FB pages for all
but 3 members of the Executive Council.  Major officers of GC now have
Facebook pages, including the Chief Operating Officer, the treasurer, and
the President of the House of Deputies.   

I found most of these by simply giving FB the email addresses in my various
collections, and FB immediately shows me which of those have a FB presence
and allows me to choose which ones I want to be my FB friends.

I have found FB pages for 62 members of my parish, Grace in Newark; I was
expecting to find no more than 10.   The younger the members, the more
likely they are active on Facebook.   (I spent the last few days updating
our email listserve with 103 email addresses that I have found, bringing the
email list to 281, not bad for an Anglo-Catholic parish in the inner city of
Newark.)

I have made sub-lists of these groups on my own Facebook account.  FB
allows me access to the walls in any sub-group.  All FB participant have a
wall on which they may post for all their FB friends to see.   A few people
post every day.   It's like sitting alone at the coffee hour with hearing
strong enough that one  can pick up conversations you choose at other tables.
In the coffee hour, that would be sneaky or eavesdropping, yet by posting on
their walls, FB members agree to let their friends access these thoughts, so
we are not violating privacy.

Also, every Facebook participant has a Profile visible to Facebook friends,
including as much as one cares to say about hometown,  birth date,
education, political and religious interests, favorite books and films,
favorite quotations, pictures (some have whole albums).

As here on HoBD, FB members also share with their friends links that they
have especially enjoyed, whether to a choral performance on UTube, a timely
article in a newspaper or magazine.....

I'm just a novice with FB, and a late-comer in taking it seriously.  I hope
others will share their experiences in using it to connect congregations
and groups who share special interests within the church.   I am sure that
there are many more techniques than I have discovered to make the experience
worth my time.  I encourage others to describe their own experiences with FB
to the whole HoB list for a while, and if the flow proves too bothersome to
others, they will let us know and we can take it offline.

Louie, L1 Newark

Louie Crew, 377 S. Harrison St., 12D, East Orange, NJ 07018 973-395-1068
http://queereye4lectionary.blogspot.com/  Queer Eye for the Lectionary