I am still relatively young (in some ways).
I can remember when every home did not have a telephone. Now if a home does not have a telephone, it is because everyone already has a mobile phone or they use their internet connection to provide telephony.
I can remember when cassette tapes where a new technology and vinyl long playing (33 1/3rpm) albums and (45rpm) singles were the way to listen to music. In the space of thirty years the CD made vinyl obsolete.
I can remember that Beta really was the better video tape system. I was personally happy when DVDs made VHS obsolete. (Yeah, I can carry a grudge). Bluray now threatens DVD.
I can remember when you hand wrote or typed a letter. (Liquid Paper fumes, anyone?) Then computers enabled us to use dot matrix printers with traction feeders and strips that tore off the side of the pages. Laser printers and plain paper look so much better.
The facsimile machine sent images of our correspondence through the internet. Then emails and scanners made fax machines redundant. (They really should be, anyway.)
I could go on and on. Remember spirit duplicators? Pagers? Technology has rapidly produced innovations that have become redundant just a rapidly as new technology passes them by.
So I’m not surprised about the theme which is explored in the youtube below, which is titled Social Media Revolution. (Thanks to Damian Carson, pastor of Para Hills Presbyterian for pointing me to it.)
It is a promotional piece for a media company of some sort. Apparently some of the statistics produced can be challenged. But you do get the feeling that the direction that is being promoted is a correct one. Another consideration is that, with the rapid change we see in technology, today’s means of communicating will be superceded in a very short time. My daughter spent most of her time sending SMS messages eighteen months ago. Today she uses Facebook.
Though this youtube video is not religious or Christian in origin or focus, as people who are commissioned to communicate we need to think carefully about where people are seeking information and how they exchange information with each other. This past week I’ve been able to use social media to communicate information about a sick friend with others. It is something that I’d like to be able to develop.
So watch and muse at some of the details that will flash before your eyes. (One in eight couples married in the US last year met by social media? What the?? I’d like that one to be wrong.) Then think about the message we have been given, how we communicate it, and how we live in community with those who have received it, all in a world that is going digital.
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