When a local business that served as a community hub closes, residents may need to create a new meeting space

Dairy Queens served as a gathering spot for many rural
Texas residents. (Photo by Jaime Adame, Daily Yonder)

 

As Dairy Queens shutter in rural communities across Texas, locals see their social spaces disappear. The ice cream franchise shops have long served as places of connection for small-town residents.

"In rural areas, sites where people choose to gather are 'neither work nor home, but they anchor everything in between,' as a former rural school superintendent, Melissa Sadorf put it in a recent essay on the importance of what are sometimes called 'third places,'" reports Jaime Adame of The Daily Yonder.

Dairy Queen closures in Texas surged this year over legal disputes within the company, and smaller communities felt the loss. "Out of some 30 locations to shut down statewide, twelve were in towns with fewer than 3,000 people," Adame writes. "Civic leaders and townspeople must now grapple with literal empty spaces and rips in the fabric of community life."

When the Dairy Queen in Canadian, Texas, closed, the small town of roughly 2,300 people in northern Texas dearly missed the connection spot the restaurant once provided. The community is still working to recover from fierce wildfires that burned down parts of the town last year.

Remelle Farrar, interim director for the local economic development corporation in Canadian, told Adame, "It’s an impact to our culture, absolutely. . . . [It was] a place to go for many members of our population after the event of the day, to go sit and talk… and relax."

While Dairy Queen is still considered a "Texas icon. . . . The view of Dairy Queen as a community’s social hub doesn’t ring true as much as it did decades ago, even in rural Texas," Adame reports. "Rural areas are more likely to struggle at providing such third places, according to Danielle Rhubart, a researcher at Penn State University who studies rural health and well-being."

To fill holes the closure of a Dairy Queen or similar spot can leave behind, residents of smaller communities need to look around their town and see what alternatives are available. Adame explains, "Creating a third place can involve adapting unused buildings, even a former church. Rhubart said it’s important for small communities to support local businesses and make use of what’s already in place, such as libraries or outdoor spaces like parks, to ensure that welcoming places exist for people to gather."

Opinion: Millions of Americans have stopped going to church, but what they've lost is more than religion

Paul Wesslund
(Photo via USA Today)

As Americans leave church behind, many fail to see it's more than religion they're giving up. "Record numbers of Americans have quit going to church. Studies and personal stories describe people either leaving churches or just drifting away for reasons like being too busy or disagreeing on social issues," writes Paul Wesslund in his opinion for the Courier Journal in Louisville, Kentucky. "The odd thing is that these former churchgoers seem to be searching for some kind of community. . . . And those pulling away from religion don't take into account what a church can offer that addresses what people say they're searching for: Friends, and being part of something larger than themselves.

"I attended the Kentucky United Methodist Annual Conference this year, where disaffiliations were approved for the last wave of the more than 300 churches that left our conference. At the meeting, I sensed the hundreds of remaining delegates going through the classic stages of grief, including depression and acceptance. It's a denomination figuring out how to navigate a new world, working hard at keeping hope alive.

"Much of the current commentary on church attendance refers to the new book, The Great Dechurching, by Jim Davis and Michael Graham. It takes a deep dive into surveys about why so many have stopped going to church. The studies found plenty of reasons, from wanting to sleep in after being kept awake by a new baby to attending brunch with friends. . . . Other widely reported reasons cut even deeper – the widespread child abuse in the Catholic church, the use of the Bible to score political points and the too-frequent requests for money.

"The U.S. Surgeon General issued a report this year on loneliness and isolation, comparing its health effects to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. He created the report, he says, after Americans repeatedly told him they felt invisible and insignificant. That's a condition every church seeks to address, however imperfectly. . . . We overlook defects in other parts of our lives. Who hasn't had a less-than-perfect experience at what is still their favorite restaurant? Or stayed loyal to their team despite a series of boneheaded plays?

"My disagreement with one of the church's policies didn't drive me away – I helped organize a group of church members to hold forums on the [LGBTQ+] issues, to let people know that at next year's United Methodist General Conference, there could be a vote to change those policies. . . . I choose to stay because no person – or institution – is perfect. Because leaving a more diverse group of thinkers and believers for people who are closer to being exactly like me seems sad – and even wrong – because it would just contribute to today's tendency to listen only to ourselves.

