I am not the biggest fan of Christian clones of mainstream services. You won’t find me uploading videos to GodTube or pinning images to Godinterest, but that doesn’t mean I am against the idea of establishing niche social networks. In fact, I think the bigger Facebook and other networks get, the more people will be drawn to niche social networks that appeal to their interests.
Does the next generation really want their entire lives mapped-out on a social network?
I am doubtful, but only time will tell. Considering this dynamic, I am interested to see what happens with this young social network of sorts, Faithpath.
Faithpath
“Faithpath is a powerful social platform that allows anyone (faith organizations, bloggers, content providers, and faith-seekers) to create organized and extremely visual topical discussions. Add blog posts from your favorite writers, videos and pictures that support your topic, or documents that allow you and your followers to delve deeper into interaction.”
I really like how Faithpath has really set themselves apart from being a ‘Christian Facebook.’ Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that they were not trying to be a ‘Christian Facebook’ from the start:
“Faithpath started almost 2 years ago with the very simple idea – create a platform by which remote, or virtual, church attendees could interact with those that actually attended the physical location. With so many churches and other faith organizations moving to a multi-site campus model and broadcasting messages online, it only stood to reason that there should be a fun and engaging platform by which these groups could communicate with one another and truly feel like one body.”
Faithpath feels very organic to me and I love that their vision to become an engaging platform for believers to fellowship with one another.
Andrew Fallows says
In general principle, I very much like the idea of places online where committed Christians can get together and talk about issues of faith. And while it’s very, very important to prevent a “Holy Huddle” kind of effect where we only talk to other believers, it can be difficult to discuss more complicated topics in more public spaces (like Facebook or Twitter) if part of the community is either uninformed about faith or even hostile toward it.
I sometimes avoid posting stuff on Facebook because I don’t want to field sharply anti-religious snark from others. It would be nice to have a place where I can post my sincere thoughts without fear of that.
That said, it’s a tough thing to do. The people I want to talk to are on Facebook. They’re on Twitter. I don’t want to give them another social media service to sink into (and sync into). I want to be able to have my sincere conversations openly. I shouldn’t have to second-guess myself about posting something sincere, deep, or thought-provoking on Facebook — I want it to be a place where people connect on every level, not just on the “who I’m hanging out with” and “what I’m eating” levels.
I think I’d rather expend energy making my corner of existing networks a place of deeper connections than building a new network on a new service.
Eric Dye says
Excellent reflection, Andrew. I tend to agree, but then again, I am on multiple networks, too; so the thought of adding another seems overwhelming.