Pursuing III: Frightening Biases and The Glory of 'Me' in Social Media

This is the third post in a series exploring the idea of Pursuing others and building relationships.  Check back each Thursday for more.  For the entire series, click here.   

Frightening Biases

Have you ever heard anyone ask, "Would Jesus have had a facebook? Would he have 'tweeted'?" ?  You won't get my answer, because I think this debate is pointless.  Having these social media outlets is not a moral issue; these technologies are simple tools, which happen to be very popular right now.  


I gathered these thoughts after a very challenging article by Shane Hipps.  I suggest you read it.  In fact, if you don't, you prove his premise that our generation is moving towards communication by short, simple statements and sustained illiteracy is becoming a thing of the past.  Here's his article.   

The article says some concerning things.  He explains how every technology we use has an innate bias; a pronounced side-effect.  For instance, in major cities, the technology of public transportation biases people to walk more, compared to smaller cities.  Facebook, Twitter and every other social media are simply technologies, neither good nor bad, but with key innate biases.  And the ones Shane brings up are frightening.  

First, he digs through facebook.  Essentially, facebook teaches us to be narcissists; although facebook is for 'connecting', our lengthy time spent creating our profile, which is how others see us, is leading us towards narcissism.  We end up staring at our own image in the water more often than others', just like Narcissus.  "Many of these technologies create a condition of absence in a world desperate for our presence."

And then there's Twitter.  Now, the interesting thing here is that there actually are good, profound quotes and experiences on Twitter.  BUT, the average lifespan of a tweet is less than an hour!  "Twitter has no patience for time.  Twitter bypasses these things so it can express... This does not make Twitter bad, invalid or useless.  It simply means twitter is a medium more likely to convey cliché's rather than deep aphorisms of profound insight."  We read, we are entertained and thought-provoked, then forget.

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So... what?

After reading this article, I had to take a deep look into why I updated my facebook status, and why I continued to tweet my boring life.  Also, why did I spend hours reading material I've long forgotten?  What was I seeking? What are we seeking?  

For a while, I was seeking a savior.  I believed that once I found that perfect quote or that awesome article, I wouldn't need all of this input.  I'd be set.  Yet, after what, 3 years now, I can barely remember the last tweet I read.  In a snowball of information, the profound is lost in the 'cute', the 'trend', and the endless hyperlinks...

So, back to the original question.  How would Jesus have used twitter, or facebook?  Would he tweet out his sermons?  Would he poke his disciples?  I don't think he would.  

It's interesting how many people Jesus, who himself came to pursue all mankind for his Father, turned so many people away, and wanted to keep things on the DL.  There was no 'You're invited, come to the sermon on the mount!!!!' facebook event and he never tweeted his location for the crowds.  In fact, I see the opposite.  

Check out these verses:

Matthew 8:4 - "See to it that you say nothing to anyone, but go..."

Matthew 9:30 - And Jesus sternly warned them, "See that no one knows about it."

Luke 8:38 - But Jesus sent him away saying, "Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you."

Luke 8:56 - And her parents were amazed, but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.

There's a lot more, just look around...

I'm not sure about you, but it's simple pride for me.  I want people to see me, to retweet me, to think "OMG, that Bryce guy, he is hilarious!"  So, I've really had to check myself lately - facebook and twitter are fertile grounds for me to become more and more prideful, more and more narcissistic, building up my image, my glory, me.  

How does ANY of that line up with the gospel?  The Bible says I am dead, it is only Christ who lives.  In my pride, I build a castle of sand, just waiting to be washed away...  When Christ lived, he was homeless a lot, had few real friends (and even they left him in the end), ate from those he taught, walked everywhere rebuking people for their sins... He was no celebrity, and probably not very well-liked.  He did not try to grab any glory for himself, "did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing...(Phil. 2)."  

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Well, I got a little off-topic here, but that's alright.  I hope this post challenges us to re-think why we're using social media, and how we could use it to bring glory to God, not ourselves.  I decided to add it to this series because I have learned that online-only relationships are hardly worthy of that word.  They are nice, cute, but in the end, bring each party little but entertainment.  

Before you go and join a monastery we'll talk next week at why we MUST influence.