• Google Currents: The Latest P.O.C. from Google
  Google has everything they need to be successful at creating anything they want: Loads of cash. Talented people. Endless resources. Massive data centers for scale. And yet, everything they create is a piece of crap. I used to be such a huge Google fan. Until I became an Apple fan, and realized I had been compromising. [...]

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Before I go on, let me disclaimer this post a bit. I know some of you will disagree with everything I write here. Let me just say this: this post is not about you. You are the exception. I did not have any single person in mind when writing this. 

I always laugh at these posts, because frankly they are just silly. I love technology and social media, and the way that tools like Facebook have altered communication for the better. To me, going without Facebook is like saying “I’m not going to have a phone anymore.” Or maybe more appropriately, I would compare it to not having an email address. There is no way you could survive in the modern world without a phone number or email address, and I believe you’re missing out on something just as important if you go without Facebook.

Most of the people who quit Facebook end up coming back, and posting something like “OMG, all my friends are having babies or have new jobs. I feel so out of the loop!” What I’ve found is that the people who say they are quitting Facebook, or even just fasting for a period of time, aren’t people who are using Facebook as a communication tool. They are typically the people who use it as entertainment. They rarely post something themselves, and they don’t use it to have conversations with people. They are watching mundane YouTube videos, scrolling through photos, and playing games for hours at a time. They usually friend anyone and everyone and thus their News Feed gets flooded with irrelevant posts from people they barely know, who are also people who just post video after video of cats doing silly things. These are people who, if you send them a Facebook Message, they will never get it. They may see it a month later and reply “Sorry, I hardly ever check these.” These are people who don’t own smartphones, and thus only check Facebook periodically, which means it takes them an hour to sort through all the updates. Then they get bored or overwhelmed, and start playing Words with Friends or Farmville until their spouse yells at them to go shower or pay attention to the kids.

If you feel you need to quit using Facebook in order to get your life back, then you are using Facebook wrong. Maybe you’re right, you probably shouldn’t be on Facebook… but don’t get mad when you start losing touch with reality. By giving up Facebook, and thus refusing to learn how to use it correctly, you are saying to the world “I want to be a hippie. If someone wants to communicate with me or share anything with me, I want them to bend over backwards to do it. Also, I’m giving up deodorant.” Facebook currently has over 800 million active users (active: people who use it regularly), which includes every demographic and age group. My mom uses it daily. You can’t not be on it.

Facebook is a tab I always have open in my browser. It’s an app I check several times throughout the day on my phone. After email, it’s the first thing I check in the morning before I even shower. Some will read that and say I’m addicted to Facebook.  Some will tell me that my priorities are wrong and that I should put family, and God, and work above Facebook. Again, these are people who associate Facebook with hours of wasted entertainment. I also have email always open. I also check text messages the second they come in. No one has a problem with that. I use Facebook the same way, for just several minutes at a time. I don’t play games on it. I rarely watch YouTube videos. And I don’t have a bunch of friends who post crap like that. I have exactly 184 friends on Facebook and I have met each of them personally, or they are family. If I don’t have a personal relationship with you, then I usually won’t friend you. You can subscribe to my Facebook profile and get my public updates, but we don’t need to be friends.

Using Facebook has enhanced my real life relationships, not taken away from them.  I have family in California, Georgia, Michigan and Utah that I would never be able to stay in touch with face to face or even over the phone. These are people that, without Facebook, would never know I have a new daughter or that I started a new job working for my church. Beyond family, I have old friends and coworkers that I’m able to maintain relationships with. People who it would actually be inappropriate or awkward to call on the phone. Because of Facebook I don’t have to tell the same story 184 times, I can tell it once and then have actual conversations with people about the reaction. Because of Facebook I’m able to keep up with their lives as well. When I sit down with a friend in person, we’re able to cut through the BS and the small talk updates, and have real and meaningful conversations because we’ve been in contact through Facebook every day. If you are using Facebook as a way to shelter yourself from real conversations then you’re using it wrong.

So next time, before you think about quitting Facebook, maybe think first about how you use it. If it really is a distraction from your family, God, your work, or your hygiene then that isn’t Facebook’s fault. Don’t punish the rest of us by falling into oblivion because you can’t manage your life or your time appropriately.

PS, I love you. Please don’t unfriend me.

Two years ago if you had told me that I would be moving my family to Seattle, Washington, joining a church on staff and working alongside godly men such as Mark Driscoll, Justin Holcomb, or Mike Anderson (to name a few) I would have peed my pants.

Eight years ago I would have laughed in your face had you brought up such nonsense. Luckily God is sovereign, forgiving and full of grace, and I’ve learned to act more maturely (most of the time).

Every day that I walk into this building I fear that someone is going to stop me in the hallway and ask “what are you doing here?” But they haven’t yet; and every day I am learning to trust that this is God’s plan and that it has been His plan all along. I am so thankful that His plan is a lot better than mine.

My plan was seriously flawed.

