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Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to…
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Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival (edição 2012)

por Leonard Sweet

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485527,873 (3.9)Nenhum(a)
The gospel is nothing without relationship. And no one gets it like the Google Generation.nbsp; God came to earth to invite us, personally, into a relationship. And while Christians at times downplay relationships, the social-media generation is completely sold on the idea. In Viral, Leonard Sweet says Christians need to learn about connecting with others from the experts--those who can't seem to stop texting, IM-ing, tweeting, and updating their Facebook statuses. What would happen, he asks, if Christians devoted less attention to strategies and statistics and paid more attention to pursuing relationships? nbsp; The current generation is driven by a God-given desire to know others and to be known by others. Most of them, in seeking to connect in meaningful ways, have found a place of belonging that is outside the organized church. Why not bring the two together? nbsp; Those who are sold out to relationships can teach Christians how to be better friends to people who need God. At the same time, members of the social-media generation can learn how to follow their desire for belonging, straight into the arms of God. It's time for relationship to be restored to the heart of the gospel. And when that happens, can revival be far behind? nbsp; End-of-Chapter Interactives Included… (mais)
Membro:ncla
Título:Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival
Autores:Leonard Sweet
Informação:WaterBrook Press (2012), Paperback, 240 pages
Coleções:A sua biblioteca
Avaliação:****
Etiquetas:4 star, religion & culture, social networking, Facebook, Twitter

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Viral: How Social Networking Is Poised to Ignite Revival por Leonard Sweet

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There are two disclaimers that I have to put at the beginning of this review.

The first is an official one. I received this book free for review from Blogging for Books by WaterBrook Multnomah. This does not mean that the review has to be favorable, so the review is my honest opinion, but I do have to notify that it was a review copy. Consider yourself notified.

The second is unofficial. I am a huge fan of Leonard Sweet's books. I have read almost every single one of his books, so the fact that this one came up for review was awesome! The fact that two came out in one month is even better (the second Sweet book is I Am a Follower which I am also reading for fun). So, I am a little biased when it comes to Sweet's stuff.

With both of those disclaimers typed, onto the review. In Viral, Sweet introduces two concepts namely the Gutenberger culture and the Googlers culture. The Gutenberger culture is defined by Sweet as those who were raised with type and paper while the Googlers are defined by Sweet as those who were raised in the computer age. I am going to stop there before going on since this was one of the sticking points that kept nagging at me as I was reading this book. Dividing people into two groups is going to be problematic since people tend not to fit neatly into categories. I understood what Sweet was doing and even he acknowledges the difficulty of dividing at the very end of the book, but there are whole groups of Gutenbergers who are very comfortable in the Googler world. As I wrote, that was just a sticking point, but throughout the book his point isn't to divide the groups to define them, but rather to talk about how each group views God, Jesus, the church, etc. His point is that both groups come to know Jesus in very different ways and the church will need to embrace both ways eventually moving to the Googler world, but tends to reside in the Gutenberger world.

Since the Googler world is the main focus of the book, Sweet goes deeper into the world by calling them TGIF Christians. The TGIF Christian is the second concept and takes up the end of the book. TGIF stands for-Twitter, Google, iPhone, and Facebook. Googlers are comfortable in these social worlds. He uses each social network to not only show how the church should address the Googlers, but also how they see God. He uses each Social network to name to define certain views. For example, he uses Twitter to talk about Following and following Christ, iPhones for connectedness, etc. He not only shows the pluses of these, but also some of the difficulties that the Googlers will have with each of these especially around the idea of false communities.

Overall, I enjoyed the book. As I wrote, I had a stumbling block with the division in the beginning and I could not get "Thank God It's Friday" out of my head while reading the acronym in the beginning of the book. I will also say that on some points I felt that Sweet was trying to wedge Jesus into a great concept and Jesus could have been left out of that concept and it would still have been valid. Other times I think he pulled back too quickly when he could have connected the concept to Jesus easily. For example, during the Facebook discussion, he talks about the desire of Googlers to be face to face with people. I felt that he could have talked about the connectedness that Jesus had to people, but the concept never made it. I would say the book is worth reading though and it has some absolutely wonderful concepts. ( )
  Nerdyrev1 | Nov 23, 2022 |
A couple of years ago a co-worker of mine came back from a conference and quoted Len Sweet as saying, "The question is not whether or not Jesus would tweet, the question is how he would tweet." I was curious but remained unconvinced. Technology comes with a whole set of issues and where I have connected most with Christ has been when I have unplugged (rather than from some 140-characters-long-message). Then a year ago, a friend and professor of mine, John G. Stackhouse, Jr. came back from an `Advance' with Len Sweet in the Orcas Islands and decided to jump into the twitterverse . I was already on Twitter, but only making occasional use of it and didn't see the point. So when Len Sweet published a book detailing how social networking is poised to ignite revival, I thought I should read it, so I could maybe understand (and jump on that bandwagon).

