Spiritual social media & mobile devices
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Ernest Staats is the technology director with extensive technical certifications and experience. He provides a link to resources on network security. The document discusses several concerning trends regarding students' internet and technology use including feelings of addiction and dependence, negative physical and mental health impacts, and engaging in risky online behaviors like online gambling and oversharing personal information. It suggests that many students may need intervention for internet addiction.
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Spiritual social media & mobile devices
- 1. Resources available @ http://es-es.net Ernest Staats erstaats@gcasda.org Technology Director MS Information Assurance, CISSP, CEH, CWNA, Security+, MCSE, CNA, INet+, Network+, Server+, A+
- 2. CIRP Freshman Survey Results Cooperative Institutional Research Program Toxic psychological impact of media and technology faux celebrities—lead actors in our fictionalized life On Facebook one can have hundreds or thousands of “friends” Block anyone who disagree Show only flattering, sexy photos Connect with movie stars and musicians
- 3. CIRP Freshman Survey Results Twitter allows “following” as if we have real “fans” Online Games make us Olympians, Formula 1 drivers rock stars or sharp shooters More students think they are exceptional or gifted More confident in themselves than what they can actually perform Fox news taken from http://www.heri.ucla.edu/cirpoverview.php
- 4. Internet 10 Startling Trends •Students have feelings similar to drug and alcohol addiction craving, very anxious, antsy, miserable, jittery, crazy •College students are especially susceptible to Internet Behavior Dependence •Online poker is prevalent on college campuses •Students can’t go 24 hours without the Internet •Students are surfing, not studying •The Internet is everywhere 38% can’t go more than 10 minutes •Internet use can physically change your brain •Many students need intervention and treatment for their addiction, and it can lead to depression •Tech conditions can be dangerous to your health CTS, Headaches, Eyesight insomnia http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2011/internet-addiction-among-college-students-10-startling-trends/
- 5. Mobile Issues 53% of kids have ridden with someone texting and driving 22% say they've been bullied via a text 46% of Youth have a friend who has received a message or picture that was too sexual 75% Youth think their friends are addicted to phone (Not them) 40% of Youth say their parents haven’t talked about staying safe and secure when using cell http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=22917
- 6. Social Media Challenges Fundamentally shifting how we communicate to: Sound bites laced with a dizzying array of fragments and acronyms Emoticons to expressing feelings Value frequent communication over meaningful communication We freely like or dislike anything Provide an array of details and images from our private lives Overshare a variety of information
- 7. Spiritual Challenges ‘Friending’ online nurtures shallow relationships Gives the illusion of knowing everyone Distracts people from existing relationships 39% of adults are self-described ‘Facebook addicts 57% of women 18 to 35 say they talk to people more online than face to face 57% of young people believe their generation uses social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking Trivialization of meaningful things http://www.gty.org/Resources/Print/Blog/B101110
- 8. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)
- 9. FBI and Hulu+ Over 20% increase in Armored car robberies after “Armored”
- 10. Physiological Impact National Institute of Mental Health identifies these major effects of seeing violence on television/computer games: 1. People become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others 2. People tend to be more fearful of the world around them 3.People are more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others TED Talk On Mirror Neurons We perceive we are doing what we see others doing http://www.apa.org/research/action/protect.aspx http://www.apa.org/research/action/games.aspx