Do you want to know what my plan was? Rewind to December 2007. My wife Heidi and I are arguing in our living room. Our newborn son, our first child, is sleeping upstairs. At this time, Heidi was working as an office manager of a construction company. I was working at the corporate offices of Home Depot Supply, and hating it. I was also running BlueFishTShirts.com, a website I created to sell t-shirts. Up until that time, the website had been pulling in a few hundred dollars a month and was just a side hobby. In November, however, I had stepped up marketing for Christmas time, had an ad on radio stations and the website was bringing in a couple thousand dollars. I had also just struck a deal to carry some of our shirts in Hallmark stores across the nation. I bought my own screen press and turned our garage into a dark room so I could start making the t-shirts myself and cut our costs in half. My secret plan was to quit my job so I could take it to the next level and sell t-shirts full time.

I shared this secret plan with Heidi. Hence the argument that ensued. I told her to trust me, that I was good at running my own business and that I could support the family financially by working at home selling t-shirts while taking care of our son, but that she should continue working until the t-shirts really take off. By God’s providence we didn’t go forth with that plan. At first I resented Heidi for “squashing my dreams”, but now we always look back on that time as the one time Heidi was right. A few months later the Hallmark stores cancelled their orders and said our shirts weren’t selling fast enough. I decided to quit putting so much time into t-shirts and took a new job at Autotrader.com, which paid enough for Heidi to quit hers and stay at home caring for our son.

What happened next is a timeline of decisions and events that were mostly awesome, but also sometimes it seemed like the world was against us in every way. Looking back, it all leads up until now in a way that only our magnificent Creator could have architected. Had it been up to me, I’d be a divorced loser selling t-shirts out of my car.

Back to today, God’s plan.

I now work in an office, that in my opinion is a lot cooler than the Facebook and Google offices I often covet, and I get to work with amazingly talented people building some of the most incredible things I’ve ever seen, all for the glory of God. I’m working on projects that will change people’s lives, and maybe even change the world. And that’s not an exaggeration in the slightest.

Here are some of the highlights from my first few weeks working at Mars Hill:

• I’m responsible for promotion of Pastor Mark and his wife Grace’s new book: Real Marriage. This includes coordinating media interviews, a book tour, a conference tour, billboards, events, and videos for each Sunday. It’s a thrilling ride, and I’m learning so much just by being able to listen in on the interviews.
• We’re planting 4 new Mars Hill Churches in 3 states, for 2 reasons, on 1 day: January 15, 2011. I’ve had to deal with everything from angry protesters, lousy landlords, and lazy reporters, but knowing that when it’s over we’ll be able to reach 9000 more people each Sunday and will become a Top 24 church… that’s just unreal, and it’s only the beginning of what we’ll see next year.
• My team is producing an all new Mars Hill Kids curriculum, including a 13 episode animated kid’s video series. The animators they brought in to produce these videos are Pixar quality and I often sneak off to just watch them work.
• This morning I got to participate in a 3 hour training session on apologetics by Justin Holcomb. It was like sitting in on a class at the Reformed Theological Seminary, for free, and they do these every month.
• Every Wednesday I have breakfast and Bible devotions with 14 other guys from our team. Guys who I never thought I’d sit at the same table with. It’s a great way to start your work day.
• We pray before most business meetings. Jesus really is a part of the team.
• My team is also launching a new website for marshill.com. I’ve designed websites for awhile now, and I’ve worked on teams that have built amazing things with technology. But the stuff our designers and developers are doing with this new website is incredible – stuff I didn’t even know you could do. But the coolest part is how passionate these people are to share the gospel and change lives by using technology.
• When I first met Pastor Mark he said, “You don’t deserve this job, or even to be a part of the church. You deserve death.” Before I could start crying, he went on to say that the same applied to him. He told me that this isn’t a job, it’s a war and we all need to act like Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:9-11. We don’t deserve to be here, but we are here – so let’s rock it and make every minute count. That’s the best advice I’ve ever received.

I love working here, and I’m so humbled at what God has done and is doing through me and through the team I get to work with. And this is only a small part of what I’m even allowed to share.

Flick through the slider up top for some photos around the office. You can also see the office I work in, and get a thorough look into our amazing creative and video production departments in this video interview from Think International (20 mins):

“The life of the creative man is lead, directed and controlled by boredom. Avoiding boredom is one of our most important purposes.”

It has been several months since I’ve done anything with this website. I’ve become bored with it, and when I get bored I like to create something new.  So here you have it, another new design for jdean.me. I hope you like it.

It’s a good time for change.  This is my last week at Ygnition Networks, as next week I will be starting as the PR & Marketing Manager for Mars Hill Church. I’ve got a new baby girl at home. We might be buying  a minivan soon. I got a cool new jacket. Who knows what else will be thrown our way.

So check back often for the latest. On this site you will find a collection of my work from around the web. You’ll get updates on projects I’m working on, and you’ll be able to read all of my blog posts from Mac & Andy, Patch.com, Mars Hill and anywhere else I may write.

Thanks for reading… lot’s of people are going to read this, but I like you the best.