The question …
I recently received an email note from a friend. She wrote:
"I am curious if anyone knows of some Christian articles dealing with internet flirting or cyber sex … I just can't seem to find anything that I can relate to or identify with, and I know that there must be some other folks who have encountered the same thing."
Not just a guy thing …
Indeed, there are a number of articles online dealing with this issue. Reviewing them reveals something interesting, if not downright scary. Pornography usage and cybersex traditionally have been viewed as a "male problem," because men are thought to be more easily excited by what they see. But now women are at risk too.
These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.
(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. 
)
These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.
(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )
According to WebUser.co.uk, PlusNet (a UK ISP) has released a study concluding what many have said for years:
Nearly a third of people say their relationships have suffered because their use of digital technology means they ‘talk less’.
Among other “ground-breaking” conclusions:
- 90% said email, text, and IMs make communication less personal;
- 41% said they’d rather get a phone call;
- 40% say email, text, and IM are less confrontational;
- 27% use email, text, and IM to flirt;
- 22% use email, text, and IM to apologize for missed birthdays;
- 19% use email, text, and IM to call in sick to work.
I mentioned some of my thoughts on this in my interview with Garrick the other day. The Internet “mediates” relationships, like postal mail does, or sending messages to your spouse via the kids. But the almost “real-time” immediacy of the Net conceals it’s mediating
I’m popular on the Web! Well, maybe I’m just popular on Garrick Van Buren’s website. Or, maybe I’m just popular on one podcast on one podcaster’s show coming out of a small home in Minnesota that is redolent of freshly roasted coffee.
I had the pleasure of spending over an hour on Skype with Garrick of the “First Crack Podcast,” talking about his show, podcasting, the Internet, and more. It was a great conversation, and I’m looking forward to listening to his half-hour condensation our our hour-plus conversation.
I just had to say that now, before listening to the show, because I really enjoyed the conversation, and didn’t want to sully my good feelings with that sense of “Aargh! He left out the best part!” <grin> Garrick’s a good guy, and he has an interesting show, in my opinion. I frequently enjoy the
My employer, Christianity Today, posted an interesting and important editorial: “Deadening the Heart: Killer video games are no 'safety valve'—quite the opposite.” Here’s an excerpt:
Good teachers know three things that contribute to effective learning: active participation, rehearsing behavioral sequences rather than discrete acts, and repetition, repetition, repetition. Video games employ all three. In addition, the vast majority of the gaming scenarios (like the random killing of prostitutes) fail to show the real-life consequences of violence. Perpetrators go unpunished. In short, violent games can deaden us to the horror of violence and stimulate our native sinfulness. It shouldn't surprise us that all media shape us, which is one reason Paul exhorts us to think on things that are true, honorable, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent (Phil. 4).
Some say these are just games, and that we shouldn't take them
I stumbled across an interesting passage from Plato's Phaedrus (translated by Benjamin Jowett) the other day. (Or, check out the published translation.) It seemed relevant to me as I am wrapping up my research on Heaven & Hell in preparation for my presentation at church this coming Wednesday.
I lean on the Internet quite a bit as I do research. And beside me at this moment I have no less than 16 books measuring two feet in height that I have also leaned on — or should I say they have leaned on me? Yet through it all I am painfully aware that my knowldge of either Heaven or Hell (I capitalize the terms for I think of them as real places) is bound up