- 11. What does Your Phone Know? Text messages, even deleted ones Words in your personal dictionary Facebook contacts Tens of thousands of location pings Every website ever visited What locations you have mapped (SwiftKey - Personalization) Emails going back a month Your photos with geolocation data attached – even if deleted How many times you have checked your email Any application ever installed on your device
- 12. GEO TAGGING August of 2010, Adam Savage, of “MythBusters,” took a photo of his vehicle using his smartphone. He then posted the photo to his Twitter account including the phrase “off to work.” The image contained metadata reveling the exact geographical location the photo. Savage revealed the exact location of his home, the vehicle he drives and the time he leaves for work. Demo: Jeffrey's Exif Viewer http://regex.info/exif.cgi Read the full story here: http://nyti.ms/917hRh
- 13. Meta Data Images Hands on Go to Jeffrey's Exif Viewer http://regex.info/exif.cgi Photo 1 photo.JPG Where was the photo taken of the Police office was the photographer on the sidewalk or somewhere else what kind of device was used to take the photo Second photo Who is in the photo besides the kids? What device was used to take the photo
- 14. Location-Aware Lifestyle The following was published in Wired Magazine in 2009 A woman in Golden Gate Park toke a photo with a phone. Because embedded geodata into photos uploaded to Flickr or Picasa, shots can be automatically placed on a map Searched Flickr map, and score—a shot from today. User’s photostream and determined it was the woman I had seen earlier Read the full story here: http://bit.ly/bJqYmm A cluster of images in one location revealed photos of an apartment interior—a bedroom, a kitchen, living room
- 15. Cat Schwartz of TechTV
- 16. TURN OFF GPS FUNCTION ON PHONES
- 17. Mobile Issues /Demo Who is calling you Just for Fun : Can they get into your VM or fake the caller ID http://www.telespoof.com/freecall/agi Just going to a website one can steal all your info: contacts, text messages, photos, videos, credit card information PIN security – secure or easy to do 1 handed Camera and mic can be turned on Without permission If an APP is free -- WHY?
- 18. Social Networking Statistics Facebook: 600 billion page views/month MySpace: 24 billion page views/month Twitter: 4.4 billion page views/month 50% of all mobile traffic in UK is for Facebook 62% use it on a daily basis (© 2011 Cable News Network7)
- 19. Phone controls 4G/ WIFI Vendor Specific options AT&T Smart Limits (English) NetNanny Parental Controls AT&T Smart Limits (Spanish) Go to NetNanny's Software Site Go to AT&T's Site SMobile Parental Controls Microsoft Family PACT Go to Smobile's Software Site Go to Microsoft's Xbox Safety Site Verizon Parental Controls MySpace Safety Tips Go to MySpace's Safety Center Go to Verizon's Parental Control Center
- 20. Counter Bypass 1. Use filter on the router and Open DNS 1. Step by step guide on es-es.org/2.html 2. Control internet access time and locations and application install 3. Use an MDM that alerts you when your secure profile is altered is Factory resetting device http://www.meraki.com/products/systems-manager/ 4. Knowing about other devices helps--5. Set filter to stop bypass proxies both on the router and on Open DNS
- 21. Filtering Software Vendor Specific options AT&T Smart Limits (English)
- 22. Be Safe online Social Safety Password protected everything Protect your password and only allow known friends Only post what your pastor, parents, principal or a predator should see What you post online stays online - forever - ThinkB4uClick! Only say online what you would say offline Protect your others privacy too...get their okay Check what your friends are posting/saying about you Your Social Profile is part of your college, job, internship, scholarship or sports team application
- 23. Facebook Spying Facebook Visualizer -Police can make profiles about a person such as where they would most likely go if they were in trouble, where they might hide, what friends they would turn to etc... http://www.lococitato.com/facebookvisualizer/ Generates animated, clickable maps of the relationships between Facebook users. Features include profile summaries, export of networks to csv files, fast search utility and storage of complete html code and download time They also have products for Myspace and YouTube.
