From now on, just typing in http://pugnaciousirishman.com (without the “wordpress” in there) will take you to my blog.
Question to all the blog traffic jedis out there: do I need to do a 301 redirect to make sure my hits aren’t being split between the two sites, or will they naturally still be grouped together?
I hope I don’t need to do one; it seems like a cumbersome process for a computer fool like me.
Read parts one and two of this series here: I and II.
Albert Mohler and John Mark Reynolds both have excellent suggestions on how to get our electronic media habits under control. Mohler’s piece is especially pertinent to parents. I recommend you read and devour both in their entirety. Read them here and here, respectively.
Like I mentioned a few days ago, this isn’t the beginning of the end of civilization. All we need is a little wisdom and moderation. We just have to start thinking about what our minds and souls imbibe, that’s all.
But though this issue doesn’t mean the end of the world, it is very important. Afterall, the ones who are most negatively affected by the plugged in life–teenagers–are tomorrow’s leaders, teachers, and church pastors. We can’t afford continued neglect.
I will say that I struggle with this, especially since starting this blog. It has become quite a demanding mistress. I will need to develop more discipline if I am to avoid some of the pitfalls I noted in my last post. I struggle particularly with implementing Reynolds’ third suggestion. I’m constantly checking my blog, email, and stumbleupon page.
Like this article? Here are some other related articles:
32 Links to Build your Blogging Knowledge
Tips for Making Friends on Stumbleupon
Thoughts on a Technologically Saturated Life
The Ten Commandments of Blogging
Also, consider subscribing to this blog’s feed via RSS (You can subscribe in the sidebar at the top).
Posted in media discernment
Tagged Blogging, Christianity, Church, Electronics, Media, Social Media, Technology, youth
See part one of this series here.
Yesterday I blogged about a recent meta-analysis by CommonSense Media on the media consumption of children and teens.
Today I want to comment on ways that over exposure to media has hurt us and, more importantly, children and teenagers.
Immediately, when I suggest there could be negative effects of media, many think, “every time teachers, parents, and pundits get worried about something, nothing comes of it.”
Well, sometimes there’s a bit of truth to that, but in this case, as John Mark Reynolds suggests, a “tipping point” has been reached where we do have cause for concern.
Perhaps the biggest negative effect that electronic media has had on teenagers specifically is evident when you ask, “if teens are spending an average of 45 hours a week plugged in, what are they *not* spending time doing?” Answer: they are not spending time with their parents. This puts the TV, the internet, or the peer group “in loco parentis”.
Secondly, they aren’t reading, spending solitude time, or developing a devotional life. Its sad to see a myspace profile that has mounds and mounds of titles listed under the “movies” section, but the books section says something like, “ya, I don’t do books.” You can see this on teens’ and adults’ profiles, on Christians’ and non-Christians’ profiles.
Electronic media has had many other effects too.
Have you ever tried to have a worthwhile conversation with someone while he’s playing a video game or while he’s listening to his IPOD? If you have, then I’m willing to bet you have one word (at least) to describe that experience: frustrating.
I know what my students say: “but I can listen to my IPOD and interact with people just fine! Seriously, it helps me study.” Then why do people typically turn down the radio in their cars when they are trying to follow carefully crafted directions or when they want to concentrate on something?
I work with teenagers all the time, and I see the way such things affect them. When they are texting, or have their IPODS on, or whatever, they are in the classroom, but they aren’t really there. You catch my drift?
One could argue that they aren’t there no matter what, but I see evidence that this tendency to cognitively float around is only exacerbated by being plugged in. No matter what such IPOD junkies suggest, I see the proof, and I will die on that hill before I believe them.
Really, how could someone even suggest that, when they are on myspace, listening to their IPOD, watching TV, and instant messaging a friend (often at the same time!), that they can write a quality essay, just as quality as it would be if they were writing it undistracted? Such a thought is laughable. Sure, having soft music in the background might help out, but we’re talking about a whole different level of multitasking, folks.
