Categories: uncategorized
Date: 20 May 2012 18:28:53
Vicky Beeching has posted an interesting talk by social scientist Sherry Turkle which is entitled "Alone Together?" Is Digital Technology a friend or foe. Within it Turkle talks about the dis-empowering aspects of digital technology and of how this technology needs to be used to reconnect people with their lives, communities and environment rather than acting as an escape where people can avoid feeling loneliness and so forth.
I found this a challenging talk which made me think about my own use of social networking and digital technology as well as that I have witnessed in a variety of places. I would go into it more deeply but tonight is not the time.
Personally I realised that it has taken different forms at different times in my life but that the most productive use of technology has come for me through being able to integrate friendships via two channels (sometimes described as the physical or real world and the digital or on line world). Greenbelt has often acted as a space where the movement from online to physical acquaintance has occurred. This aspect of Greenbelt is something I could discuss further but I won't this evening - sufficient to say I think it is a perhaps unrecognised service that festivals like Greenbelt and Wildgoose provide.
This brings me - sort of - on to what I'm actually doing tonight - I've recently discovered that a number of talks from previous Greenbelt festivals are now available free on line. What I am going to do over my next 10 blog posts (major life events permitting) is to go through a series of my top 10 talks from Greenbelt over the years.
What I am going to do in each post is revisit talks I physically (as far as memory allows) attended and found useful and besides posting the link note down my reflections on them. I may well slip in one or two I wish I had attended but didn't.
I then invite you if you have the time and the inclination to also listen to the talks and join in the conversation through the comments section of this blog. I also invite anybody who also listened to these talks physically at the time to comment on about there feelings at the time and any impact the talk had on their practice or journey. This may or may not work - at the very least I will re-hear some talks and blog my reflections on them, which can be no bad thing.
**Link to GB talks and to TED site where the Turkle talk came from originally.** (as requested by Jackie).
So which 10 am I choosing?
Well here goes:
Brian McLaren - Postmodern and Post colonialism
Shane Claiborne - Loving the Hell Out of People
Tony Campolo - What Can We Do About Homophobia?
James Alison - Dealing with the Clobber Texts
Tom Sine - Mustard Seed Vs McWorld - Rediscovering God's Purposes for the Global Future
John Bell - Faith in a Failing Church
Dave Andrews - Practising Hope in Despair
Pete Ward - Liquid Church, Liquid God
Nadia Boltz-Weber - Emerging and Denominational: Loyal Radicals
Morna Hooker - Paul: Champion of Women