Survey about Social Media Use in the Parish

[Gabriela]

+ Hi all.

I've been absent because I'm in the middle of a move. It's super stressful. Please pray for me.

A Christian organization that I'm a part of is conducting a survey about social media use in local parishes. Whether or not your parish uses any form of social media, you're eligible to fill out the survey. Forums, blogs, and even FlockNote count as social media, as well as the obvious platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

There's not much Catholic representation in the survey right now, so I'm posting this here to hopefully get more. This is important research, because there's a hypothesis that's trendy right now that says "the universal church" (i.e., "the church online") is drawing people away from the local church. Your participation in this survey can help to establish whether that's true or not.

Here's the researcher's blurb:

A Facebook posting church? A tweeting pastor? A pinning preacher? What do you think? Are these social media tools as effective as the church thinks? We need your opinion. Please consider taking this short survey that will help us better understand the impact of the church's use of social media. 

Survey link: https://bethel.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_9YyeCRSrP057q2F

Thanks!

In Him,

Gabriela

[Basilisa Marie]

That's an interesting hypothesis and I wonder how it differs between people like Catholics and people like non-denom megachurches. 

We use our social media mostly to keep people updated on what's going on at the parish, and to get people to come to stuff. 

[BG45]

"Live tweeting or texting during the service?" made me cringe as a Catholic, but really a valid question; a cousin goes to a megachurch where the pastor shouts out hashtags you should use.

Overall though, I wasn't very impressed with the survey design.  Some of the Likert items could have been answered in a nominal yes/no format and an effort should have been made to define or give examples of the nebulous jargon that differs in definition depending on one's denominational background.  That said, I'd love to see the results, especially broken down by denomination, for much the reason BM stated.

[Papist]

When the survey says "church", am I to take it as my parish or the Catholic Church?

[NadaTeTurbe]

Can I take part in it if I'm not from the US ? 

Prayers for you, Gabriela  

[MarysLittleFlower]

The thing I couldn't figure out are the questions where we are asked to choose 'disagree' 'agree' etc. I was going to put that I disagree that my parish's use of social media really affects me not because its ineffective but because its not there or not something I use. But I wondered if that would be interpreted in the results as my parish having ineffective social media. What do you put for those questions if social media is just not really used? Also I did notice how some questions would relate much more to Protestants than Catholics. I guess I have questions for the researchers 

[Gabriela]

3 hours ago, Papist said:

When the survey says "church", am I to take it as my parish or the Catholic Church?

The survey was designed by Protestants, so "church" means your local parish.

3 hours ago, NadaTeTurbe said:

Can I take part in it if I'm not from the US ? 

Prayers for you, Gabriela  

Yes, you may. And thank you, Nada! 

3 hours ago, MarysLittleFlower said:

The thing I couldn't figure out are the questions where we are asked to choose 'disagree' 'agree' etc. I was going to put that I disagree that my parish's use of social media really affects me not because its ineffective but because its not there or not something I use. But I wondered if that would be interpreted in the results as my parish having ineffective social media. What do you put for those questions if social media is just not really used? Also I did notice how some questions would relate much more to Protestants than Catholics. I guess I have questions for the researchers 

That's a typical problem in survey research. Inevitably, there will be people the questions just don't apply to. I think I handled this problem by writing out explanations in the open-ended question boxes.

 

Also, everyone please share the link with other Christians you know!