Ideologically I generally feel a little out of step with Sweet. He is always waxing eloquent about where we are in culture and how we should speak relevantly in our context. I want to ask how our context can prevent us from experiencing the truth of the gospel and numb us to the Spirit's movement. I feel this most acutely in relationship to technology. I have a blog, I'm on Facebook and Twitter and happy to amass friends and followers at each venue (and yes, I blog as a Christian), but I also wonder how technology is numbing my ability to know God intimately, to be in silence and solitude, and to make meaningful connections where I live.

When I read Viral, I heard Sweet's strong exhortations to get with the time, to embrace the social medium and use my platform to share Christ. These pages don't have the prophetic edge of a Jacques Ellul or Albert Borgmann questioning what meaningful thing is lost when we embrace new technologies (although Sweet quotes Marshall McLuhan several times). You also won't find Neil Postman's incisive analysis of how Western culture developed technology, but technology is now making us. But Sweet is not wholly ignorant of the dangers inherent in this tangled web we weave. He just chooses to accentuate the positive.

Sweet compares the two cultures that co-exist in our time. The Gutenbergers, love the printed word, sustained thought, but are also individualistic, narcissistic and prone to argument. The Googlers are digitally connected, think its more important to be in relationship than to be right and prize images and symbols and metaphors (though they still like text). As I expected, Sweet thinks that the Googlers are where our culture has moved to and so if we are serious about engaging the world with a Christian message, than we ought to move into the digital age engaging in the entire spectrum of the `TGIF' culture (Twitter, Google, iphone, Facebook).

Yet Sweet does not give his wholesale stamp on every phenomenon in the Google world. What he is really interesting is describing our context, where we live and how we relate to each other in our day and age, and how we remain faithful to Christ in the midst of that culture. So while much of this book is a glowing endorsement of twitter and iphone, Sweet augments that with suggestions of how to tweet in a transformative way and how to tell beautiful, poetic stories of God's goodness in an era where people spend half the day looking at cat memes. A lot of what he says tells people how to navigate the Google world better, some of it cries out for some of the Guttenbergers' literary skill, left brain thinking and analysis. So while Sweet comes down on the side of the Googlers, he affirms that both groups need each other.

This a worthwhile read and despite my skepticism and suspicions, I found some real insights here on how to use my online platform for the kingdom of God. This book is way over simplified in its analysis (Sweet admits as much) but it does a good job of naming and illustrating some of the major trends in culture that has happened over the past forty years. As always, Sweet provides you with a plethora of acronyms and witty terms which you will either enjoy or roll your eyes at. But despite his trendy, poppy prose, this book has good stuff to say and I would recommend it to those who are trying to be ambassadors for Christ in a digital world. As always, Sweet's interactive discussion questions, poke and prode and invite you into deeper learning (rather than just rehearse the chapter for you). Read it. According to Sweet, if you are Googler you will read it on your reader or ipad, if you are Guttenberger, you will read the print version. I read both, which I suppose means I'm every woman (or boy).

Thank you to Waterbrook Multnomah for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for this review. ( )
  Jamichuk | May 22, 2017 |
Excellent insight into the digital culture that permeates our society today. Sweet refers to this culture as the TGIF Culture (Twitter, Google, iPhone, Facebook). And, the generation of people who have grown up in and live in this culture are called Googlers. Any of us who have grown up or lived in the generations prior to these Googlers are referred to as Gutenbergers. Why? Because we are accustomed to the printed word and the mindset that accompanies it (i.e. power of words, dogma, exactness, institutions, etc). Sweet does a terrific job in contrasting these two generations and explains what the Googlers are and what they are not. No matter how you may view these Googlers, they are indeed relationship and community minded. They may go about this in a matter that we Gutenbergers are not accustomed to (i.e. through texting, Facebook, Twitter, etc.). Nevertheless they are relational. Relationships through Facebook, Twitter, texting, etc. is how they do it. And, we as a church must face this reality, learn to become a part of it, or essentially become irrelevant. I highly recommend this work to those who are comfortable swimming in the Gutenberg pool and are dumbstruck about this new digital culture. And, I highly recommend this book to Christians who want to better understand this culture in order to be relevant in an increasingly post-modern, post-Christian era. ( )
  gdill | May 16, 2013 |
A discussion of current Internet trends and their possible impact on Christianity, the church, and evangelism in the future.

