Just ran across a description of a phenomenon one of Turkle’s interview subjects calls “The Spillover Effect”.  It’s where online life (content, interaction)  has an effect on the face to face lives of those people in the online world.  “Not many people will bring up Internet stuff in real life”  — referring to talking about things that have been discussed online. 

I have  always wondered why that is.  There are certainly exceptions,  but I see it all the time.  I find it extremely strange that it is so rare that anyone ever brings up a question or comment I have made online,  when I see them in real life.  I find it strange because I talk about online community and issues surrounding it all the time.  Why is there this “silence” that keeps things from coming into face to face conversations from my online conversations? 

The Turkle subject,  named Audrey (p. 195 in Alone Together)  compares it to AA.  “You don’t talk about it outside of there,  even if you are in the same group”. I’m not too sure tha’s the case with AA,  but it seems to be in online vs face to face.  It’s the WHY of these kinds  of things that I think are worth pursuing.  It would tell us something about what our online life represents for us.  Here and elesewhere in the book,  the sum of all interactions and social realities,  ftf and online are referred to as one’s “life mix”.  There are variations with everybody re: the portion of life mix that is ftf and the portion that is online. 

When we bring these “findings” or observations into the context of the church,  this becomes REAL interesting.  What’s the nature of “life mix” in the context  of the church?  What’s the nature  of “spillover”?  Is there a theological consideration here related to the way we look at “Spillover”? 

I have long emphasized the “extension” of church-context  discussions into the online world,  where we can “be available” to each other at ay time (which moves it into this “time  shift” world which allows us to speak freely,  knowing that we can compose our sharing in a more articulate manner,  and not be conscious of the worry re: whether or  not we are keeping someone from getting to someone  else.  In the  time shift world of online conversations (excluding chat)  ,  we can read at our own leisure and so can the other parties to the conversation.  And we might ask,  what happens  to theological conversation when we add the element  of time shift.  There are good things,  and there may also be “disadvantages”.   As a Sociology buff,  as a theological thinker,  and as an evangelist for online community,  I feel we need to be exploring  this.