"A church's hold on people doesn't come with the drama of watching a sport or offer a dinner menu. It's bigger than that. I can't help but feel that both the church and its former members are wandering around looking for each other. . . . Maybe they'll meet again."

Loneliness has increased across the U.S.; it shortens life expectancy, but there are solutions

Loneliness can lead to premature death.
(Photo by Andre Frueh, Unsplash)

Loneliness is a feeling as old as time, but it can lead to poor brain health and shorter life expectancy. According to America's top public health official, Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, loneliness is "as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and more lethal than consuming six alcoholic drinks a day," opinion columnist Nicholas Kristof writes for The New York Times as part of a series titled "How America Heals," aimed at finding ways to fix this problem.

Chronic loneliness cuts deeper than sadness; researchers have linked it to strokes, heart disease, dementia, inflammation and suicide. Kristof writes, "It's also more dangerous than physical inactivity, obesity and air pollution, Murthy says. . . . It breaks the heart literally as well as figuratively." The physical and societal problems that result from loneliness are so harmful Murthy issued a rare advisory in May with a framework to rebuild social connection and community in the United States.

Research also shows Americans have been growing lonelier. A majority of adults (58%) report experiencing loneliness, according to a Morning Consult survey commissioned by The Cigna Group, a health insurance company. Why did loneliness increase? Kristof says the trends toward larger homes and longer working hours have left less time to share meals, and he notes studies that show social media has led to people being more lonely. Pets and talking robots have been suggested as solutions, he writes, but "It seems that there's something to be said for friends who are living, breathing human beings."

Kristof writes that there are ways to build connections that bind us together, including some approaches taken in the United Kingdom, which he says "is the pioneer of these efforts, having established the post of minister for loneliness in 2018. Britain oversees public-private partnerships that collectively knit millions of people together with programs like nature walks, songwriting workshops and community litter pickups.

"That's because if the researchers are correct, social isolation probably kills far more people in the West each year than terrorists and murderers, and it costs the public enormous sums in unnecessary health costs," Kristof writes. "Countermeasures can make a huge difference: One review of 148 studies concluded that social connections increase the odds of an individual's surviving over roughly the next seven years by about 50 percent."

Surgeon General Murthy offered a strategy to address loneliness that begins with building infrastructure that enables social connection: physical infrastructure such as parks and libraries, and social infrastructure to weave together volunteers or enthusiasts with similar interests. Britain can serve as a model for this, Kristof writes. He cites a town that has trained more than 1,100 volunteers to be "community connectors" who engage people and encourage them to join events or participate in programs. "Solutions to loneliness are like that — little nudges to encourage us to mingle the way we evolved."

Research increasingly links depression and suicide to chronic disease, especially among seniors in rural U.S.

"Rural America has some of the highest rates of chronic disease in the nation – the more remote a community, the more heart disease, cancer and diabetes. And there’s a side effect from having a chronic condition many people don’t think about – depression, anxiety and even suicide," Lisa Gillespie reports for Louisville's WFPL. "This is especially true for older adults, who’ve lived their entire lives in places with little access to places to exercise, with diets high in fat and sugar and in a culture that still hasn’t given up tobacco."

To compound the problem, rural residents often have a hard time accessing medical care for their chronic conditions and psychiatric care for the attendant mental health issues. That contributes to the increased risk of suicide in rural areas, which are already at higher risk because of a lagging economy and substance abuse. For example, "suicide rates in 2017 were 30 percent higher in Appalachia than in the rest of the country." Within the region, suicides were concentrated in Eastern Kentucky, West Virginia and East Tennessee, areas that struggle with high opioid-addiction rates and poverty. 

Gina Piane, a professor at National University in San Diego, was one of the first researchers to link chronic disease and mental health. Giving rural youth more health and nutrition education is a key way to prevent such issues, she told Gillespie. Psychologist John Fulton, who works in a rural Kentucky hospital, said he tries to teach his patients coping skills and recommends that they develop a support system of friends and family if they don't already have one.

"I try to say, you know, you’re sitting there focusing on the bad things, and all that’s going to do is drag you down deeper,” Fulton told Gillespie. "[I] try to get them to, you know, turn around and start thinking about, 'Well, I’ll go outside and look at dogs or I’ll watch wrestling on TV' — get their mind off the illness and how bad they feel."

Social media creates echo chambers that hurt democracy, journalism, says author/law professor

Social media limits exposure to different viewpoints and hurts democracy and journalism, Harvard University law professor and author Cass Sunstein told NPR's Kelly McEvers on "All Things Considered." Sunstein's latest book, "#Republic: Divided Democracy in the Age of Social Media," looks at how social media creates echo chambers, leading to news filters where people only look at news that reflects their ideals.

"You're listening to people who just agree with you or reading news sources that fit with your own preconceptions, it's not as if you just stay where you are," Sunstein said. "You tend to end up more extreme, which makes us get kind of blocked as a society, which isn't good for democracy and which makes it possible for people to see people who disagree with them not as fellow citizens, but as enemies who are crazy people or dupes. And that can make problem solving very, very challenging."

"Well, we're early days, really, still for Facebook and social media," he said. "And so my expectation is that Facebook and Twitter will do some experimenting on this count. It is true that kind of a quick reaction is provide people with content that they will look at. And that might be the information cocoon effect. But lots of Americans have not just a desire to see, you know, what they already think, but a desire to see some stuff that'll be challenging or eye-opening."

Sunstein suggests following people with different viewpoints. He said, "if you're left of center, have a little plan in the next two weeks to follow some smart people who are right of center. And if you're right of center, and you tend to ridicule or contempt for people on the left, follow some liberals. Find some who have at least a little bit of credibility for you. Or make a determined judgment whether you're left or right. See what you can get from the other side. And this is, you know, individual lives, but as the framers of the constitution knew, a republic is built up of innumerable individual decisions. And whether we get a well-functioning system or not depends on, you know, countless individual acts." (Read more)

Daily newspaper connecting with community through social media and technology classes

A daily newspaper in Northern California last year began offering classes to teach the community about social media and technology. The Record Searchlight in Redding (Best Places map) has offered entry level workshops that include a blogging fair to show people ways to start a blog, use social media to promote local businesses, use a smartphone and edit digital photos.

The workshops, conducted through a partnership with a local marketing firm, cost $10, all of which is donated to local nonprofits, reports Media Life Magazine. "While papers these days are trying to squeeze every cent they can from the advertising side, the Record Searchlight saw an opportunity to generate the sort of goodwill that you can’t always put a price on." Michelle Rogers, content editor at The Record Searchlight, leads the project. She told Media Life, “The drive behind offering the workshops is not financial; it’s about community engagement and face-to-face interaction with our audience. We’ve heard that this type of outreach is exactly what the community needs as some segments of the population are behind in embracing and using social media in their personal and professional lives.”

More than 350 people participated in the first 19 workshops, and dozens of workshops are scheduled this spring, reports Media Life. Silas Lyons, the paper’s editor, told Media Life, “We serve a relatively small and close-knit community, and our brand relies heavily on word-of-mouth. This is the kind of project that turns readers into evangelists, and the impact of that positive experience with us ripples out into the broader community. It has helped to create a more receptive environment for both our journalism and our circulation and advertising sales efforts.” (Blogging workshop)

Reporters struggle with balancing their professional and personal identities on social media, study says

Can journalists separate their professional and personal identities on social media? That was one of the questions researchers from the University of Utah and Temple University examined as part of a research paper, “Identity Lost? The Personal Impact of Brand Journalism," published in Journalism, an international, peer-reviewed journal. Researchers wrote: "If journalists choose to present too much of a personal identity, they risk punishment by their employers," the researchers write. "If they present only a professional identity, they risk offending their audiences."

The study found that reporters "are increasingly focusing their attention on developing their professional identities on social media rather than their personal identities," Denise-Marie Ordway reports for Journalist's Resource. Researchers say "reporters have been asked to make changes to the way they present themselves and their content on social media, including adding their news organization’s logo to their social media pages and providing fewer links to news items that were not published by their employers. They also have been asked to help promote events and partnerships that might cast their news agencies in a positive light."