The author seeks to understand the impact of current Internet trends through the prism of the contrast between those whom he calls "Gutenbergers," those who feel at home in the culture sustained by books, modernism, and all that is able to be quantified and analyzed, and the "Googlers," those who feel at home in the culture sustained by social media, postmodernism, and all that is relational. The author considers himself as an ex-"Gutenberger" who has come to appreciate the benefits of "Googler" culture.

The book primarily discusses "TGIF culture," or the impact of Twitter, Google, the iPhone, and Facebook on life, faith, culture, and church. The author thinks quite highly of the value of "TGIF culture" and its emphasis on the relational aspects of things. He wishes they had more appreciation for poetry (a rather long aside in the book), and thinks there is great potential in the holistic, relational, interconnected world of the "Googlers."

The more positive assessment of modern Internet culture is good to see: too many times such books assume the inherent "rightness" and benefits of "Gutenberger" culture, over-emphasize the downsides of Internet culture while seemingly unaware (or unconcerned) about the downsides of their own culture, and prove to be reactionary.

On the whole, though, I struggle with the contrast being made between "Gutenbergers" and "Googlers," mostly because the categories are defined by media and the means of consuming media. Most of the time I can see the generational/cultural contrasts made by authors in books like these, but this one was more difficult, and it's probably because one cannot categorize merely on the basis of prevalent media. Shifts from modernist to postmodernist thinking, the toppling of the Enlightenment paradigm, among other things, shape and inform the contrast between "Gutenbergers" and "Googlers" as much, if not more so, than using books vs. using the Internet. The contrast is useful inasmuch as it helps to inform why there are such differences between the "Gen-X/Buster" and "Gen-Y/Millennial" generations and the "Greatest/Builder" and "Boomer" generations. So yes, the attitude toward the Internet and the re-shaping of thinking, learning, researching, and connecting because of the Internet does have some explanatory power, but ought to be subject to these greater trends and themes for them to be fully appreciated.

I'm concerned that the author might be a bit too rosy regarding the "Googler" culture, but time will tell. If nothing else, the book might encourage "Gutenbergers" and "Googlers" to be better able to appreciate which each brings to the table and to supply what the other lacks. That is far better than for each group to despise each other and to attack each other, and is more consistent with 1 Corinthians 12:12-29.

An interesting analysis, and one that is useful to stimulate thinking.

**--book received as part of early review program. ( )
  deusvitae | Aug 13, 2012 |
NCLA Review: There is a lot being written on social networking and the church. Some is critical and raises concerns about the effects of new media on society and ecclesial life. Others serve as handbooks to the digital church, offering insights on how to make the shift to the digital age. Sweet’s book conforms to neither of these types, and for this reason among others, it is a necessary addition to your church library. Sweet, known widely in the church for his insights into shifting culture and its implications for theology and Christian life together, has written an amazing book that looks at social networking from a generous and welcoming perspective. Examples: a subtitle for chapter five, “How Twitter Produces a Better Follower of Christ.” And this quote, early in the book, that gives a sense of how open to, and passionate about, the social networking era Sweet has become: “How many cultures in history have devoted so much effort, invention, time, and passion to building networks that offered no payoff beyond engaging with other people?” The book includes an initial comparison of two cultures, the Gutenberg and the Google culture. Sweet then offers meditations on some of the primary social networks: Twitter, Google, iPhones and Facebook. For those of us raised in the Gutenberg culture, the final appendix on “How Gutenbergers Can Learn from Googlers” is the icing on the cake. Rating: 4 —CS ( )
  ncla | Jul 31, 2012 |
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The gospel is nothing without relationship. And no one gets it like the Google Generation.nbsp; God came to earth to invite us, personally, into a relationship. And while Christians at times downplay relationships, the social-media generation is completely sold on the idea. In Viral, Leonard Sweet says Christians need to learn about connecting with others from the experts--those who can't seem to stop texting, IM-ing, tweeting, and updating their Facebook statuses. What would happen, he asks, if Christians devoted less attention to strategies and statistics and paid more attention to pursuing relationships? nbsp; The current generation is driven by a God-given desire to know others and to be known by others. Most of them, in seeking to connect in meaningful ways, have found a place of belonging that is outside the organized church. Why not bring the two together? nbsp; Those who are sold out to relationships can teach Christians how to be better friends to people who need God. At the same time, members of the social-media generation can learn how to follow their desire for belonging, straight into the arms of God. It's time for relationship to be restored to the heart of the gospel. And when that happens, can revival be far behind? nbsp; End-of-Chapter Interactives Included

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