Social Media

Social Media

“The question isn't, 'What do we want to know about people?', It's, 'What do people want to tell about themselves?'”

-Mark Zuckerberg

The American Psychology Association describes a certain phenomenon called “the imaginary audience” that youth face, though you may want to place adults in this category too. They define this phenomenon as, “the adolescent belief that others are constantly focusing attention on him or her, scrutinizing behaviors, appearance, and the like.¹⁸” You may remember going through that, or maybe you still deal with this. We remember how we used to believe that Mom had a third eye or how we used to believe that everyone would always remember that one slightly embarrassing thing we did (that we later found out, no one even noticed). While this issue was once simply a phase, it is now through social media and technology becoming true. This imaginary audience is gaining substance and making it very difficult for us to avoid narcissism and a sense of ego, or the opposite, anxiety that we cannot manage. We have always been lovers of self, but it is easier now. We are now connected in a way we have not been before across social media. According to research done by Facebook, if you grab any two users from around the world, the average number of friends between them is 3.57.¹⁹ That is amazing to think about. Facebook has more users than any country has people. We now have the ability to tell almost everyone we know and people we do not whatever we want, we can tell them important news or show a picture of whatever we are about to eat.

This leads to three major issues I see. The first is that we have a real audience instead of a figurative one who can see almost all we do. This can lead to a narcissism and ego that we have never had to deal with. We are now getting to see ourselves as the star of our own movies with everyone else being secondary cast and support. This leads to narcissism that wants to make it all about “me” and we lose compassion and empathy for others in the process.

The second issue we face also deals with self image, but looks at the other side, anxiety. This may be more true for children, but can still apply to teenagers and adults by the way our brain processes information. We tend to see everyone’s highlights in life and then feel that our lives do not match theirs. It leads to depression, anxiety, or even a sense of thinking that we deserve to have lives like theirs. We overlook that those individuals with the supposedly perfect lives are looking at our social media feeds with the same feelings. When people are only posting the highlights of their lives, often with embellishments, it only strengthens this kind of mindset that many have.

Another major issue is looking back at the fact that we do have a major audience who can see what we can do. Thanks to our smartphones, we are often just seconds away from letting this audience know whatever we want. This leaves us without time to process and consider the effects of our actions. As you may be personally aware of, we can often regret what we think in the moment may be good to post or say. As the old saying goes, “Nothing ever gets deleted on the internet.”

How do You Meme?

Social media can be a vicious world. When we are behind our screens, it is like we forget that there is anyone else. We realize we are real. Yet, while we look at the computer screen we often forget anyone else exists. It seems to be the paradox of “social media.” How do you act when you are online? Being a witness is more than telling others about someone named Jesus and about a book they need to read. They are first going to read you by your words and actions. Will those help lead someone to Christ, or will they find you to be no different than the rest of the world around them. In social media and text groups it is so easy to make jokes at others expenses. I remember friends in highschool who couldn’t think of anything positive about themselves, so they tried to pull everyone else down through sarcasm. Are you watching your speech. Christian speech is more than not saying “bad” words or unkind things about your neighbor. The apostle Paul tells us that our words are to build others up. Our speech should not tear others down. Our speech should actually intentionally help and build up others. Our memes, jokes, and humor do not have to have targets to be funny.

I do not want to insinuate that encouraging speech in person or on social media is a replacement for witnessing. Your nice words are not enough to tell someone the whole story of Jesus. I have heard testimonies of how someone’s change in speech after coming to Christ may have almost been enough to convey the gospel. Someone who was known for his vile speech came to Christ, and had a completely different tongue. A lady called the pastor after this even to ask if he had really been saved. She said she did not believe it. A good charact and nice words are an important start in our witness, but it is only chapter one. It is not a complete way to witness. Nice words without Jesus are not going to suffice. Jesus’s brother James compares the tongue to the rudder on a ship or a small flame that burns down the forest. Will we use our tongue for the salvation or destruction of others. I have high school friends who have found fun ways to go as a group on Call of Duty and witness to people. They do not end the game with simply saying “good game” and other displays of sportsmanship, they actively seek and try to make Jesus known.

Do not waste your life messing around on social media sites and useless things. Make your life count! Make your death count! Do not waste it on things that will be wood, hay and stubble on judgement day. There are thousands of souls perishing every single day. There is so much work to be done for God’s Kingdom. - Paul Washer