- 25. Social / Mobile Exposure Demo
- 26. Knowing is Half the Battle The Internet is FOREVER There is no true delete on the internet WWW means World Wide Web Every Picture Every Post Every Detail
- 27. Physical & Mental Issues 80 percent of us spend three or more hours sitting during our leisure time long-reaching effects on our health: long-range obesity, heart problems, depression and diabetes Makes people feel anxious, moody or restless 'Facebook depression’ see others as having fun feel left out
- 28. Cell Safety Tips Text or cell calls can be intercepted easily You never know who is calling you Review any unknown numbers or odd calls and texts Texting is viral—anything sent in a text can be easily forwarded and shared. Never reveal cell or passwords online Remember consequences of sexually explicit or provocative images or txt Use security settings that are available Can be triangulated even if the location services are off
- 29. Youth
- 30. Teens & Pre-Teens 50% of the students 12 years old or under have a social networking profile. That percentage jumped to 86% of the 13 year olds 47% of the 13 and under users spent 1 or more hours using their social networks. 31% of the students 12 and under had more than 100 “friends” on their profile 63% of the thirteen year olds had 100 or more “friends.” 26% of the users thirteen and under accepted friend requests from someone they didn’t know in real life http://teenangels.org/research/ta_research_social_networking_and_teens.html
- 31. Become What you Behold New York Times carried the following headline, “Long-Married Couples Do Look Alike, Study Finds”. But we all …, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory just as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Cor. 3:18)
- 32. Social Media Search Engines Kurrently offers the ability to search both Facebook and Twitter in real time Who’s Talkin It searches 60 social media gateways Socialmention Social Media Alerts : Like Google Alerts but for social media Your Open Book Looks at profile status updates
- 33. Geolocation tools http://www.bing.com/maps http://twittermap.appspot.com http://www.fourwhere.com/ http://ip2geolocation.com Cree.py Great tool for geolocating/tracking Twitter/Foursquare users. Not only pulls coordinates from the posts directly, but can grab them from the EXIF data in pictures they link to. http://ilektrojohn.github.com/creepy/
- 34. Scrubbing Meta Data Software • Jpg and PNG metadata striper http://www.steelbytes.com/?mid=30 • BatchPurifier LITE • http://www.digitalconfidence.com/downloads.html • Doc Scrubber • http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/dsdownload.html Websites • http://regex.info/exif.cgi
- 35. Cyberstalking Sites http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html Lullar Search for a person using email name or user name http://com.lullar.com/ Spokeo Searches lots of public Records to find information about someone http://www.spokeo.com KnowEm Claims to check over 500 sites to see if a given user name is taken http://knowem.com Peek You old but still full of good info about someone http://www.peekyou.com
- 36. Google Yourself What personal information of yours is available online? http://www.pipl.com http://www.peekyou.com http://yoname.com www.myfamily.com www.zoominfo.com www.alltheweb.com www.zabasearch.com
- 37. The Influence of Media Teen media exposure associated with depression symptoms in young adulthood. http://www.health.am/psy/more/teen-media-exposure-associated-with-depression-symptoms/ Messages through media may reinforce aggression and other risky behaviors, interfere with identity development or inspire fear and anxiety Cheating becomes much easier www.chacha.com www.kgbanswers.com kgbkgb Taken from "Association Between Media Use in Adolescence and Depression in Young Adulthood - A Longitudinal Study"
- 38. INTERNET ADDICTION • Skipping meals, losing sleep and time for other things • Rearranging daily routines or other activities and responsibilities to spend more time online • When it impacts school performance and relationships with friends or family • Financial problems depending on the nature of the addiction • Physical problems associated with bad diet, lack of exercise and extended computer use (CTS, Migraines, Backache….) http://www.childnet-int.org/downloads/factsheet_addiction.pdf
Editor's Notes
- We must beware of the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults, particularly as it regards turning them into faux celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories.Read more: On Facebook, young people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. They can choose to show the world only flattering, sexy or funny photographs of themselves and publicly connect to movie stars and professional athletes and musicians they “like.”Read more: Using Twitter, young people can pretend they are worth “following,” as though they have real-life fans, when all that is really happening is the mutual fanning of false love and false fame. Using computer games, our sons and daughters can pretend they are Olympians, Formula 1 drivers, rock stars or sharpshooters. And while they can turn off their Wii and Xbox machines and remember they are really in dens and playrooms on side streets and in triple deckers around America, that is after their hearts have raced and heads have swelled with false pride for “being” something they are not. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/08/are-raising-generation-deluded-narcissists/#ixzz2KB227p5o Cooperative Institutional Research Program CIRP from http://www.heri.ucla.edu/cirpoverview.php
- We must beware of the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults, particularly as it regards turning them into faux celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories.Read more: On Facebook, young people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. They can choose to show the world only flattering, sexy or funny photographs of themselves and publicly connect to movie stars and professional athletes and musicians they “like.”Read more: Using Twitter, young people can pretend they are worth “following,” as though they have real-life fans, when all that is really happening is the mutual fanning of false love and false fame. Using computer games, our sons and daughters can pretend they are Olympians, Formula 1 drivers, rock stars or sharpshooters. And while they can turn off their Wii and Xbox machines and remember they are really in dens and playrooms on side streets and in triple deckers around America, that is after their hearts have raced and heads have swelled with false pride for “being” something they are not. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/01/08/are-raising-generation-deluded-narcissists/#ixzz2KB227p5o Cooperative Institutional Research Program CIRP from http://www.heri.ucla.edu/cirpoverview.php
- http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?pid=22917
- http://socialmediatoday.com/kcain/568836/negative-effects-facebook-communication
- Social Media and Digital Discernment Code: B101110 John MacArthur Twenty-five years ago Neil Postman observed that television had become an American “necessity” and lamented its effects on society. He correctly described the culture of the 1980s as one that was amusing itself to death. If he were alive today, Postman would be astonished at how quickly Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media have gripped our society. His earlier criticisms raise an interesting question about these current trends: If TV put our culture in the casket, has social media nailed the coffin shut? Almost overnight, the budding world of social media has revolutionized the way our culture communicates. Even our vocabulary has been affected. Suddenly, people are “tagging” each other, “tweeting” about themselves, and “liking” everything they see. For the first time, it’s possible to have “friends” you’ve never even met. Those conversant in the language of social media rarely use complete sentences or even complete words (since they are limited to 140 characters). All the while, words like “screenager,” “vlog,” and “cyberslacking,” are finding their way into dictionaries like Oxford and Webster’s. It’s funny to consider that, not too long ago, surfing was just a water sport and a yahoo was a crazy person. But not anymore. Social media is also changing the way people spend their time. Recent statistics from Nielson indicate that Americans spend 906 million hours per month using social media.1 Twitter has over 100 million users. YouTube serves more than two billion videos a day. And Facebook reports that, worldwide, its 500 million active users spend a combined 700 billion minutes on the site each month. That’s roughly 24 hours per person, which is a lot of time to spend checking status updates and changing profile pictures.2 So what are Christians supposed to think about all of this? How can we exercise biblical discernment in the way we use this new media? On the one hand, social networking websites provide numerous benefits and opportunities. Many of the ministries with which I am involved (like Grace to You and The Master’s College & Seminary) utilize social networking to dispense resources and keep people updated with ministry news.3 Social networking can be a useful tool when used to communicate the right things—messages that honor Christ, exalt His Word, and direct people to profitable tools for spiritual growth. But social networking can also be abused. When it consists of nothing more than random babblings and personal monologues, it can become self-centered, unrestrained and narcissistic. When it consumes our lives, it can be addictive and controlling. Used unwisely, it is filled with potential pitfalls and temptations. For those who follow Christ, we are called to submit every area of our lives to His lordship—including how we use social media. With that in mind, let’s look at the following five areas of caution: Virtual Fellowship First, consider the façade of friendship that can be created by social networking. It has the potential to foster shallow relationships and detract from real ones. Instead of enhancing deep friendships, it tends to flatten out and impersonalize the dynamics of human interaction—creating what Umair Haque calls “thin relationships.” Writing for the Harvard Business Review, Haque notes, “Despite all the excitement surrounding social media, the Internet isn’t connecting us as much as we think it is. It’s largely home to weak, artificial connections, what I call thin relationships. . . . Thin relationships are the illusion of real relationships.” He goes on to explain that, thanks to the explosion of so-called friendships in the world of social networking, the very word “relationship” has lost its value. “It used to mean someone