I love social media.
I understand that they are tools to help us interact with the world around us.
I use Twitter to glean information and interact with students.
I use Instagram to disseminate information and see what my friends are up to.
I use Facebook to keep up with students’ parents and anyone else over the age of 25.
I know that social media are simply tools that do nothing to validate me as a person, a husband or a pastor.
Even though I know that truth and regularly communicate it to our students, I still got a case of social media sadness.
Without going into any detail, a social medium made me question my ministry and myself. Regardless of content, social media should not have that power over our lives.
160 characters or a digital comment should not have the power to make us question or doubt ourselves. Social media offer such a limited perspective into our lives and any feedback we get via them is just as limited. We can’t allow limited feedback to completely impact our lives.
We need people in our lives who know us well, who see our lives from more than one perspective. Those people will know us better and be able to speak more accurately into our lives. So we also need to listen to them when they speak into our lives. Whether they give us positive or negative feedback, we need to pay attention to those who know us best.
We can’t ignore the encouragement of our closest friends just because we get a negative comment on Facebook.
We also can’t ignore the admonishment of our closest friends just because we get 25 likes on our Instagram post.
Social media are tools that serve a purpose. We can’t give them any reach in our lives beyond their very narrow purpose.
Social media exist to bring us information, not to inform us about ourselves.
Social media exist to connect us with others, not to replace intentional relationships in which we’re known.
Social media exist for us to have fun, not to bear serious weight in our lives.
How do you limit the influence of social media in your life?
Yeah, I’m having an issue with limiting that. But as I’m getting bored of it, I find other things to distract me. I’ve been trying to get promoted in my job, so I’m studying all these tech books. So whenever I feel the urge to check my FB or tweet, I pick up a book and read. Another thing I’m going to try to do is pick times where I can go on social media and give myself 10-15 minutes to do my thing.
Scott,
I saw the comment yesterday. I just wanted to say that I’m impressed by all you provide for the youth throughout the summer. Here, we have a mission trip and a fun trip, but otherwise our ministry year really ends in early May and re-launches in the fall. It’s always bothered me, but I hear our youth volunteers need a break. Anyway, I wanted to post yesterday on fb but felt it unwise…you never “enlighten” those kind of people. I found it awfully snarky and hope you’ve moved on:)