Researchers say reporters struggle with balancing their professional and personal identities online, Ordway writes. "There still is uncertainty among reporters and editors about acceptable practices on social media, especially as they relate to personal branding and company branding." Another problem is that "reporters are being asked to read and respond to social media posts at all times, which they view as an added burden among a long list of job responsibilities." (Read more)

Rural adult Internet users prefer Facebook, shy away from Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram

The majority of rural adult Internet users who participate in social media choose Facebook, while other sites, such as Instagram, Linkedin and Twitter, are not as popular, says a survey by the Pew Research Center. The survey, which consisted of 1,907 adults ages 18 and older from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., found that 67 percent of rural Internet users are on Facebook, compared to 74 percent in urban areas and 72 percent in suburban ones. When it comes to Pinterest, 31 percent of rural respondents use the service, compared to 26 percent urban and 34 percent suburban.

The big differences are in other services. Only 18 percent of rural users are on Instagram, compared to 32 percent urban and 28 percent suburban; 12 percent of rural respondents said they use Linkedin, compared to 30 percent urban and 26 percent suburban; and only 15 percent of rural users are on Twitter, compared to 30 percent urban and 21 percent suburban. Rural individuals are also less likely to join Tumblr, participate in online discussion forums and use mobile messaging apps.

One problem is the lack of specific details in the survey, Tim Marema reports for the Daily Yonder. "We can’t see how different segments of rural are behaving, but we can see rural users as a whole, though the margin of error, at 9.1 percentage points, is a bit on the high side for drawing too many conclusions . . . Here’s another thing to keep in mind: The results in the Pew Center survey are based on the percentage of adults who are online, not the overall population." Researchers reported that 85 percent of adults are on the Internet and 67 percent are smartphone users but did not break those numbers down by specific areas.

California prison program teaches inmates about the Internet without letting them online

Most Americans use the Internet every day, many jobs rely exclusively on it, and many rural residents have to deal with the frustration of slow speeds, if they can get service at all. Still, they can usually use the Internet at work, school, the local library or other public places. But what's it like for an adult who has never surfed the web, or really even knows how it works? Many inmates serving long-term sentences who were incarcerated before the information technology boom took off, have never been online, and may not be prepared to use it when they are released.

U.S. prisons housed 1,571,013 inmates in 2012, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Several Southern states with large rural populations have high incarceration rates; Louisiana is highest, with 893 per 100,000 residents imprisoned. It is followed by Mississippi (717) Alabama (650), Oklahoma (648) and Texas (601).

What do inmates who have never been online think it's like? Justine Sharrock, of Buzz Feed, decided to find out. She visited San Quentin State Prison in California, which has a program called Last Mile, launched in 2011. It doesn't provide Internet access, but "Through twice-weekly sessions over a six-month period, the program provides information and practical experiences to increase participant knowledge and awareness about the role of social media, build skills in relevant areas for employment in the high-tech sector, including communication, business formation and operations, and foster confidence and a sense of hope that they can succeed as free men," says the website.

One prisoner told Sharrock he thinks the Internet is “like pages that connect to other pages endlessly. I know [on Facebook] you can find someone if they list their high school or something, and click on it, but it doesn’t make much sense. I’ve seen apps on the Ellen DeGeneres show. It’s a button that leads you somewhere, like an Internet page, but in a quicker way.”

Another told her, "I’ve never seen the Internet in person. I was locked up in 1997. CDs were a big deal. I knew the Internet was called the information superhighway for a reason, but I had no idea how connected society really is through the Internet. I didn’t understand how big and new it is. It was a global name that has changed the world." (Read more)

Kansas program keeps young people in rural towns, attracts new ones

The 18-to-29 age group was 23 percent of the U.S. rural population in 1970 but only 14 percent in 2010. With more and more young people leaving rural areas, several states have started programs to steer young people toward rural life. Kansas, which is believed to have the first such program, has found success, and is revitalizing small towns with young, fresh faces, reports Kevin Murphy for Reuters. 

