I live in a city which is very, shall we say, traditional. Many people do not bother with computers, unless they have to use them at work. Whereas all my media consumption happens online. Here’s a conversation I had recently:
Other person: So did you watch the inaguration?
Me: Yeah, I watched it on the BBC Web site.
Other person looks at me like I have two heads. Pause. Other person: Oh. So, um, did, you hear Obama’s speech? …obviously assuming I had not…
Me: Oh, yeah, great speech, loved it.
Yet while I spend hours each day online, I never watch broadcast television, I don’t play video games, I don’t go to movies, and I hardly ever listen to the radio. As a result, my media consumption is pretty much out of synch with the surrounding community. Another typical conversation:
Other person: So why don’t you ever print up copies of your sermons?
Me: I put nearly all my sermons up on my Web site.
Other person looks at me like I have two heads.
Me: Um, you can get to them from the church Web site.
Other person looks at me like I have two heads.
Me: Um, just call the church office and tell Linda which sermon you want, and she’ll mail you a copy.
Other person: OK, thanks!
Me, sotto voce: I’m such a geek.
Ah, my geeky brother. It’s okay. We love you. And we love your sermons, on the website, which is a very good place for them. You could point out that you are saving resources by not printing out the sermons. Maybe you could set up an information commons in the church — you know, like libraries do. Or maybe you could offer computer literacy classes. Or write a grant and get computers for all the kids in your neighborhood. I think you should write a sermon about online information. The 21st century broadsheet. Ah ha!
Perhaps you should be printing up a few copies of your sermons for your less geeky parishioners?
Jean @1 — We have thought about offering computer classes, and that may still happen. Right now, we do have one computer in the church dedicated to volunteer use, and if we had a couple more in that room, we could do a class.
Philocrites @2 — I used to put out printed copies of sermons, but they would just sit around for months until we recycled ’em. So now we do print-on-demand.