• July 2010 (2)
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• May 2010 (21)
• April 2010 (13)
• March 2010 (27)
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• December 2009 (8)
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• August 2009 (23)

a leadership, technology, and innovation blog for pastors and church leaders

1. 1Chris Hill

   Feb 18, 2010 at 3:59 pm

   The most popular websites list tells me that the majority of our teen audience is not “ahead of the game”, technically speaking..so why are we so obsessed with being this way? Teens use Yahoo, Myspace, and they like lots of flash…..and they definitely aren’t using Twitter.

   Did I read that right? A Justin Beiber coupon? Sweet!!

2. 2Andrew Edwards

   Feb 18, 2010 at 6:02 pm

   I think it shows that teens are into social media but are more passive users than we might have thought. They like to look/watch/experience and a small number like to contribute (facebook being the exception) but they dont seem to be blogging or contrubiting in more depth than status updates on facebook.

   I think this gives us good insight into how to send messages to them, but they probably wont contribute in ways larger than a FB status update.

   My thoughts - use social meadia to make a connection with them, send messages, advertise etc and then follow that up with face to face time to take things deeper

3. 3Peter Z

   Feb 18, 2010 at 7:45 pm

   I had the pleasure of spending a week at the beach with 7 20-somethings last year. I was amazed at how addicted they all were to their iPhones. At the beach house, at the beach, in the restaurants, their faces were constantly glued to the small screen on their phones. There was minimal face-to-face interaction with them and I found it to be quite sad indeed.

   I agree with Andrew that they don’t like to blog or contribute too much. Short and sweet (i.e. Twitter) seems to be the way to go with this generation.

4. 4James

   Feb 19, 2010 at 4:19 am

   Looks like reading blogs isn’t a high priority.

   Maybe it’s me, but when I was 12-18, as well as all that other stuff, I read about current affairs, the news etc..

   The fact that CNN, NYTimes, Washington Post, Boston Globe, any local news websites aren’t on that list, for me, is worrying.

5. 5Charles Flemming

   Feb 19, 2010 at 9:00 am

   I’d be interested in knowing how many hours these kids spend doing other things, like TV (right now, I can’t put my hands on any information newer than 2001), going to movies, playing games (the kids at our church sit in the lobby on Sunday mornings talking and playing card games)…

   I wonder, given the lack of blogging, for instance, what impact recruiting and equipping young bloggers might have. Can young people reach a young audience better than adults can?

   Alex and Brett Harris, for example, were 19 when they went online and formed Huck’s Army in support of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. They developed a national following of young people, creating quite a sensation, organizing GOTV efforts for Huckabee in several states, including 20,000 individual calls to voters in South Carolina. These guys did all this on their own with no direction from anyone’s campaign, and were credited by many analysts with creating the buzz that made Huckabee’s candidacy viable.

6. 6Sherrye

   Feb 19, 2010 at 11:28 am

   This survey gives some in site into how to maybe reach more youth through the internet. My son attends switch each week so I have to wonder if he took the survey. I know he spends most his time on the web searching for funny or interesting videos on youtube.com and on gaming websites playing games. He does check facebook too but they don’t really put much on there yet at his age, he’s 12. I think the best way to reach young people his age would be to find a way to put together really creative youtube videos about all sorts of subjects, make them fun, funny, gross and highly entertaining…he used to be really into “Fred” now it is some other funny guy. If he finds a really good video he likes he posts it to his facebook to share with all his friends. He’s not going to sit and read blogs or anything like that. Maybe in a few years he might but not at his age. He has however decided not to go to the Loop on Sunday mornings (I don’t know why b/c my other son loves it) but he LOVES sitting in service with his dad and I listening to Craig preach, he’ll even watch online if he misses a service, they really interest him. During last Sunday’s sermon about controlling wives he kept elbowing me.

7. 7Mason Stanley

   Feb 19, 2010 at 12:25 pm

   Couple of thoughts (more like assumptions) this post produced for me:

   1) Students want to be connected in some form or fashion. It would be intesting to know how they use the internet on their phones (my guess would be for instant messaging, facebook and/or myspace).

   2) Students are visual and like videos (a no duh moment). Sites such as espn, youtube, failblog,IMDB, and hulu allow them access to unlimted visual media.

   3) Students want their own sound track to life. Pandora if I had to guess probably plays in the background as they are connecting on facebook or even watching videos. Its also why they will cut their own track sections on myxer for cell phone tones.

   4) Students want to be interactive. Well marketing websites allow a person to be interactive with what ever is on the site. Whether it is information or games. Students want to be interacting, know they are in charge and control of something. But it can’t just be anything, it has to be “safe.” Students and adults will only stick to playing games they are good at or enjoy. If they contuniue to fail at a game they will stop playing it gar-run-teed.

   My 5th and final assumption) Students don’t exactly know where to find what they are looking for. This would give reason why search engines, such as google and yahoo, are so high on the list.

   I am a fan of student ministries having their own websites linked off a church’s main site. Not for the sake of looking different but for achieving a different goal. Unfortunately these sites a few and far between. Information is information no matter how you wrap it. At the end of the day it is going to be boring to its readers if they aren’t specifically looking for the information.

   What if… instead of studenty ministries having their own information sites..they had their own “entertainment sites” a place where they could socially connect, watch videos, listen to music and play games. I understand the ammount of work this would create for somebody but think of the ammount of influence it would give the church and student ministry over the students. If it was comparable in style and quality to facebook and google students would surely connect with it because it would personal to them. Not saying it would be their only stop, but I imagine it would be a daily stop none the less.

   Great post, thanks for the generated thoughts!

8. 8chad swanzy

   Feb 19, 2010 at 5:28 pm

   formspring.me is the hottest one happening right now with our students.

9. 9Mike Knapp

   Feb 22, 2010 at 12:10 am

   We are finding that using social media as an outreach to young adults (20-somethings) is priceless. I was astonished to learn that so few churches in our area used these media as an inroad into the lives of teens and young adults.

10. 10blake

    Feb 22, 2010 at 10:19 am

    it is kind of ironic that you put failblog.com when it is .org. fail?

    but seriously. this is very useful information.

11. 11Teens and Technology Survey «

    Mar 3, 2010 at 11:14 am

    [...] March 3, 2010 by braxtonbrady From Bobby Grueneweld at Swerve: [...]

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