[MEDIA] Talking to @TWRuk about @ChurchofEngland Social Media Guidelines

Earlier today, the Church of England released guidelines for the use of social media within the church (and impacting the world more widely), and this was launched by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Facebook:

This was covered in the Guardian, CNN, ITV, and other places. If you look back through my Slideshare, you’ll see that I ran training for the Church of England (and other churches) in the past, before they got a digital team together two years ago. December 2018, I also had an academic article published on Social Media, Peer Surveillance, Spiritual Formation, and Mission: Practising Christian Faith in a Surveilled Public Space, which this seems to tie in with:

Social media has become a part of everyday life, including the faith lives of many. It is a space that assumes an observing gaze. Engaging with Foucauldian notions of surveillance, self-regulation, and normalisation, this paper considers what it is about social and digital culture that shapes expectations of what users can or want to do in online spaces. Drawing upon a wide range of surveillance research, it reflects upon what “surveillance” looks like within social media, especially when users understand themselves to be observed in the space. Recognising moral panics around technological development, the paper considers the development of social norms and questions how self-regulation by users presents itself within a global population. Focusing upon the spiritual formation of Christian users (disciples) in an online environment as a case study of a community of practice, the paper draws particularly upon the author’s experiences online since 1997 and material from The Big Bible Project (CODEC 2010–2015). The research demonstrates how the lived experience of the individual establishes the interconnectedness of the online and offline environments. The surveillant affordances and context collapse are liberating for some users but restricting for others in both their faith formation and the subsequent imperative to mission.

Not forgetting, of course, that the subtitle of my book, and the force that drives most of my work is ‘Enjoying the Best, Avoiding the Worst’!

I was asked to speak on this on TW Radio this morning. Here’s the interview: