The digital divide is giving churches hell

PLUS: The latest stories on how we move, work, and live. View this email in your browser  |   Manage newsletter subscriptions 02.15.21 For the past year, America's places of worship have grappled with the same question as schools, offices, conferences, and entertainment venues: Can you replace an in-person experience with a virtual one? For churches with resources and technical savvy, the answer has largely been yes. But for those on the other side of the digital divide, the pandemic has exacerbated many of the economic issues they were already facing. One study found that, in 2020, churches with YouTube channels, Instagram pages, and prominent websites saw 533 percent more donations than those without. For some places of worship, the resistance to new technology can be cultural. But for many others, it's an issue of finances. Churches with less of a digital presence tend to be located in rural areas. Their congregations are more likely to be older, lower-income, and Black. Those demographics are also less likely to have access to broadband, and have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, both in health and economic outcomes. In one respect, the acceleration of new technologies induced by the pandemic is a lifeline. Church attendance has been declining for decades, and digital tithing platforms and other streaming services could lead to massive, positive changes for the faith sector. But money, influence, and attention could also converge on a small pool of winners—at the expense of smaller outfits. Which way will it go? Here's what we've learned so far. Arielle Pardes | Senior Writer, WIRED   The Digital Divide Is Giving American Churches Hell Covid-19 has upended churchgoing in the US. Like so much else with the pandemic, the impacts are not felt equally. 6-MINUTE READ Microsoft's Big Win in Quantum Computing Was an 'Error' After All In a 2018 paper, researchers said they found evidence of an elusive theorized particle. A closer look now suggests otherwise. 6-MINUTE READ Forget Blood—Your Skin Might Know If You're Sick This glowing microneedle test could catalyze a transition from blood-based diagnostics to a stick-on patch. 6-MINUTE READ NASA Wants to Set a New Radiation Limit for Astronauts As the agency considers sending people to the moon and Mars, it's taking a fresh look at the research on cancer risk and recalculating acceptable thresholds. 6-MINUTE READ '2034,' Part III: One Left to Tell the Tale "When the planes didn't come in straight for the attack, a collective silence fell over the crew, like a breath sucked in. Why didn't they finish the job?" 25-MINUTE READ A New Artificial Intelligence Makes Mistakes—on Purpose A chess program that learns from human error might be better at working with people or negotiating with them. 4-MINUTE READ Jeff Bezos Steps Down as CEO—and Shows Amazon Is a Cloud Company Now Andy Jassy, who helped create Amazon Web Services in 2006 and has run it since, will take over as chief executive later this year. 4-MINUTE READ AI and the List of Dirty, Naughty, Obscene, and Otherwise Bad Words It started as a way to restrict autocompletes on Shutterstock. Now it grooms search suggestions on Slack and influences Google's artificial intelligence research. 4-MINUTE READ The Untold History of America's Zero-Day Market The lucrative business of dealing in code vulnerabilities is central to espionage and war planning, which is why brokers never spoke about it—until now. 16-MINUTE READ GET WIRED Exclusive Offer! Ending Soon: Get 1 year of WIRED access for $10 $5. Tech news and analysis you won't find anywhere else. Subscribe now.             This e-mail was sent to you by WIRED. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, wired@newsletters.wired.com, to your address book.   View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe or manage your newsletter subscriptions