THINK DIFFERENTLY

Keyboards Are So Yesterday…

Are you using a keyboard right now? Did you peck away at letters in front of you to navigate to BeDeviant.com? According to some people who use the Internet a lot, keyboards and laptops will be a thing of the past in as little as four years. From Yahoo! News: “Step aside, keyboards, laptops, and 9-to-5 jobs. A survey of more than 1,000 Internet activists, journalists, and technologists released Sunday speculates that by 2012, those quaint relics of 20th century life will fade away.” Read the rest of the article here.

Technorati Tags: Keyboards, Laptops, Yahoo! News

Loyalty v. Responsibility

For those of you not in the Des Moines area, Principal Financial Group (one of the city’s biggest employers) laid of 550 people yesterday. Andy Drish, a Gen-Y blogger and Principal employee, put it best when describing the lay-offs: “Companies tend to think that Gen Y isn’t ‘loyal.’ Now maybe they’ll understand why we keep our job options open. We’d be foolish not to.” Wow. Well said. The days of corporate America “taking care” of their employees are long gone. Take note.

Technorati Tags: Economy, Gen Y, Layoffs, Principal Financial Group

Boomers v. Gen Yers

Ellie Behling makes a great point over at the BrazenCareerist.com on “6 Hurdles to An All-Digital Workforce“: “The clash is that Boomers and Gen Xers have spent their entire careers in extremely hierarchal structures where each step is defined and worked toward. Contrastingly, Gen Y has an attitude focused on group think, which is more suited for the online medium.” Boomers or Gen Yers, do you agree? Disagree? What’s keeping the U.S. from becoming an all-digital workplace?

Technorati Tags: Media, Social, Social Media

An Addition to BeDeviant.com

T-shirts! Check out the link on the side. Now you too can own a piece of BeDeviant.com. Check out the shirts. They’re ill. Just in time for Christmas! Huzzah!

The Life of the Internet Integrated

Texas A &M Communications Professor Heidi Campbell says, “Ten years ago not everyone had e-mail accounts. Now most of us find it almost impossible to function without the Internet, whether it comes to banking or doing business or keeping up with friends.” She then goes on to suggest that we should expect no different when it comes to our religious lives. How have you found the macrocosm of the internet making its way into the microcosm of your church? Twitter? YouTube? Webcasting? Online campuses? Or, like Jonathan, are you finding it hard to even get your church to use Microsoft Word? How has the internet affected your religious life?

Technorati Tags: LifeChurch.tv, Online Campus, Twitter, Webcast, YouTube

From the Year 2000: Jobs of the Future

I don’t like to jump on bandwagons very much (I mean, the name of this site is Be Deviant!), but I’ll grab a seat on Seth Godin’s bandwagon any ol’ day! Seth recently talked about “Jobs of the Future”, one such being “Online Community Organizer“. What the heck is that? The answer comes from Seth’s Blog, via Tony Steward: “Somebody to create and maintain a virtual world in which all the players in an industry feel like they need to be part of it? Like being the head of a big trade association, but without the bureaucracy and tedium.” (For those of you wanting to start Internet campuses at your church, you should pay attention to this job. You’ll need someone to do this. And do it well.)

Technorati Tags: Online Community Organizer, Seth Godin, Tony Steward

A Little Conviction For Your Monday Morning.

ChurchMarketingSucks.com keeps blasting me with little fireballs like this one: “I regret the number of times I have ‘used’ people as a way to advance my agenda, regardless of how well-intentioned I may have been … We must continually ask ourselves how we add value to people and not how people add value to us.” Good grief. That one smarts!

Technorati Tags: ChurchMarketingSucks.com, Conviction, People

Have You Quit the Church?

BustedHalo.com has an extremely interesting look at why people, specifically younger people, are quitting the church: “‘The Christian world puts everyone in a little box and has no time for people who step outside it,’ she quotes one friend as saying to her over lunch. In general, people report that their spiritual needs are not being met at church. One problem is the marginalization of an increasingly educated laity by pastors who feel threatened by intelligent feedback.” There is a solution, according to the author of the article. What is it? “Get congregants more involved in church leadership.” De-centralization of church leadership anyone?

Technorati Tags: Church, Church Leadership, Decentralization, Generation We, Millenials

BeDeviant.com in the Chicago Sun-Times!

This made my day. “The Digital Pastor” appeared on the Chicago Sun-Times’ website today. Very cool.

Technorati Tags: Chicago Sun-Times, Digital Pastor

This Kid Can Throw!

You’ve got to read a comment left on “Can You Vote For Obama?” by reader Dave. This kid can throw! Needless to say, this is a heated topic and I must say, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the civility you’ve all shown! You guys rock. BeDeviant.com readers are classy folk.

Technorati Tags: 2008 Election, Barack Obama