Category: Culture
Why Outdoor Ministry is Important
My thanks to my peer, Randy Kuss, for the forward of this article in The New York Times, “Outdoors and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain.” As technology continues rapid development those that serve in youth ministry will need to create rituals for managing technology use at youth group, on trips, at church camp, and in the life of the congregation. The first cell phone has become a rite of passage as important as a drivers license and the phone is no good if it does not come with unlimited texting. Can you imagine taking your youth group for a “Cell Phone Free Weekend”. Odds are that the parents would be more skeptical than the youth.
What is this doing to our brains, ability to think, focus, be creative, solve problems, and understand spirituality. Here are a couple of paragraphs of the article.
Outdoor and Out of Reach, Studying the Brain
by Matt Richtel | August 15, 2010 | The New York TimesIt was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects.
Cellphones do not work here, e-mail is inaccessible and laptops have been left behind. It is a trip into the heart of silence — increasingly rare now that people can get online even in far-flung vacation spots.
As they head down the tight curves the San Juan has carved from ancient sandstone, the travelers will, not surprisingly, unwind, sleep better and lose the nagging feeling to check for a phone in the pocket. But the significance of such changes is a matter of debate for them.
Net Neutrality
In case you missed it while surfing the net or at least where your ISP wants you to surf and shop, here is part of a joint statement about the newest proposal from Verizon and Google on “net neutrality.”
Google and Verizon Pact Worse Than Feared
by Media Release | Free PressWashington – In response to Google and Verizon’s “policy framework” unveiled today, MoveOn.Org Civic Action, Credo Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, ColorofChange.org and Free Press, all members of the SavetheInternet.com Coalition, issued the following joint statement:
“The Google-Verizon pact isn’t just as bad as we feared — it’s much worse. They are attacking the Internet while claiming to preserve it. Google users won’t be fooled.
“They are promising Net Neutrality only for a certain part of the Internet, one that they’ll likely stop investing in. But they are also paving the way for a new ‘Internet’ via fiber and wireless phones where Net Neutrality will not apply and corporations can pick and choose which sites people can easily view on their phones or any other Internet device using these networks.