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Orthodoxy and Youtube
Posted on Wednesday, February 21, 2007 at 1:32 PM by Jason Barker
I read an article this morning from the Rocky Mountain News about a Hassidic Jewish rabbi who uses Youtube to transmit religious messages and promote his programs. This prompted me to think about ways in which Orthodox groups could use Youtube. The Church is not entirely absent from Youtube (for example, St. Luke the Evangelist Orthodox Church in Palos Hills, IL, has uploaded a number of videos about Orthodoxy to Youtube), but there is little Orthodox content created by or for teens.
A September 2006 study by Nielsen/Netratings found that teens spend an average of 26 hours and 48 minutes online each week, and a recent study by JupiterResearch states that 22 percent of online teens watch streaming video at least once per week (and, according to another study 76 percent of males regularly view online video): this means that online video provides a significant - and, as the Rocky Mountain News article shows, relatively inexpensive - way for Orthodox Christians to reach young people.
Christian teens creating Youtube videos isn't an unprecedented activity: a number of teens have participated in a Challenge Blasphemy project in response to the aggressive atheist Blasphemy Challenge. What is largely missing are distintively Orthodox Youtube videos: creating and uploading such videos could conceivably be a popular project for Orthodox youth groups, and would require little more than a video camera and broadband Internet access.
Contact me at the email address in the left sidebar if you know of any Youtube - or similar site - videos for Orthodox teens.
Posted in Online Resources