As the pandemic developed, I noticed that my two local parishes which had started on Youtube had migrated to Facebook. However in order to view services on Facebook, you are required to log in which of course enables both Facebook and the parish to know who is watching. Since I don't intend to become part of Facebook, it essentially meant that they lost me as a viewer of their worship services. One of them has come back to YouTube. I sent them a congratulatory e-mail.
Facebook Wants You to Connect With God. On Facebook.
Months before the megachurch Hillsong opened its new outpost in Atlanta, its pastor sought advice on how to build a church in a pandemic.
From Facebook.
The social media giant had a proposition, Sam Collier, the pastor, recalled in an interview: to use the church as a case study to explore how churches can “go further farther on Facebook.”
For months Facebook developers met weekly with Hillsong and explored what the church would look like on Facebook and what apps they might create for financial giving, video capability or livestreaming. When it came time for Hillsong’s grand opening in June, the church issued a news release saying it was “partnering with Facebook” and began streaming its services exclusively on the platform.
Beyond that, Mr. Collier could not share many specifics — he had signed a nondisclosure agreement.
Now, after the coronavirus pandemic pushed religious groups to explore new ways to operate, Facebook sees even greater strategic opportunity to draw highly engaged users onto its platform. The company aims to become the virtual home for religious community, and wants churches, mosques, synagogues and others to embed their religious life into its platform, from hosting worship services and socializing more casually to soliciting money. It is developing new products, including audio and prayer sharing, aimed at faith groups.
Last month, Facebook executives pitched their efforts to religious groups at a virtual faith summit. Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, shared an online resource hub with tools to build congregations on the platform.
“Faith organizations and social media are a natural fit because fundamentally both are about connection,” Ms. Sandberg said.
“Our hope is that one day people will host religious services in virtual reality spaces as well, or use augmented reality as an educational tool to teach their children the story of their faith,” she said.
Facebook’s summit, which resembled a religious service, included testimonials from faith leaders about how Facebook helped them grow during the pandemic.
Bishop Robert Barron, founder of an influential Catholic media company, said Facebook “gave people kind of an intimate experience of the Mass that they wouldn’t normally have.”
There are privacy worries too, as people share some of their most intimate life details with their spiritual communities. The potential for Facebook to gather valuable user information creates “enormous” concerns, said Sarah Lane Ritchie, a lecturer in theology and science at the University of Edinburgh. The goals of businesses and worshiping communities are different, she said, and many congregations, often with older members, may not understand how they could be targeted with advertising or other messages based on their religious engagement.
A Facebook spokeswoman said the data it collected from religious communities would be handled the same way as that of other users, and that nondisclosure agreements were standard process for all partners involved in product development.
Facebook has nearly three billion active monthly users, making it larger than Christianity worldwide, which has about 2.3 billion adherents, or Islam, which has 1.8 billion.
Maybe religions should see Facebook as a competitor rather than a partner in competing for the almighty dollar.
Our parish used Facebook when they were live streaming Mass. I think it was because the people doing the live streaming were familiar with FB and knew how to put it on. It was a "closed group", which meant that you had to be a member to get on. But all you had to do to be a member was click " like". Our parish's FB page was way more basic than Hillsong's.
ReplyDeleteI guess I have mixed feelings about it. Yes, I know there are privacy concerns. But the same could be said of any social media. Definitely FB's number of users means there is more potential exposure. I notice that it isn't really a young person's venue any more. It's kind of a moms and grandma's thing. The hip crowd are elsewhere. Or maybe that's just the way I use it, I've only got a little over a hundred on my friend list. I do have a few rules of thumb for navigating it. If I am going to buy anything online from a vendor which has posted on FB, I go directly to that vendor's website and don't enter it from their FB page. I don't post anything which I would be embarrassed to have in the local paper. Also nothing political, and no shares or memes which could be a giveaway to a password or access question on another account. Example: "We all love our fur-babies. What was the name of your first pet?" Or, "School daze: who was your second grade teacher?"
I don't use Facebook but of course many do. But it can't be allowed to become the equivalent of live, in-person worship.
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