Comments on: Facebook and Twitter: Quaker 2.0 technologies

By: Chronicler

Chronicler — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 11:50:55 +0000

Very interesting.

As a note, the Downingtown page on plain speech has a few slight errors. Plain dress has never died out among Friends, and in fact there are probably more plain-dressed Friends in 2009 than at any time since 1950.

Second, the term ‘thou’ was in common use among Friends throughout the 19th century, as the journals attest. It was only in the late 19th century that ‘thou’ fell from common use among Friends.

By: Robin Mohr

Robin Mohr — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 05:18:25 +0000

Yes, Chad, in a conference session today on “What Would Jesus Twitter?” the question came up what if you wouldn’t want your church life and your work life to overlap? I had several questions on those lines. Would the fact that your lives overlap make you more likely to act with integrity? Wouldn’t this be a good part of spiritual formation? My personal worry is what my work colleagues will think of my religious life. If I say Jesus, will they understand that I follow Jesus and not Pat Robertson?

I’m not worried that people have trivial parts of their lives that they’re willing to share, we all need rest and recreation, but are we engaged in healthy moderation in all things, including moderation, or we frittering all our time away?

Chris and I were talking this evening about the Society of the Spectacle. I think that some of what makes Twitter and Facebook addictive is the sense of micro-celebrity. Even the trivia of our lives is interesting to somebody. They also feed our need to always hear “You’ve Got Mail.”

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:44:50 +0000

My understanding is that “weightiness” is part of plain speech as well. Early Friends objected to a lot of conversation that was trivial, concerned with insignificant and worldly things. It was closer to tavern conversation and did not touch on inner reality.
An awful lot of stuff that shows up on the wall on my facebook page is pretty trivial. And twitter seems to encourage the banal.
I’m all for connecting, and web 2.0 provides incredible opportunities to connect. But let’s make it more significant than “Woohoo, my team is in the final four!”