Nosferatu said:
Now, how many people do you know have come into the truth by visiting watchtower.org? Quite the opposite is happening right now - people are leaving the troof because of the internet. Dubs have the opportunity to preach by providing a link to the Watchtower site. It's the same as giving them a magazine - without the donation.
Another problem is if the Society starts making e-watchtowers and e-awakes, they can be copied easily, and the donation arrangement goes out the window. They can't go back to charging for the e-magazines because they'd have to tax them.
I would certainly agree with what you say here, but please note the difference between what I’m suggesting vs. E-zines and online websites. Details about how they would make their money were covered in my last post.
I think another thing worth considering is that the very nature of printed media will be changing in the not so distant future. While electronic books have pretty much been a flop, what holds much more promise is electronic paper that should be here in a few years. This will allow you to quickly download any book or magazine into your personal book. It will look a lot like a book, and you can turn pages instead of refreshing a screen, but it will hold hundreds if not thousands of books for you to instantly access. This will shake the publishing industry like nothing else, and if the Watchtower doesn’t adapt it, no skin off my back, but they are not stupid when it comes to making money. You can bet that someone can download books right at their door or online.
Also a quick comment about the Society using computers…my point was back in the late 70’s they said they were not going to use computers, had no interest, etc. Of course they use them now for printing…I’m making the same point in using them for the preaching work, it will be more efficient to do it.
Jgnat…your point is well taken. I’m trying to suggest that they will milk the rank and file cow even more to get their $$$. They don’t have to show tax statements and audits of where all that money is being spent. This “new light” of online ministry will be an easy way to collect mucho bucks with very little real costs, and keep on collecting, and collecting, and collecting.
While we can call them fools by their own Biblical definition, it is amazing what a person will do for their beliefs and how powerful that belief is in filtering out anything they don’t want to see.
SS…dude…don’t give them more ideas!!! Sheesh Actually, I’m sure that intelligent bots will be more widely used by everyone online in the future to do much more than searches. However, until computers become self-aware and pass the Turing test, to become mind-children they won’t be able to replace a live person at the keyboard.
Gumby….off you go to my left with the Goats!!! You with little faith. Hehe
Yerusalyim…lol, now that was an insult dude. I wonder what ever happened to that old master troll…Youknow.
JWS…of course I have my own bias, but I gave my opinion based on what I’ve seen as the most likely scenario. I know there is a lot of hype by people about the future of the net, but there is much more reality in terms of what the picture really is. Consider looking at the trends in online gaming (check out this link for an example: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2785179.stm ) that show amazing increases in the number of participants. There are a lot of things that could work to increase the trend, but also some things that work against it. However, I bet on the online world to become even more popular than it is today.
I really liked this point you made:
People who game in virtual worlds are there for excitement. They aren't there to be preached to. They're there for the thrill of shooting the bad guys or sexual thrills or other types of challenges. They aren't going to be doing VR worlds to talk religion. That's overkill. The furthest I see it going is an audio chat room.
I agree 100%. You see, this is why the new approach will be successful in that it will be a new type of ministry, one of interactivity and design. Few, if any, people would enjoy going to a virtual Kingdom Hall for a Watchtower study. Man, you would have to be into heavy S&M to get into that! What would be much more fun would be an interactive adventure that taught JW ideology both by setting and by contact with other players. You see, I’m talking about the sneaky subtle approach. If you logged on, they are not going to hit you with any JW crap…it will be the big suck in…which is what they are good at. You will wake up one day to find that your online buddies are dubs and it is much easier to talk with a friend than a stranger. You get the picture.
You also said:
There are also underlying mind-games being played here. The fact that it is distasteful, yet they do it is part of the control. If you are sitting behind a computer screen, instantly sending an on-line message to millions of people, that doesn't take a lot of committment. The whole religion is steeped in sacrifice. It's sort of a domination type thing. It's a whole different relationship if you remove the master/slave aspect.
Interesting point here as well, but while the dynamics will change, there will be a way for the elders and organization to retain control. I don’t see any of this online Witnessing to be done solo, except in rare cases, rather it will be a group activity…being monitored and watched by their peers. The master/pee on relationship continues.
I’m pretty cognizant about the weaknesses of online interactivity…at least as it is currently. Yes, face-to-face is more effective, but online Witnessing is not going to completely replace this. I see the two types of Witnessing working together, where the online is the hook, and builds friendships, and then that is further developed by face-to-face interactivity.
It’s of course a hard call to make about how a new generation of JW leadership will see gaming and online opportunities. But consider this, all this religion is can be labeled a myth. There is nothing real about it at all. The paradise earth is a myth, their god is a myth, their dogma is a myth. They present an image of a mythical happy life as a JW…now if that isn’t fictional, I sure the hell don’t know what is. Lol
Skipper