New & Improved? Series

A few weeks ago Helen and I were at the Jordan Creek Mall and we stopped in the Apple Store. Now that is not a fruit stand, but the Apple computer store. They had several tables full of their newest gadget the i-pad. I wanted to check it out. Basically it is like a computer that you can hold in your hands. It does not close like a laptop, but just has a touch screen for everything you need. Anyone here have one?

So Helen and I go in and we are looking at it and a guy comes over to give us the demonstration. Helen tells him we need the full presentation. The guy is an older gentleman; he told us he was 62. And to get a reference of how much he would have to teach me he said well, have you used an i-pod touch? Which I think is a smaller version of the i-pad mainly used for music and videos with some other applications. I said, no I have not used one. He said, okay, well what about an i-phone? That is a cell phone which I assume you can use the internet on and I think you can do music and video on it too. Again, no I have not used one.

The guy then began to make fun of me. He was 62 and in his mind he was more technologically advanced than me, a kid half his age. I showed him my cell phone that makes phone calls and can text. Just recently we started to be able to send and receive pictures from it. I also teased him because Helen and I just got internet at home in June. Before that we either used internet here in the office or wireless from other places.

Overall, I think the i-pad looks fun, and I think I want one, but I am going to wait until Christmas at least because the guy ruined his chance to sell one by telling me they are coming out with a new operating system in November. That means the main program, like Windows for most computers, will be changing. One thing my grandpa taught me was to never buy the newest technology right away because there are always bugs that need to be worked out. Get the bugs work out and then buy it.

I share this story with you to let you know that I enjoy the latest and greatest technology, but I am not one that thinks just because something is new that this means it is better or the greatest thing ever. I think technology has given us some great things, but it also at times has done more harm than good.

This is all to say as we begin a message series based on facebook, a website, that this message series is not meant to be an advertisement for facebook. It is not my attempt to say everyone needs to be on facebook or even use it. I simply see that facebook is a piece of our culture and it is something that we can use to learn relevant lessons about our faith and even use it as a tool of our faith.

I want to do the best I can to stay away from getting too technical and make sure these messages communicate to those who use facebook everyday and those who will never use it. I can’t say I will do that perfectly, but I ask for your grace as I try. Today’s message may be more facebook than you want to know about, but the rest of the message will not be as facebook heavy. We just need a solid foundation to build on.

First, how many of you are on facebook? How many know what it is, but are not on it? How many know very little about it?

Facebook is a website that was launched in February of 2004. It was created by some college students led by a young man named Mark Zuckerburg. Basically it was meant to be a directory for Harvard students. The name comes from the schools annual printed directory. It had everyone’s picture from the school and it was unofficially called “the face book.” It had head shots of everyone and it helped people to put a name with a face.

However, it did not just stay at the school. In just over 6 years it has exploded. If the members on facebook were its own country it would be third in the world behind China and India. There are over 400 million members of facebook. Compare that to just over 300 million people total in this country.

The stated purpose of facebook is to share and connect with the people in your life. The idea is that you can create your own personal webpage. And you can control who sees it and who doesn’t. You can put things on there for other people to see. Let’s just quickly look at my facebook page. You would have to be my friend to view my page. And if anyone wants to be my friend just ask me. I do not often friend request members of the church, I let you request me because I don’t want you to feel like you have to be my friend. If you feel your pastor is getting too close to you that way I understand.