22 replies to this topic

[arfink]

I spend a good deal of time thinking about rather esoteric things, and from time to time I'll shoot my mouth off about them. This is one of those times. You have been warned:

Everybody already knows that our modern society's most unique feature is that we are continuously and constantly awash in information. While past ages could often be characterized by the restriction of or lack of information available to people, ours is most unique in that anyone can have access to almost any piece of information they want.

Long gone are the days when illiteracy was a way of life. Nowadays you have to try pretty hard (in most countries of the world) to be completely illiterate. Most people have at least occasional access to libraries and more importantly, the internet. Most of us can and do spend several hours a day connected to modern media sources of one kind or another. So drenched are we in our flowing sluices of information that many people talk about things like "information overload," or "TMI", or "TL;DR", or any number of other ways of saying "It's too much for me to deal with."

But with any abundance comes a loss of some other good. When information was scarce and valuable in itself it was always easy to get people to pay attention. After all, if they don't have any other information they'll certainly pay attention to you in order to get yours. We have whole markets built around the idea that people's attention is inherently captive while they wait to receive the information they want. Think of advertising.

Now that the internet exists, information itself isn't valuable anymore. There is simply too much of it for any person to consume in a lifetime, let alone in a single sitting. No, what has become increasingly scarce and precious now is attention.

I haven't thought through all of what this means yet, but it's becoming very clear the many people in the business world have already discovered this. Facebook capitalizes on the over-abundance of information by making it easier to cut your stream down into just the information you want to be immersed in. It's basically a system of self-curation for information. But this has a consequence: Facebook's currency, if you will, is "Likes," because they represent attention. Once you have someone's attention they will consume your information. Lose their attention and you lose your ability to have any influence over them again. With the vast amount of information available for people to chase they would have little reason to ever come back to you again.

The "content creators" are often rewarded with large amounts of attention and thusly influence because novelty is always a good attention-getter. But what about Catholics who want to spread the faith? How will we need to change our evangelization in response to this? The faith is hardly a novelty item. Many Catholic blogs and websites are always being visited by the same people, and newcomers quickly lose interest and leave because there are so many more compelling alternatives. I think the answer is less about "getting the information out there," and more about curation.

When I say curation, I am thinking less about the kinds of things you'd be seeing, say, a reference librarian doing. Too many Catholic websites already do this, and they sit and rot like they're stuck in 1998. No, I'm thinking about creative curation that doesn't merely expose the viewer to a fire-hose of information but entices, winning the attention first and making the viewer desire more. Kinda like The Oatmeal's "curation" of information concerning Nikola Tesla. Warning, contains swearing. But it's a really excellent example of what the secular world seems to intuitively understand while seemingly very few Catholics seek to implement.

What can we do to improve our curation skills and have an effective tool for modern evangelization?

[arfink]

Wow, I think this'll get buried before anyone reads it at this rate. Too bad I can't edit the title.

[tinytherese]

bump

[TheresaThoma]

Interesting. Definitely something to think on.

[arfink]

I think this blew right past everyone here. And then I wonder why it is that I ponder things for weeks and reshape it continuously in my head only to find that everyone else just goes "huh?" once I bring it out into the light. Derp.

[Chrysophylax]

I think this is great. Bump.

[AnneLine]

I just saw it today, too. I think you are on to something. Not sure what to do with it, but I think you are making very good & valid points...

I have a friend who is an info librarian... might run this by her to see if she has any ideas...

[Papist]

What can we do to improve our curation skills and have an effective tool for modern evangelization?

Can you please explain what you mean by curation? I want to be clear I am understanding you before I reflect on what you are saying. This topic is intriguing.

[cmotherofpirl]

Art I'll change the title what do you want it to say?

[arfink]

Can you please explain what you mean by curation? I want to be clear I am understanding you before I reflect on what you are saying. This topic is intriguing.

I guess I should elaborate on that.

A curator is not someone who creates content (like an artist or writer) or meters out information (like a librarian) but rather someone who gathers it together and organizes it in a specific way in order to convey a specific meaning.

A librarian simply gathers the information together and organizes it so that you can arbitrarily find any one piece of information you want. The curator organizes it so that no matter what piece of information you pick up, it will all be built in such a way as to point towards a specific goal, meaning, lesson, etc. If you come to a librarian with a question, he'll point you towards a section of the library, or perhaps a specific book and you'll then extract the information yourself. If you come to a curator with a book, he'll tell you what questions you should be asking.

Does this make any sense?