PowerUp, a "social and business network that touts rural life for the under-40 crowd and lets them know they are not alone," is trying to reverse the anti-rural trend in Kansas, Murphy reports. The program, which relies on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media outlets, was created a little more than two years ago by Marci Penner, and has 1,200 members. Penner said, "I thought that if we could connect these people they'd be happier and more likely to stay. A lot of people living in these rural areas feel isolated." (Read more)

PowerUp describes itself as people 21 to 39 who "are rural by choice, and who have made a conscious decision to embrace and enhance the rural communities in which they live," according to its website. "It's about connecting, empowering, and engaging with constructive and dynamic new ideas to help change the face and shape of rural through economic opportunities, quality of life, and community involvement."

Rural residents depend on papers for local news, but urbanites are more interested in local topics

Metropolitan, suburban, smaller town or rural, all types of places are big consumers of news -- be it local, national or international. But how and where we get that news and how much we "participate" in it differs between community types. And that may be more of a function of the digital and social media available to us than our desire to weigh in on the topics. Or so a recent study of local news and community types strongly indicates.

A just-released national survey conducted by the Pew Research Center shows that rural residents did indeed still rely on newspapers for most of their local news. Researchers speculated that is because most rural areas get little coverage from other media, and many "micropolitan" towns of fewer than 50,000 people have no television station.

However, they noted that "the choices about information acquisition are not necessarily the same in all communities. For instance, it might be the case in rural areas that the local newspaper and broadcast outlets are not online or have a very limited online presence and that is a determinant in whether residents get local information online or not."

And, perhaps surprisingly, researchers found that those who live in rural communities are "less interested in almost all local topics than those in other communities. The one exception is taxes. They are also are less likely . . . to say it is easier now to keep up with local information."

Interestingly, rural people were more likely than most to say they are willing to pay for local news content through a paid subscription to a local paper; 37 percent said so, a larger share than any but suburbanites, at 40 percent.

The study, co-authored by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism and Internet & American Life Project, in partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also reported these findings:

• Urban and suburban residents on average use more sources of local news than their small town and rural counterparts and are more likely to consume local news on mobile devices.
• The most active “local news participators” also tend to reside in suburban and urban communities where they email local stories to others, post material on sites, comment, post or e-report.
• Suburbanites are most likely to use radio as a news source -- researchers postulated this might be a consequence of longer commutes. They are the most likely of the four distinct community types to use the Internet for information about local restaurants, businesses and jobs.

To read the full report, go here.

Meat industry needs better communication skills, especially social media, expert says

A corporate communications coach has said the meat processing industry needs to better communicate its actions to the public in times of recalls or media crises, reports Tom Johnston of Meatingplace. Gene Grabowski, president of Levic Strategic Communications, said the industry "has a lot to learn about communicating its issues."

He told Johnston the industry was tested this year after the lean finely textured beef controversy was largely created by intense media coverage calling the product "pink slime." That debacle taught the industry "a harsh lesson about the need for meat processors to more quickly communicate their message," Johnston reports. Grabowski said it's "crucial" for processors to participate in social media because customers prefer that method over traditional forms of communication. (Read more)

Ky. sheriff finds more than friends on Facebook; captures two fugitives on run for 4½ years

An Eastern Kentucky sheriff got help from Facebook in finding two fugitives. Jerry Lee Callahan and his wife Rebecca had been on the run for five years after posting bond and being released from jail in Clay County in October 2007. There were arrested in August 2007 on a combination of 20 counts of rape, sexual abuse, sodomy and incest. In Kentucky, a person must be formally charged or indicted within 90 days of arrest, but because this case was complicated with involvement of minors, the indictment wasn't returned until November, Paige Quiggins of WYMT-TV in Hazard reports.

The pair had been chatting with friends on Facebook, which enabled Clay County Sheriff Kevin Johnson and deputies to track Internet-protocol addresses to Victoria County, Texas, where they discovered the fugitives had applied for driver's licenses. Johnson and another official flew to Texas last Wednesday to apprehend the suspects and return them to Clay County. Johnson credits the capture to the use of Facebook. "Even if you are on the run you are going to stay in contact with friends and family, which in the future it is going to be a tool that law enforcement will use and has used and will be continuing to use," he told the Hazard TV station. (Read more)

In another Kentucky town, Maysville, police are using Facebook to help them solve crimes, Wendy Mitchell of the Ledger Independent reports.

