Digital Babylon and the State of the Internet

A week ago at Mere Orthodoxy I debuted my inaugural State of the Internet report. This is a new project for Mere Orthodoxy that I will be contributing to on a yearly basis. They came to me with the idea and I couldn’t have been more eager to say “yes” to it. I was also thrilled to be able to apply a basic version of my Digital Babylon framework to this question, and deliberately frame the report around the categories of Event, Empire, and Epoch.

With a title like “the state of the Internet”, one would imagine it to be a very technical, statistic-driven report. And yes, it does contain some technical data and statistics on big-picture Internet trends. But, that isn’t the point. With this report, I am hoping to accomplish three things:

1. Make “the Internet” a category in people’s minds again. When most people think of “the Internet”, they think of social media. This is understandable, but the Internet is much bigger than social media! In the Internet’s next chapter, social media will not be where the growth and change occurs. All the rest of the Internet, and the parts we take for granted, are due for a remodel.

2. Give pastors and church leaders a starting point for thinking about how the Internet–again, not just social media–shapes their local ministry context.

3. Center Scripture as our starting point for making sense of this situation and what lies ahead. Concepts like “Technopoly” or “The Machine” can be helpful, but the Bible has more to say here than most Christians realize. I am not convinced we have hear all the Lord has to say to us through his Word regarding this situation and intend to keep bringing Scripture to bear as our starting point.

I used to be able to keep up with what was happening with the Internet. I can’t anymore. There is too much happening in too many places. As Ian Harber has said, the only way to now keep up is now to slow way, way down. That’s what I intend to do with this report–not just for my sake, but for others as well. As I say near the end of the report,

We want readers to be informed without requiring staying atop every single piece of breaking news. We want readers to be advised without inducing panic. We want readers to both think and live with confidence in the sovereign power of God and courage to pursue creative and imaginative ways to love God and neighbor in a new season of turmoil and chaos-and to make those ways as widely accessible as possible for others to put into practice in their own lives.

You can read the report either on the Mere Orthodoxy website or here on Substack. A Mere Orthodoxy subscription is free and lets you read in both places. I have been very encouraged by the results they’ve seen on Substack and would commend any other Christian media organization to consider what they’re doing. You can try to get people from Point A to Point B, or you can take Point B and meet them in Point A. As the Internet changes, being able to do the latter is more important than ever.

I have some other pieces in the works that I am eager to share with you soon. But until then, remember that together we are passing through Digital Babylon.

Austin