More reasons the internet is bringing about a precipitous drop in faith.
Top-down one-to-many one-way communication gets tuned out. Millennials are extremely suspicious of and inoculated against to any form of top-down one-to-many one-way communication (that’s why ad agencies are up in arms about commercials not working like they used to). With the advent of the internet this becomes even more true, specifically because the internet allows people to weigh in publicly in comments sections after reading most articles. In a church setting one is not allowed to give feedback publicly (or sometimes give feedback at all). There will never be another Billy Graham because the trust in the kind of medium he used is no longer there.
People’s electronic bubble (friends they keep in contact with via apps and texting) supersede church as their base of social interaction. Facebook and other apps short-circuit the church as a meeting place. Youth group used to be a place where kids made plans to do other things. Now if kids go to youth group at all, they have their cell phone out and they’re chatting with people from their electronic bubble.
The internet divides us into tribes. Surfing the web is done alone. The internet Balkinizes tastes and thought processes. There used to be overlap in people’s taste in music and news but this is becoming less common. As Arcade Fire said, music divides us into tribes. In my case I think so much different than the rest of my family because I’m always on Reddit. I can’t even have a conversation with people who watch Fox News as their primary news source. Some would say that’s a good thing but I don’t think so. How this applies to the church is that when people come together physically often they are in their own world and have so little common ground they can’t connect on any meaningful level.
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