[AnneLine]

Yup, it makes sense... but I think the point C-mom is making is you might get a bit more traffic into the thread if people knew where they were heading.... I skipped it for a few days 'cause I didnt' know what it was about.... silly me.

[arfink]

OK cmom, go ahead and change the thread title to:

"Getting People's Attention the Right Way (re evangelization)"

[arfink]

Bump? Cmom?

[Innocent]

This is an interesting topic, Arfink. I remember reading an article a couple of years ago on how the layout of books has changed from being a linear flow of text to being a connected cluster of information chunks, comprising a mixture of text and graphics. (e.g., any modern Dorling Kindersley book.) Recently, ebooks have even started experimenting with embedding audio and video right into the book.

As necessary as it is to grab and hold the attention of the reader, or more accurately in these times, "information consumer," it might also be part of the Catholic witness to encourage people to be aware of how electronic media is influencing our attention spans and changing our abilities to think deeply.

Jonathan S. Hayward, an Orthodox Christian author, often addresses the issue of how the digital culture influences us, through his writings, which are all available online for free on his website.

Edited by Innocent, 30 May 2012 - 09:40 PM.

[Papist]

This is a very tough question. To grab their attention or draw the reader in, I guess the topic/heading/etc. would have to appealing. The first thing that comes to mind about keeping the reader once he is drawn in is CHARITY and HONESTY. There are many places in the webz that catch my attention, but most don't keep me there b/c the lack of charity and honesty. And another thing I really loathe is sights that are mostly detailing why the other way of thinking/life/etc. is wrong rather than showing the good of theirs. I think it is most effective if the information is presented in a way of not trying to convince/convert/etc, but just give me the true facts and let me process it with myself. And have a mechanism to ask questions.

Edited by Papist, 31 May 2012 - 06:38 AM.

[arfink]

This is a very tough question. To grab their attention or draw the reader in, I guess the topic/heading/etc. would have to appealing. The first thing that comes to mind about keeping the reader once he is drawn in is CHARITY and HONESTY. There are many places in the webz that catch my attention, but most don't keep me there b/c the lack of charity and honesty. And another thing I really loathe is sights that are mostly detailing why the other way of thinking/life/etc. is wrong rather than showing the good of theirs. I think it is most effective if the information is presented in a way of not trying to convince/convert/etc, but just give me the true facts and let me process it with myself. And have a mechanism to ask questions.

I'd like to think that you are right, but that already sounds alot like what Catholics are already doing online, and it's not really working that well.

This is an interesting topic, Arfink. I remember reading an article a couple of years ago on how the layout of books has changed from being a linear flow of text to being a connected cluster of information chunks, comprising a mixture of text and graphics. (e.g., any modern Dorling Kindersley book.) Recently, ebooks have even started experimenting with embedding audio and video right into the book.

As necessary as it is to grab and hold the attention of the reader, or more accurately in these times, "information consumer," it might also be part of the Catholic witness to encourage people to be aware of how electronic media is influencing our attention spans and changing our abilities to think deeply.

Jonathan S. Hayward, an Orthodox Christian author, often addresses the issue of how the digital culture influences us, through his writings, which are all available online for free on his website.

Of course modern media has changed the way we think. That's the whole reason why we need to change our approach. Obviously if we are aware of it ourselves then we can work to change our habits of thinking, but that does nothing to help the millions of people who have been unknowingly affected. In order to do any work to help them we must first reach them, and sadly that will mean using modern delivery methods if we want to have a prayer of being effective.

[Papist]

I'd like to think that you are right, but that already sounds alot like what Catholics are already doing online, and it's not really working that well.

What is it that is not working that well?

[Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye]

i get it, knowledge helps but it isn't true power, and i guess one way to prowess our evangelium iz to love the unloveable once or twice or even more in our lifetime and even better a random unloveable we have never met. at least for 1 dark night like the good samaritan. The unloveable sometimes if you can minister there wounds effectively are actually not unloveable but have just built a wall around there heart due to let down after let down and only the most daring can climb over that wall, and once your over that wall anything good can happen in faith.hope and love for that person.

Edited by Tab'le Du'Bah-Rye, 31 May 2012 - 09:01 AM.

[arfink]

Were you gonna change this topic title Cmom?

What is it that is not working that well?

Oh I don't know, like the fact that on sites like this one and others (mostly blogs, Catholic.com etc) we tend to attract only compatible Catholics and actively infuriate and drive away everybody else except for the occasional iron-stomached-weirdo like Kujo or JLOL.

[Groo the Wanderer]

mebbe distill the CCC into liquid form and inject it directly into the brain?