There’s evidence that suggests that such multi-tasking changes the way the brian functions. One’s ability to follow a logical argument deteriorates, and it is easier to be manipulated by images and emotions. I’m telling you, even when they aren’t plugged in, folks, especially teens, who are immersed in media have a hard time settling. It comes with the age, of course, but again, electronic media exacerbates the phenomenon. When I start a lecture, I have about 30 seconds to get their attention. If I fail at that, they become bored and distracted, and they tune out.
It is very, very difficult to tune them into the deep things. Entertainment is their bottom line.
Dealing with silence is yet another hard task for the media saturated. I’ve talked with countless people who frequently use IPODS, and almost all of them state uncategorically that thinking in silence is difficult for them. Its almost like IPODS are an addictive drug.
A steady diet of electronic media changes how you relate to people too: ever take a gander at the comments section on blogs? Online communication doesn’t bode too well for civility. Its not a stretch to see that if someone socializes mostly online, that will affect how they relate to others in the real world too…and online is how many teenagers socialize these days.
Such coarse social relations online has even given rise to a new word: cyberbullying.
Also, there is a downside to blogging specifically. If a person’s main reading consumption is through blogs online, how will that affect their ability to read longer pieces, especially if that longer piece weaves a complicated logical argument?
Reynolds asks:
“Mental development takes time and practice. What if nobody takes the time? Could it be that we are marketing habits to young adults that are not helpful?”
Then he adds:
“Mental acuity and attention are skills that can degrade. If you don’t read a long book for a while, then it is harder to read a long book when you finally pick one up.”
I think he’s spot on. Blogs and other online media specialize in the quickie genre, where skimming is the norm. Readers tend to shy away from longer, more thoughtful pieces. Before I started Pugnacious, I blogged on myspace. In reaction to my blogs, I regularly received the comment, “I usually don’t read your stuff. It’s too long, and I just can’t do it.” This was in response to pieces that were no longer than this post.
If they say that about my posts, what are they to do when they encounter the Bible, or Homer, or Socrates? I weep for them.
What’s the solution to these negative effects? Obviously it isn’t to go Amish. Moderation is the key. This is the subject of tomorrow’s post!
Like this article? Here are some other related articles:
32 Links to Build your Blogging Knowledge
Tips for Making Friends on Stumbleupon
Thoughts on a Technologically Saturated Life
The Ten Commandments of Blogging
Also, consider subscribing to this blog’s feed via RSS (You can subscribe in the sidebar at the top).
Posted in media discernment
Tagged Blogging, Christianity, Education, internet, Social Media, Technology, youth
45 hours a week….
The average work week? No. The average hours of sleep per week? No. The average time teenage boys spend thinking about girls per week? No. That number is much, much higher. Trust me. I was a teenage boy once. I still act like one from time to time.
That, according to a meta analysis of 173 studies on media consumption, is the number of hours *on average* that a child spends immersed in media each week.
Because I teach of teenagers, even if I didn’t examine the studies, I’d believe it. That number, by the way, dwarfs the number of hours on average that children spend with parents (around 15).
Technological media, from IPODS to cell phones, from the internet to video games, is everywhere. The current young generation has grown up being immersed in this stuff to the point that they often consider media consumption as an assumed right, rather than a moderated privilege.
Sometimes we uncritically assume the technical imperative (or at least something close to it): all technological advances are good and we must have them. Even if we don’t explicitly state this, far too often we implicitly think it and/or feel it.
The CommonSense Media analysis should give us pause, however. Actually, we should have paused to think about all this long ago.
Often, technological advances and inventions have advantages to them, but we often don’t realize that they come with a downside as well. This is true with even the most innocuous inventions. The light bulb and the harnessing of electricity, for example, both obviously had the advantage of, uh, light in the house, but the unforseen disadvantage was that families no longer had to congregate in a single room. Everyone now had ample opportunity to do their own thing in other rooms of the house. Now, this didn’t bring on the apocalypse, but it did make for less and less family time.
Another example is the invention of air conditioning. This drove folks inside into their houses, rather than out on the porch at night. Again, this is no reason to proclaim the sky is falling, but the effect it had was that it eroded neighbor time. Folks didn’t get to know their neighbors as well.
