Okay, it's official. I am a graduate. I am in the Real World. I am wading my way through the World of Social Media. It's a little scary because there is a LOT information out there. At the same time, it's incredibly fascinating to see what other people have found and written about. I am quite good with computers (If anything, I've earned my title of being the Computer Expert in my family back from my dad).
Now, what to do about this blog? Do I give it up because the early parts of this blog contains a lot of personal information and identifiable photographs? Or do I set up a new one? Thing is that I want to focus on Jewish journeys and addressing Jewish issues and I want my readers to be able to see how I've progressed in my Jewish journey. While my Jewish journey started long before my study abroad experience in Israel, there is an evolution happening as the reader peruses through my entries. By tracing my Jewish journey, one can get a sense of how I think and see the world at the moment. The reader gets a better sense of how I find no end in absorbing information all around me when I am around Jews and my awareness has increased in a way that now I am giving a lot of things second thoughts that I would not have noticed before.
Over the last few weeks, I am beginning to find out what kind of person I want to be and how I want to define my educational and mentoring role as a Jew. I am highly aware of the demographics that Steven Cohen and other demographers and sociologists published and surveys that they conducted on Generation Y. The methods that used to work back in early 2000s are now not quite working because of contradictory factors at play. On one hand, young people thrive on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets where they can create "virtual" connections, expect others to know what they're up to, and join groups with thousands of unknown faces (In other words, actions that are earning them the label "Generation Me"). It's basically impersonal in a sense that things are being created by the computer rather than a human connection. For example, if I joined the cause for breast cancer and then receive a mass invitation to attend something, it's just... huh? I don't know anyone. At the same time, young people can create highly personalized profiles that reflect their true colors (Yes, a study was done and discovered that people on Facebook tend to keep their profile more real than MySpace).
On the other hand, young people do crave intimacy. The Internet has been a godsend for everyone in terms of staying in touch and meeting others like them but it has a negative effect. When one receives a mass invitation , who is going to care if he or she shows up or not? Even the posters in the hallways suddenly look.... unattractive. No difference from seeing a tweet on Twitter about a particular event. It's been tweeted to... what? 100 followers? Okay, so there's an assumption at play that if at least 50 other followers show up, then no one's going to notice. It's really one of the downsides of being part of this generation.
So the marketing through social media needs to change for young people. As much we want to *cringe* at the thought of exacerbating narcissism by reaching out to individuals on on customized basis, it works to write a personalized e-mail or send a direct text to their cellphones. We have to indulge to their needs and desires.
That said, this is how American Judaism has become. Like Facebook. We're aware that there are at least 5.1 million Jews in this country and the logic dictates that if one can just choose to be uninvolved, then nobody's going to notice. There's also the element of growing Orthodoxy with their large families that's, as some argue in Israel, preserving Jewish population. So who cares? We do have to kick and scream and pull those young people back into the community. We have to convince them that they do have the leadership skills and resources to led the next generation of American Jews. We also have to work with them to begin or revive their Jewish journey to find out who they are as Jews and how they want to define their future roles as American Jews, the providers of world Jewry?
Therefore, I believe that I will do some revising on this blog and just keep it, instead of trying to run two similar blogs and cross-post them. Also, thinking about how I've changed my purpose of using the blog over the last few years, why not let this blog reflect my Jewish journey?
And the title Nefesh b'Israel will remain the same because my heart and soul is truly in Israel and that's a big part of my Jewish identity.
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