you could count on. Today, it means someone you can swap bits with.”4 Haque is not alone in his observations. Gervase Markham, a Mozilla Foundation programmer quoted inThe Sydney Morning Herald, echoes that same concern: “Social networking en-courages people to have a greater number of much shallower friendships. I know what 15 of my friends had for breakfast, but I don’t know whether any of them is struggling with major life issues. If this trend continues, people in 2020 will have hundreds of acquaintances, but very few friends.”5 Researcher Mark Vernon, writing in USA Today, agrees: “While social networking sites and the like have grown exponentially, the element that is crucial, and harder to investigate, is the quality of the connections they nurture. . . . A connection may only be a click away, but cultivating a good friendship takes more. It seems common sense to conclude that ‘friending’ online nurtures shallow relationships.”6 His advice for maintaining real friendships is simple: “Put down the device; engage the person.”7 Social networking gives the illusion of knowing everyone, and yet the reality is that oftentimes no one is truly known. It creates an environment where selfish, one-sided relationships seem to flourish, and where communication is largely unidirectional, made up of sound bites instead of deep interaction. Moreover, it often distracts people from existing relationships. Instead of pouring themselves into the real-life friendships they currently have, people now spend hours with pseudo-friends online. This is especially seen within the family, where social networking constantly threatens to invade, bringing a barrage of cultural influence into the private world of family life. In the home, focused training in godliness is essential for the development of spiritually-healthy relationships and biblical worldviews. But instant distraction is only a text message away. As believers, we are called to love, encourage, instruct, admonish, and serve one another. That requires far more than social media can provide. The life-on-life discipleship that characterizes Christian friendship goes much deeper than any Facebook update or Twitter post. In so far as our fellowship is limited to 140 characters of text, it is not true fellowship at all. Every Careless Word The book of Proverbs tells us that, “He who spreads slander is a fool. When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise” (10:18b-19). A maxim for all of life, that statement certainly applies to social media. Those who spread slander and gossip online can now find themselves in court.8 Some might be sued.9 Others simply fired from their jobs.10 But even if such potential consequences did not exist, Christians answer to a higher court. And God has made it clear what He thinks about gossip: “He who goes about as a slanderer reveals secrets, therefore do no associate with a gossip” (Prov. 20:19). A study in the New York Daily News found that 80% of normal conversations consist of gossip.11 Those numbers seem to be consistent with online interactions, where talking about other people is almost as popular as talking about oneself. In a helpful article entitled “Solomon on Social Media,” Tim Challies gives this timely warning: “There are many web sites, blogs and Twitter accounts dedicated almost entirely to gossip, to sharing what is dishonorable rather than what is noble. Avoid these people and their gossip!”12 But even beyond the world of slander, one has to wonder how many careless words are posted, texted, or tweeted every moment of the day. Statistics suggest that there are about 700 Facebook status updates and over 600 tweets every second.13 Even if some of those are profitable, that still leaves a lot of empty chatter. Our Lord addressed this issue directly in His statement, “Every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it” (Matt. 12:36). That’s a sobering thought, especially when paired with the maxim of Proverbs 17:28: “Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent.” (Many a young blogger would do well to memorize those verses.) In 1 Corinthians 10:23–24, Paul explains an important principle about Christian liberty. He writes, “All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.” If we apply that truth to the world of social media, we can quickly separate that which is valuable from that which is merely wood, hay, and stubble. Tweeting about the inane details of life might not be sinful, but if it doesn’t build others up spiritually, it might be better left unsaid. Time Mismanagement According to recent statistics, the average American worker spends almost six hours a month visiting social networking websites during work time. The majority of that time is spent on Facebook.14 But this is not just about wasting time at work. It’s about wasting time, period. By its very nature, social networking is a massive distraction. It detracts from disciplined study, thoughtful meditation, and concerted prayer. In a Time Magazine article entitled “It’s Time to Confront Your Facebook Addiction,” Kayla Webley shares some startling statistics. “One-third of women ages 18 to 34 check Facebook first thing in the morning. . . . Of the 1,605 adults surveyed on their social media habits, 39% are self-described ‘Facebook addicts.’ It gets worse. Fifty-seven percent of women in the 18 to 34 age range say they talk to people online more than they have face-to-face conversations. Another 21% admit to checking Facebook in the middle of the night.”15 Some Facebook “addicts,” like Maria Garcia of Philadelphia, spend as much as 56 hours a week on the site.16 Reporting on her story, ABC News recounted the concern of those in the medical community: “The popularity and social acceptance of networking sites is one of the reasons Dr. Joseph Garbley says Facebook addiction is becoming a very real problem. . . . Garbley says unlike alcohol or drugs, social networking addiction is psychological not physical. But he adds it is still a serious problem: ‘The problem comes in when life intercedes, when school work calls, when relationships demand your attention and you chose Facebook over those relationships.’”17 It seems social media sites have become the new soap operas! Of course, the real problem is a heart issue, not a psychological one. But the point remains. For many Americans, the amount of time spent using social media is out of control. Whether defined as “addicts” or not, people spend vast amounts of time browsing blogs, watching YouTube videos, reading tweets, and managing their profiles. We’ve already noted that, on average, the active Facebook user spends nearly 24 hours a month on the site. In September 2010, the amount of time spent on Facebook surpassed Google for the first time. Combine this with time spent blogging, micro-blogging, commenting, texting, instant messaging, and surfing—and the sheer hours represented become staggering. Ironically, people can spend hours jumping from link to link without even realizing how much time they are wasting. As author Ivan Misner explains in Business Week, “You go to LinkedIn or Facebook and you read a comment and it takes you to another link and now you’re on YouTube, watching someone’s video. Pretty soon something weird happens in the space-time continuum and you look up and you’ve lost two hours.”18 As believers, the command of Ephesians 5:15–16 is just as binding upon our modern lives as it was in the non-technological world of the first century. “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,making the most of your time, because the days are evil.” Paul’s exhortation has massive implications for how we interact with social media. One day we will stand before Christ to give an account for how we used His resources (including our time and energy). With that in mind, how much of this life can be justifiably devoted to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the like? Just a few hours each day, over the course of a lifetime, adds up to years of wasted opportunity. Putting the ME in Media If there is one word that perhaps best describes social media it is this: self-promotion. The narcissism fostered by status updates and tweets is undeniable. And cultural critics have taken notice. Some respond with humor.19 A few see it as a good thing.20 Others are concerned that social media is ramping up society’s psychological maladies—like Narcissistic Personality Disorder.21 (Of course, what psychologists label “NPD” the Bible calls the sin of pride.) Even the majority of social media users admit that self-promotion is at its core: “A national study fresh out of SDSU is confirming that Generation Y really is Generation Me. The jaw-dropping conclusion? 57% of young people believe their generation uses social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.”22 In the words of one British journalist: “The Me-Man is everywhere. And so is the Me-Woman. They are the millions of men and women . . . from every class, age and profession who want to talk about themselves, expose themselves, and promote themselves in glorious and often gory detail. . . . They blog and bleat and tweet and text you all the time. The medium may vary, but the message is always the same: Me. ‘Me, Me, Me!’”23 Dr. Lauren LaPorta, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at St. Joseph’s, sees the popularity of social networking sites as a direct result of the growing narcissism in American culture (due largely to the self-esteem movement of the 90s). Writing for the Psychiatric Times, she observes, “It is my contention that these sites would not have risen to such prominence but for the fact that a generation of narcissists needed an outlet. The millennial generation needed a way to assert their uniqueness, their specialness and garner the attention and praise of the masses. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter filled the bill.”24 But theme-centered world of social media is clearly at odds with the biblical call to humility and selflessness. Consider just a brief sampling of relevant Scripture passages on this subject: Proverbs 16:18—“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling.” Proverbs 27:2—“Let another man praise you and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.” Proverbs 30:2—“If you have been foolish in exalting yourself . . . put your hand over your mouth.” Isaiah 66:2—“‘To this one I [the LORD] will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.’” Matthew 23:11–12—“The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” Philippians 2:3–5—“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves. . . . Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.” To these, a host of other passages could be added. All of them make the same point: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. When so much about social media panders to pride and shameless self-exaltation, believers need to think about their motives before they jump on the bandwagon. If the goal is simply popularity or personal promotion, it’s time to do a heart check. Our celebrity-driven culture craves for notoriety. But Christians are called to be different. We have died to ourselves. Thus, our concern should not be, “How many people can I get to follow me?” but rather, “How can I bear witness to the wonder of following Christ?” Trivializing Truth None other than National Public Radio recently lamented the growing trivialization of values in American society.InanNPR web articleentitled, "Trivialization Nation” (Feb. 2010) Linton Weeks writes, “The wide-spread trivialization of meaningful things is indisputable. Sound bites and silliness reign supreme. . . . Perhaps the tendency to trivialize is born of band-wagonism or laziness. . . . Trivializing large ideals is easier than living up to them. And it’s less scary.”25 Elsewhere, the article cited an interview with the president of Harvard, Drew Faust, in which she was asked to respond to the dumbing down of American culture. “I worry about attention span,” Faust said, “because people will not listen to more than a couple of sentences or read more than a couple of sentences. Does everything have to be a sound bite? Is everything to be digested into something brief? And aren’t there complicated ideas that we ought to have the patience to give our attention to?"26 One novelist-turned-blogger provides firsthand testimony of that trivialization in his own experience. He writes: “This is, I think, the real danger of social media and Twitter. . . . It changes the way I process information. Or to be more precise, I no longer process information—I merely consume it. I speed read hundreds of bits of articles a day, absorbing lots of information, but rarely actually thinking about it. . . . The difficult thoughts, the ambivalent thoughts, the repulsive thoughts, the thoughts too complicated to be reduced to a tweet. They are labeled low priority and sent to the back office of my mind.”27 Geoff Dyer, writing in The Guardian, echoes that concern: “Sometimes I think my ability to concentrate is being nibbled away by the internet; other times I think it’s being gulped down in huge, Jaws-shaped chunks.”28 A CNBC article entitled, “Is Twitter Making You Stupid?” concludes with this sobering assessment: “It seems that we’ve managed, in the words of playwright Richard Foreman . . . to transform ourselves into ‘pancake people’—spread wide and thin as we connect with that vast network of information accessed by the mere touch of a button.”29 While scientists and social critics debate the effects of social media on how we think, one thing remains clear: Christians must guard themselves against becoming theological pancakes. Thanks to the market-driven methodologies of the seeker-sensitive movement, the dumbing down of doctrine has characterized American evangelicalism for decades. In many ways, sites like Twitter and Facebook only exacerbate that problem because they provide a venue in which reductionism and extreme brevity simultaneously coincide with information overload and infinite distraction. But not every theological truth can be adequately summarized in just a phrase or two. And not every debate can be resolved in just one blog article. Many doctrines require extended time and thought to properly process. Mature believers reflect deeply on the things of God and the truths of His Word. They are not a mile wide and an inch deep. Instead their lives are marked by rich devotion, focused study, prolonged prayer, and careful mediation. Cultivating those kinds of spiritual disciplines takes time and effort—traits that are rarely prized in the information age. In light of that, believers must not allow blogs, tweets, and status updates to become their primary source of theological education or spiritual input. If they do, they will inevitably become doctrinally shallow and spiritually malnourished. God’s Word repeatedly calls us to use our minds wisely. We are to think on things that are right and true (Phil. 4:8) as we test all things carefully (1 Thess. 5:21) and bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5). Our minds are to be renewed (Rom. 12:2) as we allow the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly (Col. 3:16). We are to be sober-minded (1 Cor. 15:34) as we set our minds on things above (Col. 3:2) and prepare them for action (1 Pet. 1:13). Clearly, God cares how we think and what we think about. Insofar as social media websites cultivate the trivialization of profound truths, while simultaneously fostering shorter attention spans, believers would do well to proceed carefully. Something to Think About At this point it is important to reiterate what I said at the beginning. Social networking can be a useful tool when it is used in moderation and for the right things. At the same time, however, pitfalls and temptations do exist; and believers need to arm themselves accordingly. Social media are obviously not going away any time soon. But that doesn’t mean we can be undiscerning in how we approach them. For me, as a pastor, this issue is particularly important from a shepherding perspective. Christian leaders are called to equip their people to think through every area of life with biblical wisdom. And this is no exception. Moreover, believers (and especially pastors) need to be careful what they communicate to the world about their lives. Once something is posted online it can be seen by anyone else. Once it’s cached, there is a permanent record of it. That means every status update and every tweet is part of the believer’s public testimony as a Christian. As Paul told the Galatians, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (2:20). Like Paul and every other believer, my life is no longer my own. The focus must not be on me, but on Christ. When someone hears from me publicly, I want it all to point to Him. NOTES: * Special thanks to members of the Grace Church staff for helping to find these online sources. * The citation of sources here does not imply blanket endorsement of these websites or authors. 