We often miss these unintended consequences of technology.
Just in case you are wondering, I’m no hypocritical luddite. I’m writing this on a blog, after all, and I first was alerted to the media study by Albert Mohler via his Podcast (read his recent blog entry on the subject here). The internet is wonderful. I’m very thankful also that I can get quality teaching and thinking on deep things through ITunes. I could go on and on about the benefits of technological advances in Media. I hope you will see by reading some of the related articles below that I’m a fan of social media and blogging.
We need to pause, though, to ask ourselves what media saturation is doing to us and, more importantly, to our kids.
Tomorrow I will post on the downsides of the most recent technological advances. On Wednesday, I will post on how we can manage our exposure to media such that we can maximize the benefits while minimizing the damaging effects. Thursday I will conclude with a note on how the blogging revolution has and can be positive.
Like this article? Here are some other related articles:
32 Links to Build your Blogging Knowledge
Tips for Making Friends on Stumbleupon
Thoughts on a Technologically Saturated Life
The Ten Commandments of Blogging
Also, consider subscribing to this blog’s feed via RSS (You can subscribe in the sidebar at the top)
Posted in media discernment
Tagged Blogging, Christianity, Education, internet, Media, Technology, youth
Here is some great advice about blogging from a Christian perspective.
I will need to watch all 10 commandments, but especially #2.
Posted in media discernment, personal interest, religion
Tagged Blogging, Christianity, religion, Ten Commandments
See my previous post on blogging: One, two
Lately I’ve been doing tons of reading on blogging. I’ve read everything from tips on running a blog to articles on different social media websites (like Stumbleupon) to what SEO is to…you name it, if its about blogging, I’ve been reading it.
This has been such an interesting learning experience. I’m having a blast jumping right into the blog world.
I’m finding out that though there are obvious differences (real life communication is, uhhh, face to face, which makes it a little more personal. Things on the web tend to be less cordial. People say things that they wouldn’t dream of if they were face to face with the person), the blogosphere functions a lot like the social world outside the web.
Basically, its all about relationships.
In the real world, if you want to make a business venture successful, you gotta network. You gotta get out there, mingle around and rub shoulders with people. You gotta be nice, help others out, do a few favors. Those who are merely self-focused quickly get ignored and left behind. The “favor bank principle” applies just as much in the blogging world than it does in the real world.
Along those lines, most people I’ve consulted say the same things about building your blog. A few of the commonalities are:
1) Linking out.
2) Commenting on other’s sites
3) Featuring other bloggers on your blog
4) Belonging to social media sites
5) The little things build up to make a big difference, things like your avatar (first impressions!), the professional look of your blog, etc.
6) Frequent quality posts keep them coming back.
In summary, a combination of effective advertising and great writing pays dividends over time. One without the other yields diminishing returns.
Here is a list of some of the best articles I’ve read so far (the titles are pretty self explanatory, so I’m not going to add any commentary myself):
1) Why commenting is good for bloggers
2) How to find good blogs (and how to get yours discovered!)
3) Statistical analysis of blog traffic
5) The advantages of Stumbleupon (“The force is strong with this one”)
6) Using social media to grow your blog traffic
7) Things learned from blogging heroes
8) Analysis of Stumbleupon’s top stumblers
9) How to draw Stumbleupon users to your blog
10) Blogging to a mass audience
11) The 7 habits of highly successful bloggers
13) Understanding reciprocal and non-reciprocal links
15) The benefits of Twitter for bloggers
17) Linking secrets
18) More on how to draw Stumbleupon traffic to your blog
19) 10 ways to increase comment traffic on your blog
20) Things that will put your blog above the fold
22) More on driving traffic to your blog
23) The Ten Commandments of blogging
24) Linking no-nos
25) Building your blog with Stumbleupon: part cinco
26) Checklist for linking to quality blogs
27) Type styling tips: some turnoffs
28) Checking out “curb appeal”
30) Weblog usability
Posted in media discernment, personal interest
Tagged Blogging, internet, Social Media, web
