Which conferences require filtered internet and forbid Facebook/social networking?

[Chris]

I'm curious if there are any conferences that would use filtered internet only (in the home) and especially have a ban on Facebook. I'd like to learn about them as I'm seeing tremendous problems, drama, baggage, and pride literally gushing out of Facebook... It's to the point I question if its even good for us. Anyway, I loaded my question with a statement.

Are there conferences like this?

[Josh]

My own church functions this way.

Lest you think it result in some kind of nirvana, I am sorry to report that WhatsApp is gradually turning into Facebook, with its photo-status-update feature. People with a large number of contacts (500+) will start to spend a lot of their time checking all their "friends" for WhatsApp status updates.

Likewise, filtering is often ineffective or unreliable on smartphones, even if the filter used on computers in the home is rock solid.

These problems are of great concern to us. My church group has developed its own alternative messaging platform based on Telegram, which is free for anyone to use and I highly recommend. Tackling the smartphone over-use and ineffective filtering problem is a lot harder.

[Chris]

My own church functions this way.

Lest you think it result in some kind of nirvana, I am sorry to report that WhatsApp is gradually turning into Facebook, with its photo-status-update feature. People with a large number of contacts (500+) will start to spend a lot of their time checking all their "friends" for WhatsApp status updates.

Likewise, filtering is often ineffective or unreliable on smartphones, even if the filter used on computers in the home is rock solid.

These problems are of great concern to us. My church group has developed its own alternative messaging platform based on Telegram, which is free for anyone to use and I highly recommend. Tackling the smartphone over-use and ineffective filtering problem is a lot harder.

Is your church in a conference or just independent?

[Josh]

Is your church in a conference or just independent?

It would best be described of as a hybrid between a fellowship and a conference model. It has national conferences in each nation it is in plus occasional supra-national meetings. There is a supra-national all-member meeting whose attendance is 1/3 of the total membership numbers (but remember to compute children who aren't yet members into those numbers).

On the other hand, it does not have bishops and committees rotate and there are no permanent chairs, corporate heads, etc. which is quite different from an Old Mennonite conference model, where bishops are for life, or an Apostolic Christian Church model where it is likewise basically impossible to remove an elder.

[silentreader]

My own church functions this way.

Lest you think it result in some kind of nirvana, I am sorry to report that WhatsApp is gradually turning into Facebook, with its photo-status-update feature. People with a large number of contacts (500+) will start to spend a lot of their time checking all their "friends" for WhatsApp status updates.

Likewise, filtering is often ineffective or unreliable on smartphones, even if the filter used on computers in the home is rock solid.

These problems are of great concern to us. My church group has developed its own alternative messaging platform based on Telegram, which is free for anyone to use and I highly recommend. Tackling the smartphone over-use and ineffective filtering problem is a lot harder.

As far as I can tell, and I could be wrong, Clean Internet seems to work for Android phones.

[Hats Off]

Markham Waterloo Mennonite Conference requires filtered internet and smart phones and blocks all social media with "Security Appliance."

[YorkandAdams]

My own church functions this way.

Lest you think it result in some kind of nirvana, I am sorry to report that WhatsApp is gradually turning into Facebook, with its photo-status-update feature. People with a large number of contacts (500+) will start to spend a lot of their time checking all their "friends" for WhatsApp status updates.

Likewise, filtering is often ineffective or unreliable on smartphones, even if the filter used on computers in the home is rock solid.

These problems are of great concern to us. My church group has developed its own alternative messaging platform based on Telegram, which is free for anyone to use and I highly recommend. Tackling the smartphone over-use and ineffective filtering problem is a lot harder.

Is your church in a conference or just independent?

Josh is 100% right about Whatsapp.

Instagram, WhatsApp, Snapchat, and GroupMe are the main platforms at the moment. A lot of youth under 16 don't have a facebook and have no desire for it. I was talking to a girl in my youth group (17) just this past Sunday and she didn't believe me when I told her I didn't have an Instagram. Both her and her friends close in age completely skipped over facebook and moved to other platforms. The weird thing is that we are only a few years apart, and I had never felt the pressure to jump onto Instagram or WhatsApp until everyone younger than me did. At the moment I stick mostly to WhatsApp and GroupMe (my facebook is occasionally used though as most of my friends still use it to an extent).

[Haystack]

My own church functions this way.

Is this the case across the board for Holdemans or does it differ?

[Josh]

My own church functions this way.

Is this the case across the board for Holdemans or does it differ?

In my experience it is fairly uniform.

[lesterb]

I'm curious if there are any conferences that would use filtered internet only (in the home) and especially have a ban on Facebook. I'd like to learn about them as I'm seeing tremendous problems, drama, baggage, and pride literally gushing out of Facebook... It's to the point I question if its even good for us. Anyway, I loaded my question with a statement.

Are there conferences like this?

You can easily block facebook yourself with the parental controls on a cell phone. On a home computer, you can use OpenDNS on the router. I use Covenant Eyes for the accountability features it has. I also use the filter, mostly so I know when it is going to flag something. In almost any filter you can black list certain sites.

As far as FB goes, it depends a lot on who you follow. I've un-followed a few people because of their ultra-charismatic viewpoints, or ultra-right/left political views. When I get a friend request, I take a look at their profile unless I already know them.

My greater beef with FB is the amount of time you can waste keeping up with people. I find myself mostly looking at the groups I've subscribed to.