I’m always intrigued by how social media is shaping the way we make and share meaning. Usually, that takes the form of thinking about how various elements of social media or the larger digital culture can help us share the good news. But from time to time it’s also fun to “look back” and imagine what our forebears would have done with social media. Last year I found “The Digital Story of the Nativity” quite fun in that regard; this year it’s “A Social Network Christmas.” Without wanting to spoil too much, I think my favorite moment was when 23 people “unfriend” Joseph for...

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the Christmas story, I think of, well, the Christmas story. There’s a kind of seamless whole that I have in my head made up of angels and shepherds and Mary and Joseph and the baby in the manger and the stable animals and the star and magi and all the rest. What I don’t think about is how I learned this story; how, that is, it was told to me. Certainly I learned a lot of it from the Bible, hearing the various – and distinct – portions of the story read from Matthew and Luke. But I also learned it from the Christmas carols. And from the manifold crèches in all shapes and sizes that I’ve...

Alright, I’ll admit it. I’m not on Facebook. I took a little grief for that over the weekend, and figured I’d better come clean. I’m not on Twitter either. And I hardly ever text (although that’s changing as my kids get cell phones). It’s not that I have anything against Facebook or Twitter and the rest. Honest. For me, it’s just the issue of time – finding the time to learn it, set it up, do it, maintain it, and all the rest. So there it is (huge sigh of relief). 🙂 But if I were on Facebook, Twitter, and had lightening-fast texting thumbs, the message I would post on my wall (does FB still have that?), Tweet, and text...

I’ve been thinking a lot of late about the internet. In particular, about time spent on the internet. Maybe it’s all the blogging of late :), but I think it’s even more paying attention as my kids (now in 6th and 8th grade) feel more and more pressure to join in the social media world that many of their friends have already and enthusiastically entered. In this regard, two recent pieces have caught my attention. The first is the cover story of this month’s Atlantic which asks the question, “Is Facebook Making us Lonely?” The answer, in case you don’t want to read the whole article, is a qualified yes. Essentially, according...