Intellectual Snacking -- just be sure you eat healthily

A quick insight into my methodology. I've started these "Bits and Pieces" posts as a way of sharing with you articles that I find interesting, but haven't had time to thoughtfully digest, analyze, and connect with other ideas. How do I put the posts together? I set up a file and dump little paragraphs about each article into that file until I have about 4-5 things to share -- then I post. It doesn't take much time, and it enables me to share interesting things without spending a lot of time on them.

Apparently, if Al Mohler is right, this practice makes me a purveyor of intellectual flabbiness. He points to this interesting article in Wired about how information and media comes to us "snack sized" for greater consumption. From the Wired article: "Music, television, games, movies, fashion: We now devour our pop culture the same way we enjoy candy and chips - in conveniently packaged bite-size nuggets made to be munched easily with increased frequency and maximum speed. This is snack culture - and boy, is it tasty (not to mention addictive)." I hope that my posts are tasty -- doesn't any author/speaker hope that his/her audience enjoys (or at least is challenged by) their work?

But Dr. Mohler sounds a note of concern: "All this may be great for the marketers, but it spells further challenge for educators, parents, and preachers. How will people be able to listen to a serious biblical sermon if their minds are set to pay attention only for a few minutes -- or even less?" In this concern, he echoes Neil Postman's warnings going all the way back to his book Amusing Ourselves to Death. (a stinging and thoughtful critique of television's influence upon our culture). The perennial worry is that new technologies sap our critical thinking, analysis, and reflective skills. With every blessing there comes a curse, to be sure, and Postman (and Mohler) are very good at sounding the warnings about these curses.

Mohler and Postman have strong points -- these technologies enable us to quickly indulge our basest instincts and we have used them to reward boorish behavior and to set up a society of a million Little Brothers (always watching, always recording, potentially revealing your secrets on the web). There is a great need for us to cry in the wilderness for wisdom as we approach new technologies (see my previous post on Lifelogging for further thoughts on this). I'm thankful for both men as they help me think through the consequences of my choices.

Wisdom, however, demands restraint. I tire of the panicked cries that "our children can't sustain their attention any longer." We must realize that, as the saying goes, "brevity is the soul of wit." The Wired article rightly reminds us that the capacity for concise targeted statements is not unique to our culture "Neither Nabisco nor Apple was the first to distill things to their essence. Moses gave the world its first Top 10 list long before Letterman (on handheld tablets, no less). Old Farmers Almanac, Readers Digest, and CliffsNotes pared information down to pithy synopses. But cultural snacking isnt just distillation, its elevation. In 17th-century Japan, teenage poet Basho popularized the haiku, an early, lyrical version of the IM. Abraham Lincoln delivered his 272-word Gettsyburg Address in a YouTube-friendly two minutes." Indeed, the entire book of Proverbs is a collection of short, memorable maxims. Popcorn sized for your easy consumption. Brevity in of itself is not a cause for concern. Great intellect has always had both the capacity to snack and the capacity to feast at the banquet.

Neither should we be concerned about losing the ability to attend to subjects for long periods of time. I point you to Adam Cleaveland -- Adam has embraced new technologies and new ways of communicating, yet on his reflections about teaching methods, he gives us this unexpected nugget (The bold emphases are mine, not Adam's): "When I first heard that professors read manuscripted lectures at Princeton, I was so disappointed. I couldn’t believe they would teach in a way that was so un-interactive, so boring. I was not looking forward to those classes. And then…after a few weeks of sitting through Intro to Old Testament, and then later in the year, Systematic Theology, I got used to it. In fact, I was appalled when another student would raise their hand during a lecture (especially a woman we dubbed as “Question Lady“). “This isn’t your time - put your hand down - we’re here to learn from the professor!” So I had become used to the “Princeton way” of doing things. Not that all of my classes were like this; they weren’t. We had some great discussions in some courses, but it was rather funny to see how quickly I became a supporter of these types of lectures."

It seems that Mr. Postmodernity himself has no problem adjusting back to long lectures.....my guess is that the reason he had no problem adjusting is that they were good, thoughtful and engaging. How about the thousands of young postmodern adults who go to hourlong sermons at Mars Hill Church? They don't seem to have much of a problem adjusting. The challenge for us is not to bemoan the new technologies. It is for us to learn to use them wisely and to use them well. The challenge for us is to write and speak in ways that are engaging. If we are going to snack (and to make snack food), it is up to us to snack on friut and granola rather than chips and fries. Just like in our dietary choices, snacking isn't so much the problem as what we snack upon. (Yes, Mom, I remember all those warnings about "empty calories" in cookies and chips).

Technology doesn't save us, only Jesus does. However, we must also remember that Jesus calls us to be salt and light, using technology in redemptive ways. The Holy Spirit empowers us to learn how to be wise in our intellectual snacking and in what we offer up as snack food in this new technological realm.

Soli Deo Gloria
Russell

Bits and Pieces

Here are some lovely little thoughts to brighten your evening:

Joe Carter offers this surprising reflection on Christians and "animal welfare" (as opposed to "animal rights").

Healthbolt reminds us that music does soothe the mind, ease depression, and generally helps put the mind at ease. Let's put a little more Bach and Mozart into our days.

PSFK Trendwatching links to this cool video that explains the concept of Web 2.0. It might be a little too stylistic for some folks, but I think it gets the idea across well.

From the same PSFK Trendwatching site -- a story about the upcoming Shutdown day -- a day in which we are all challenged to go without our computers for one single day. Have we really come to this? Are we this deeply wired?

And finally Peter Bronson lays down a royal flush on this one-- he tells the story of a Boy Scout group uninviting a speaker .... because his company sponsored a rude trashy promo stunt.

Bits and Pieces -- Sunday Feb 25

Another brief weekend post of tidbits from various blogs and publications. Back to more thoughtful content on Monday (Lord willing!)

• The Wall Street Journal gives us this article about collaboration among several high tech companies (including Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, IMB, Sun Microsystems, and Dell) in trying to reduce the power consumption required by server systems and computer rooms. Nice to see business pouncing on the benefit of energy efficiency -- and without being told to do so by a regulatory agency.
• Ypulse points to this article from c-net news: it's about a new social networking site trying to build itself around live streaming video from webcams. Some thoughtful discussion here about safety concerns -- also this might give us a clue as to why the church as institution will be woefully lagging in the online realm. Most churches are just catching on to blogging -- a few are on MySpace. The next hot thing is just too far ahead. It'll be up to individual Christians to be salt and light (and that's as it shoud be)
• And then to cap the previous point off, Ypulse points to this article from Advertising Age about "trend school" where advertising execs pay megabucks to hang out with teenage hipsters who teach them all about what is and isn't cool.
• Michael Kruse is starting another one of his patented series of processing a book he's reading -- this one is called The Other Six Days. It's a look at how we can disenthrone clergy from being being put on some kind of superchristian pedestal, and reclaim that idea that all members of the church are called to be ministers. Interesting thoughts so far -- I'm looking forward to seeing what Mike does with it.

Soli Deo Gloria

Russell