To set the stage for the ChurchCrunch blog tour of Shane Hipps, Flickering Pixels, we thought it might be helpful to introduce Shane Hipps and the subject he’s been writing and speaking about. For fun, let’s do them in reverse order:
What He’s Talking About
Have you ever heard someone say, “90% of communication is tone of voice”?
Well, over the last 100 years people started thinking that if our words could be shaped and reinterpreted based on body language, maybe technologies like TV, radio, and even writing also shape the way we think and interact.
Marshall McLuhan was one of the first well known thinkers in this area which came to be called “media ecology.” However, his popularity died down in the late 1960s and even in his heyday, the Church didn’t really take much interest in his ideas.
About Shane Hipps
In Flickering Pixels, Hipps is attempting to take media ecology out of the academic world and use it to show us how technology impacts the way we see the world and our faith.
Hipps is in a unique position to do this because he used to work in Porche’s advertising department and now is a pastor of a Mennonite church. This means he’s neither just some guy who doesn’t really understand media nor a person who’s never done any real ministry.
What’s the Big Deal?
Hipps is concerned that most of us don’t understand the enormous influence technology has on our lives. Rather than tell us to run away and turn it all off, he wants to help the Church understand it. He writes, “we are only puppets of our technology if we remain asleep; Flickering Pixels will wake us up.”
Hopefully, reading Flickering Pixels and talking about it together we can all help wake each other up!
[Image from B_Tal]
Phillip Gibb says
Very cool.
Perfect project to help in 'understanding the usefulness and peril of technology'
🙂
This is going to be a great project; already I am caught wondering about a few things like how often have I jumped on the band wagon of technology and not considering anything other that the potential coolness of it?
human3rror says
tahnks for joining in the conversation!
dewde says
Great kickoff, John D.! Cool blog too man.
human3rror says
word up.
johndyer says
thanks bro! looking forward to hearing from you on your chapter!
andydarnell says
Phillip is correct about the "band wagon" jumping. In ways it is helpful to follow what others have already done, other times it is "jumping on" just to do so. We need to examine motives for anything.
human3rror says
thanks for joining us andy! good luck with mad church!
Paul Steinbrueck says
John, thanks for kicking things off. Will be interesting to consider to what extent "the media is the message." And after looking at the mediums themselves if that leads me to use them any differently.
human3rror says
paul, thanks for joining us!
Jim says
this looks to be an interesting series.