Does Facebook hurt your faith? What do you think?

A new study by two Gordon College faculty is making its way around the blogsphere . To sum up: young college students are using social software so much they don't have time for christian disciplines like prayer, Bible study and service. They apparently found:

• Thirty-three percent of students surveyed (between the ages of 18 and 27) from four evangelical Christian colleges use Facebook or other social media for as much as two hours every day.
  
• Twelve percent reported using it between 2 and 4 hours.
  
• Another 2.8 percent said they used Facebook between 4 and 7 hours every day.

I do wonder about the cause and effective though; is Facebook keeping young Christians from Biblical priorities or they simply aren't that concerned about Biblical priorities to begin with and this is how they fill the time. In another context would it have been fishing down at the pond, or hanging out at the mall, or a part-time job that keeps young people otherwise occupied? The assumption being made is that teens at Christian colleges should be committed Christians. My experiences as a residence advisor in a christian college many years ago suggest that may not be a valid assumption. :-)

What do you think? Is there another side of the story? How might social software like Facebook actually encourage faith, community and christian development?

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"Well, probably because I enjoy..."

"talking with them." I've been reading the book Information and Emotion this week about the importance of affective aspects in information seeking users studies (i.e. how our emotions influence our seeking of information.) It is an emerging field, although we've known all along that how I feel can radically change how I search for information. Am I frustrated, satisfied, inspired, confused, bored; oh sorry, I'm online: (>_<) :-) :-0 :-\ (-.-) ? I noted in an earlier post that people frequently prefer talking with other people when seeking information. The words in the title were from a study I assisted with some years ago that considered how people selected information sources. Most of the time people talk to people because they need human judgment and opinion around the facts already obtained. Sometimes people are convenient sources. Sometimes they are the least expensive source. But sometimes I'll ask you because I enjoy talking to you. Yes, you may not know a lot about the subject, and yes, you may meander all over with your answer. Yes, maybe there is a website that covers the question is detail. But I don't enjoy AskJeeves's company and the expert dude on the Futureshop search page kinda freaks me out (is he still waiting on the other tab....)

Sometimes I'll stop by to ask you a question because I like your company and if I get info at the same time so much the better. Maybe at the end of the day feeling good about information seeking is just as important to me as good information seeking. Gosh, did a librarian just say that! ;-)

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