Good question, right?
I never really thought about it until I read an article on CNN Tech answering the question.
Non-technical answer:
A crap load.
Technical answer:
Nobody knows the exact number, but they have figured out a rough estimation (You know it’s a big number when an estimation is “close enough”).
Kevin Kelly, a founder of Wired magazine, estimates there are about a trillion pages.
Kelly writes in his 2010 book “What Technology Wants:”
“Each biological neuron sprouts synaptic links to thousands of other neurons, while each Web page on average links to 60 other pages. That adds up to a trillion ‘synapses’ between the static pages on the Web. The human brain has about 100 times that number of links — but brains are not doubling in size every few years. The global machine is.”
Whoa.
No wonder it takes a few months for Google to reflect changes to your website SEO tweaks. Imagine what power it takes to troll the entire web?
Crazy.
So What?
We all had a sneaky suspicion the Internet was big, so this isn’t really a surprise. So what does it matter?
The Internet is jammed full of messages and has billions of voices. As the Church, we need to make sure we’re communicating clearly and concisely.
That doesn’t mean Christians should be tweeting scripture verses everyday. It means our online lives should reflect the Light of the Gospel. By all means, tweet scripture, but that shouldn’t be your prime strategy.
That doesn’t mean every church and ministry website should have the latest and greatest technology. It means our church and ministry websites should effectively communicate — aka: Don’t build butt-ugly sites.
Above all these things, I think we need to always keep this question in mind:
What sets our message apart from the other trillion?
[via CNN Tech | Image via Scott Villarosa]
Ryan says
Wow, this needs to be better promoted. In today’s world, the gospel, the most distinct message of all has become diluted and lost in the confusion of so many voices. Believers, and especially church pastors need to consider the implications of what you are saying. Often, I find that they tweet or post, just because its “the thing” to do. Oh how it is not! Rather, let’s be distinct in two ways 1) be equipped to share the gospel, in love, and with its proper authority 2) say less and mean more. In today’s world of so much communication, the human mind still prefers distilled, clear, concise, and direct.
Eric Dye says
Good stuff, Ryan.
Well put.