The Google-fication of God, Part 2

July 21, 2011 by Brian Kirk

Continued from Page 1

Admittedly, other progressives might compose a different list from my own. But what I offer here are those non-negotiables that invite teens to take seriously the long tradition and history of the Church, to be in dialogue with the forebears of their faith and to seek an understanding of Christianity that is centered in the discernment of the community rather solitary personal preferences. These non-negotiables can provide youth with a solid foundation on which to grow their faith. They provide an anchor that allow teens to explore while still holding onto something solid for support as they seek a better understanding of the call of Christ upon their lives.

I began this two-part essay with a suggestion that just as a the Google search engine tends to offer us search results that reflect our own personal biases and limited worldview, so too we run the risk of crafting a faith that exists within a very limited personal bubble if we are ignorant of our own history, tradition, and the voice of the surrounding community. But it turns out that Google might also offer a example of the right way forward with youth in the Church.

Despite those who might think that our dependence on this search engine giant is resulting in the dumbing down of internet users who rely too heavily on Google to know all the facts, recent studies suggest that we benefit from looking to knowledgeable internet sources by which to "fact check" our memories, opinions, and worldview. So says author Jonah Lehrer:

And this is where the internet comes in. One of the virtues of transactive memory is that it acts like a fact-check, helping ensure we don't all descend into selfish solipsism. By sharing and comparing our memories, we can ensure that we still have some facts in common, that we all haven't disappeared down the private rabbit hole of our own reconsolidations. In this sense, instinctually wanting to Google information - to not entrust trivia to the fallible brain - is a perfectly healthy impulse. . . . I don't think it's a sign that technology is rotting our cortex—I think it shows that we're wise enough to outsource a skill we're not very good at. Because while the web enables all sorts of other biases—it lets us filter news, for instance, to confirm what we already believe—the use of the web as a vessel of transactive memory is mostly virtuous. We save hard drive space for what matters, while at the same time improving the accuracy of recall.

In this sense, we who work with youth might consider ourselves as a sort of faith-based Google, encouraging teens to come to us with questions, challenges, and ideas about the Christian faith. We in turn help them to explore those questions against a backdrop of the literature, voices, experiences, and expressions of Christianity that come to us as a treasure from the past and help us to discern who we will be as people of faith in the present.

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