In our last piece, we broached the subject of ministry business models and how the free flow of content on the internet will likely disrupt the way that ministries have structured their fund-raising. This weekend we took a look at The Real Faith statistics of the blog versus the podcasts. We’ve been writing for close to fifteen months (over 300 essays) and our first podcast was available for download less than two weeks ago (we’re counting our IE fiasco). From what we can deduce, our podcast downloads are currently outpacing our essays by a margin of about 4:1. That was pretty surprising to us until we ran across these statistics this weekend (some are a little dated, but we think that the numbers would be even lower for 2007):
One-third of high school graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives.
58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school.
42% of college graduates never read another book.
80% of US families did not buy or read a book last year.
70% of US adults have not been in a bookstore in the last five years.
57% of new books are not read to completion.
Most readers do not get past page 18 in a book they have purchased.
63% of adults report purchasing at least one book during the previous three-month period. (Most were probably exaggerating).
These statistics came from Parapublishing. Publisher’s Weekly reports that, as of 2001, people reduced their monthly reading time to 2.1 hours and per capita spending on books was $7.18. The investment bank, Veronis Suhler Stevenson reports:
Each day, people in the US spend 4 hours watching TV, 3 hours listening to the radio and 14 minutes reading magazines.
In a previous piece, we wrote about trying to figure out the right balance between writing and podcasting. In light of these statistics (and our own), it looks like our theme change to balance out the two was more than a good idea.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Peter, there is a side to blogging I like…exchange of ideas, teaching forums, interacting with other parts (the brothers and sisters) of the body of Christ. After spending some time searching out other Christian blog sites, there are a few things to me which elicit discretion. Is there a need for accountability for what one might say, good or bad, via the internet? Exactly where is the fruit, other than a kudos or pat on the back from fellow bloggers who appear to frequent each other’s sites. If there is real fruit, what is the measure of it? Are hit numbers a bonafide measure of fruit, other than just knowing there were Xnumber of readers or observers in a given week? Unless you are like Jesse Duplantis, who has a large phone staff to field calls/emails…upwards of, I believe he said, >4,600 calls/week and hundreds of salvations. I have a colleague who has a blog site for her craft hobby (paper on paper, whatever that is) and she received 80 emails yesterday. Who has time to respond to 80 emails? She doesn’t and I sure do not have that kind of time.
If everyone is blogging or should be, as some suggest, what then constitutes this part (cyberspace) of the body of Christ…a vast group of individuals merely exchanging ideas or sparring as some do for the sake of proving a point, making a statement or one uping a blog “competitor?” (lol) Does the web produce the Gospel concept of, “And they added to the church daily.”(?) Is knowledge being gained to produce a more mature believer that might impact his/her world in a well defined way? OR, is it more the “gaining of knowledge” that causes one to be “puffed up.” ICor. 8.1? [ie., Letters to Kamp Krusty…what’s that all about, other than a fit, good-looking guy who has a bag of opinions that produces nothing more than entertainment to the net junkies?) Cfaith’s community forum does produce a sort of fellowship that is monitored by staff.
My concern is that cyberspace will produce the equivalent of what TV has done to the generations of the 20th century. Already, the stats reveal that the average adult spends 11 hours/week on the internet with an overall adult participation of >80%! I fear, also , what it will do to families, marriages and relationships in the body of Christ. With the communication problems between our neighbors, in our families and between our Christian brothers…compounded with the blackberry, ipod, techno frenzy compulsion…we are set up to release a can of worms we may have no idea how to control/or manage.
As much as I like the www, I can see some red flags. That being said, I believe, Peter, your podcasts bring a needed human attribute to blogging.
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AmeriKan, thanks for the comment.
Your comment raises some good questions about where the internet fits in with the proclamation of the Gospel and spiritual growth. The upcoming Spiritual Coverings series will address some of them, such as accountability and fruit.
I don’t agree with the suggestion that everyone should be blogging. I’ve asked the question why more ministers are not using the blogging platform because it is their calling to preach the Gospel, but that is not to say everyone should set up a blog. Writing is difficult work that takes a tremendous amount of time and effort. Many folks can’t commit the time to write consistently and even fewer are called.
Thanks for the note on the podcasts. It is quite a different medium than we’re used to, but we’re starting to get the hang of it.
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