Social media website Topix.com both reveals and creates problems for small towns

Anonymous comments on the social networking website Topix.com are proving troublesome for some small towns. Since 2007, Topix "has listed newspaper articles and blogs from thousands of sources by subject and geography, allowing users to type the name of a town, city or a ZIP code to link to local stories and forums," Grace Schneider of The Courier-Journal of Louisville reports. Critics say the website's forums encourage anonymous rants, gossip, libel and cyber-bullying, but some say the site offers increased accountability for officials and institutions in communities.

"The reason why people have a hard time with us is because a lot of the stuff is actually true," Topix CEO Chris Tolles told Schneider. "We are the WikiLeaks for small-town America in a lot of cases." Stioll, Tolles said, he and his staff are working on ways to "push things in a more civil direction." Schneider called him after Topix posts were blamed for a multiple murder-suicide that wiped out a fanily in Austin, Ind., last month.

Schneider also found that Topix can be particularly troublesome for small towns because it's easier to discover the subjects of postings despite the anonymity, according to Zeynep Tufekci, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County who specializes in social media research.

Tolles reports Kentucky is the website's most active state with over 1 million daily page views, but even there "the site is reviled by some community leaders as a mostly corrosive influence," Schneider reports. Glasgow Mayor Rhonda Trautman told her that recent postings about her city included "a local bankruptcy, an alleged sex offender with address provided, someone inquiring about where to buy pornography, and the mention of families whom the writer alleged are inbred."

However, the anonymity that bothers local leaders may also be the most important part of the website. Schneider writes: “Al Cross, director of the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, agreed that such sites serve an 'accountability function.' Many newspapers in rural communities lack the resources and the backbone to tackle controversy, he said, but 'these Topix sites provide unfiltered, anonymous criticism (which) can be healthy.'” (Read more)

Farmers use social media to fight negative portrayals

The battle between animal-rights activists and agriculture has taken a new turn in the world of social media. When angry animal rights groups recently released a YouTube video of dairy cows being abused by farmers, the video led to much outrage online, but not just from those appalled by the images, Juliana Barbassa of The Associated Press reports. "It also raised a flurry of outrage from another corner of the Internet," Barbassa writes. "Farmers fought back, blogging, tweeting, uploading their own videos and chatting on Facebook to defend their industry and explain the abuse did not represent their practices."

"Growers aren't usually thought of as a wired, social-networking bunch," Barbassa writes. "But frustration at being the targets of tech-wise environmental or animal rights groups has inspired them to get involved with social media and answer in kind." Ray Prock Jr., a second-generation Central California dairy farmer whose blog posts and tweets relay information on everything from emergency drills for handling manure spills to lactose intolerance, explained, "There is so much negative publicity out there, and no one was getting our message out."

"This is where my family lives — I care for the air, and the water, the environment, the cows," Prock told Barbassa. "This is what I wish I could show people." Nathan Runkle, director of Mercy For Animals, the organization responsible for the video, can likely relate to that feeling as he told Barbassa animal rights groups first embraced social media because they didn't have the budget to combat the ag industry's advertising campaigns. Farmers like Prock have learned from the groups and now have taken their marketing into their own hands. "We weren't part of the conversation," Prock said. "And if we aren't telling our story, other people will, and they'll tell it the way they want to." (Read more)

Columnist ponders effect of a farming game and a farmers' photo gallery on popularity of agriculture

Have a successful Internet farming game and the Huffington Post's featuring of "hot organic farmers" made agriculture more popular? But if so, is that good for farming's future? Los Angeles Times columnist Meghan Daum isn't so sure. Census data show that fewer than half of family-run farms make a profit, she writes, but "even though farming no longer quite makes it as 'a way of life,' it's somehow become the next best thing (or maybe an even better thing): a lifestyle."

The Huffington Post recently featured an online photo gallery of what it determined were "hot organic farmers." Response was so great that the Post decided to do another spread. "We think organic farmers are rock stars and heroes," the site says. "And nothing is sexier than someone who likes to get dirty and supports the great food revolution." Exceeding the gallery's popularity is a new online social network game called FarmVille launched on Facebook last June. Zynga, the game's creator, says FarmVille, where users are given a virtual farm to manage, is the most popular game on Facebook and the fastest-growing social game of all time.

