This conversation is loaded with deep, thoughtful, and even provocative points.

Here’s some new perspective to consider:

- My 10 and 12-year-olds are masters of new tech. No FB allowed, but they have computers, internet access, youtube videos, websites, iPhones. The list goes on. They also have a bunch of books. We research books online and physically go down to Barnes & Noble to buy them. We also rely on digital medial to research books in our public library, which we frequent and always have something that needs to be returned there. My kids are digital natives, but they read books everyday too. Discipline.

- We as a society are just beginning to figure out how to integrate super-short bursts of digital communications into our lives. The largest category of content on Twitter today is meaningless noise. But guess what? Somebody posted a tweet about a lively discussion going on at this blog. I can only hope that more people like me subscribe to the right content providers, and find their way to content that is meaningful.

Just because there is an abundance of meaningless garbage on social networks doesn’t mean you have to subscribe to it. To the contrary, add value, and you’ll attract people that are interested in your message.

But would I give up on print books? No way. Has it had great benefits? Yes! But it has also had negative affects as well. The same will be true for the digital age – great benefits and great pitfalls too. Only God can redeem our “resources” to be used for His glory.

P.S. I have been able to connect in whole new ways with people by email, facebook, blogs, etc and I think have created new ways to bring depth of interactions that wouldn’t have happened before.

As a mother I was most frustrated by the electronic beast that invaded our family. And with my children I felt I was always on the “bleeding edge of technology”, meaning that parents just a little behind me (with children younger than myself), were more savvy, than I was.

I could not get someone to help set the table because this and that had to be done online. The texting under the table. The arrangements for meetings that had been made without consulting me. All the sudden they are gone and they did not tell you where to. You can phone them and text them, but they may not answer (no more minutes on the phone, no more charge on the phone…). Aggravating to the extreme.

In the end, my son died in a car accident this year, while traveling as a passenger in an inexperienced driver’s car on icy roads. He was beyond consulting with me, which may or may not have prevented anything… Anyhow. Parenting seems greatly impacted. It has become much more difficult to hold on to your kids and this is to their detriment. They need to grow up and become independent but not like this.

On the other hand, there are the most amazing benefits to the medium. Many have been mentioned. I cannot imagine why the church would not make use of them. It would be really dropping the ball and very badly.

I am not sure how much less literary we are becoming. People seem to be either readers or not, like a genetic trait. So many more have so much more ready access to materials, that one would think that more is being read, rather than less.

Well, if you’re gonna miss the point, you might as well miss it dramatically.

McCain reply: Now that’s funny.

Example: Someone in Tehran, Iran, downloaded at least a couple episodes of “Radical Grace,” and I’m sure no one asked the Mullahs for permission first!