I heard of a church minister who effectively banned the men of his church from using Facebook. His argument was that their temptation to seek out old girlfriends would overcome them and they would begin rekindle old relationships. Well that maybe true, but I would suggest that online social networks have a more subtle danger to them. Today, I want to flag up a couple of dangers of using social networks.
1) Who are you when you are online? Sounds daft doesn't it, but I am noticing that people don't only have pseudonyms when they are online, they sometimes have pseudo personalities too. These range from the deliberately wacky and bizarre, the person becoming an amplified version of themselves when online for some reason, to those that are just nicer than they are in the real world. The above quote from Proverbs talks about one man sharpening another. This happens through being real and honest with each other. You will never grow through your online communications if you are putting on an act.
2) When and why do you browse social networks? You may not be deliberately looking for an old girlfriend / boyfriend, but your browsing may not be healthy. You may be flicking around Facebook because you are bored and using as a means to procrastinate. Or, you may be using online friendships to compensate for the issues that you have in your 'offline' friendships.
So maybe you have read the above and thought, 'no I'm ok; I am not doing either of those things'. Great, keep them as a mental checklist for the future. Or maybe you recognize something of yourself in the above. There are, of course, other unhealthy habits you can get into online too. You see, online friendships have their place and, as we have seen, can be very positive. However, we weren't made to live online. We were made primarily for real, face to face, relationships with people in our vicinity. We were made to exist and grow together in real community. 'Iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another'. We grow through rubbing off and sparking off each other. Iron is never sharpened by being waved at a computer screen.
For prayer. Talk to God about when and why you use online social media.
John Martin-Jones
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