"Users report missing work, abandoning friends and setting their alarms to wake up several times during the night so they can make the moves necessary to advance in the game," Daum writes. But what does the dichotomy between gamers losing sleep over virtual crop rotation while their waistlines expand from an ever-growing diet of junk food say about the future of farming? "Nothing goes better with Internet games than prepackaged food that doesn't require stepping away from the computer," Daum writes. "Meanwhile, a whole generation just might grow up believing that strawberry milk comes from pink cows. Hey, maybe agribusiness should start working on that." (Read more)

Now you can follow The Rural Blog on Twitter

We've jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, now you can follow us at http://www.twitter.com/ruraljournalism. The twitter account is set up to send out blog updates as new items are posted. Blogger is currently experiencing some technical difficulties with its Twitter gadget, but as soon as those are resolved you will also be able to see our tweets on the right sidebar of the blog. You can also follow the blog on Facebook, subscribe to the RSS feed and you can email us to sign up for the e-mail updates.

Oregon farmer says Twitter a business necessity

A seventh-generation farmer in northwest has adopted social networking to promote her Yamhill farm and says it has become essential to her marketing efforts. Heather Walters uses Facebook, a blog and Twitter, Pamela Price reports for the Daily Yonder. The farm's Twitter account started as a vehicle for Walters to find customers but expanded to an educational tool for proper hog farming after the farm purchased a few piglets.

Twitter doesn't appealing to all demographics equally. Price reports 53 percent of Twitter users are female, and a Pew Internet & American Life Project report says rural residents account for only nine percent of Twitter regulars. Walters' use of Twitter paid off after Joey's Restaurant at The Allison Inn in Newberg, Ore., expressed interest in buying the farm's pork via the micro-blogging site, Price reports.

Walters tells Price that while Twitter has helped her farm, it isn't becoming a common practice among farmers. "I have had one farmer in McMinnville ask me about Twitter and how to use it, but then she backed off saying she didn't have enough time ... so that hasn't gone anywhere yet,” Heather said. "I think that social media is so important to my farm's success that I have to make time for it.” (Read more)

Social networking and other Internet connectivity catching on among farmers

Twitter and Facebook may seem alien to the agricultural world, but experts say the tide is turning. Farmers are beginning to give into the appeal of ‘tech gadgets’ and online social networking, and many are finding them a welcome companion in the fields, Jeff Caldwell reports for Agriculture Online.

Among the most coveted devices are smartphones, whose applications are increasingly finding more uses on the farm. University of Illinois extension soybean specialist Vince Davis says the smartphone has shifted how he handles weather and crop data with field-station transmitters. "It allows me to get better and more timely information for me to make decisions," he told Caldwell. "Better info equals better decisions. Also, because it is seamless, I do not need to 'go to the office' to check e-mail -- this helps to free up time to keep me in the field."

Social networking can provide information for marketing and farm practices. Andy Kleinschmidt, who runs his own agriculture blog, sees an almost limitless partnership growing between farmers and technology. “I see a neat opportunity for a farmer to snap a photo of a weed, bug or plant lesion and immediately e-mail to their agronomist for ID and recommendation from the field.” (Read more)

Kentucky mayor's Facebook page keeps residents informed in aftermath of devastating ice storm

When Madisonville, Ky., population 19,000, got slammed with a huge ice storm last week, Mayor Will Cox, left, turned to Facebook to help get information to people in his community. With much of the town without power or phone service, Cox used the social networking site to inform residents about where and when power had been restored, government responses to the crisis, and basic information about community resources.

“Because of my position, the information is good and people know its good. It’s not like I’m Joe Blow blogger,” Cox told Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader. “People know that it’s reliable information.” Cox also used the one local radio station with a generator to communicate with residents, but found Facebook offered a tangible way to measure who received his information. He very quickly added 250 friends to his account. He says that, long after the ice has melted, he will keep using the site for communication: “I’d be crazy not to." (Read more)