I’ll never forget the day a few years ago that I received a friend request on Facebook from my parent’s friends. Why would I want to connect with a bunch of people in their 60′s? Facebook is a young person’s game!
That was then. This is now. Today, over 700 million people use Facebook. Business, organizations, governments, families, and friends join on social networks to share information. As a pastor, I use social media everyday to connect to congregants and the community.
As a minority in the ministry field, my youth and use of social media is often a source of curiosity in a world of aging churches and aging church people.
This past week at the American Baptist Churches Biennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I gave three interactive lectures on social media entitled, “Sink or Swim: Treading the Sea of Social Media”. My goal was to give a practical frame work around how to use social media for churches and organizations. I truly thought that most of the attendees would be young people.
The experience was like my being-friended-by-my-parent’s-friends Facebook shock. The vast majority of attendees were over the age of 50. I found that most of attendees had Facebook or some other social media network account. However, they did not feel like their experience was useful because they believed that Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media networks were too nebulous.
Often, I’m frustrated with elders and their computer use. They want to learn skills, but not concepts. They want to learn how to “do” Facebook or Twitter rather than understanding the social networks. Their learned skills are not effective because they don’t understand what Facebook is for.
I asked the packed room in San Juan to finish this statement: “I have a social media account (Facebook, Twitter, etc…) so that________.”
Silence.
They struggled to put a reason behind their social media use. One person said, “I have a Facebook account….ah…uh…. so that I can have a Facebook account.” I said, “Okay. You see the trouble? Your social media experience would be more fruitful if you had reason for using social media. It will make the difference between updating your status about eating a PB&J sandwich and truly connecting with people.
I recently saw an “elder” post on Facebook that something was needed for the family dog. Instead of asking for the object, this person explained the gross and infectious details of the dog’s condition. TMI!
Using social media is not about doing it like everyone else, but using social media effective for each person. Just because someone has 1,000 friends and someone else has 100 friends, does not mean the 1,000 friend person is doing social media better. It’s about having fun and connecting to people.
Teaching our elders how to use social media is one thing, but teaching them what it is for is another. Young people are not doing a good job of modeling or teaching the purpose of social media. Since social media is/was mainly driven by young people, we have the opportunity to be teachers to our elders.
No Comments