1 http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/what-americans-do-online-social-media-and-games-dominate-activity/ 2 http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics 3 In my case, our staff at Grace to You maintains a social media presence for me (on both Facebook and Twitter) in order to direct people to biblical teaching resources. Though I am not personally involved in posting anything to Facebook or Twitter, I do see the value of those sites for ministry purposes. 4 http://blogs.hbr.org/haque/2010/03/the_social_media_bubble.html 5 http://www.smh.com.au/technology/social-media-making-us-shallow-20100706-zy5u.html 6 http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2010-07-27-column27_ST_N.htm 7 Ibid. 8 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/01/us/01slapp.html?_r=1&ref=libel_and_slander 9 http://legalblogwatch.typepad.com/legal_blog_watch/2009/05/legal-consequences-of-social-media.html 10 http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/slander_or_satire_when_does_social_media_cross_ legal_lines/ 11 http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2009/09/10/2009-09 10_gossip_makes_up_80_percent_of_our_conversations__and_that_might_be_ok_experts.html 12 http://www.challies.com/christian-living/solomon-on-social-media 13 http://searchengineland.com/by-the-numbers-twitter-vs-facebook-vs-google-buzz-36709; for more recent numberson Twitter see http://mashable.com/2010/06/25/tps-record/ 14 http://en-us.nielsen.com/content/nielsen/en_us/news/news_releases/2010/june/nielsen_and_mckinsey.html 15 http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/08/its-time-to-confront-your-facebook-addiction/ 16 http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/special_reports&id=7251938 17 Ibid. 18 http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jun2010/sb2010068_630402.htm 19 http://www.despair.com/somevedi.html 20 http://corymiller.com/why-narcissism-is-necessary-on-twitter/ 21 http://socialmediarockstar.com/why-narcissistic-personality-disorder-loves-social-media 22 http://mashable.com/2009/08/25/gen-y-social-media-study/; see alsohttp://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2009-08-24-narcissism-young_N.htm 23 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1278968/From-YouTube-Facebook-Welcome-agenarcissism.html?printingPage=true 24 http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/news/content/article/10168/1514386 25 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123568025 26 Ibid. 27 http://themanwhofellasleep.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/social-media-and-digital-narcissism/ 28 http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/aug/15/internet-brain-neuroscience-debate 29 http://www.cnbc.com/id/32569284/Is_Twitter_Making_You_Stupid/ A connection may only be a click away, but cultivating a good friendship takes more. It seems common sense to conclude that ‘friending’ online nurtures shallow relationships.”6 His advice for maintaining real friendships is simple: “Put down the device; engage the person.”7 http://socialmediatoday.com/kcain/568836/negative-effects-facebook-communication
- Children Internet Pornography Statistics Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography 11 years old Largest consumer of Internet pornography 35 - 49 age group 15-17 year olds having multiple hard-core exposures 80% 8-16 year olds having viewed porn online 90% (most while doing homework) 7-17 year olds who would freely give out home address 29% 7-17 year olds who would freely give out email address 14% Children's character names linked to thousands of porn links 26 (Including Pokemon and Action Man Pornography Time Statistics Every second - $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography. Every second - 28,258 internet users are viewing pornography. Every second - 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines. Every 39 minutes: a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.
- http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/what-does-your-phone-know-about-you-more-than-you-think/237786/ Text messages, even deleted ones Words in your personal dictionary Facebook contacts Tens of thousands of locationpings Every website ever visited What locations you have mapped Emails going back a month Your photos with geolocation data attached – even if deleted How many times you have checked your email Any application ever installed on your device http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/what-does-your-phone-know-about-you-more-than-you-think/237786/ Just for Fun : Can they get into your VM or fake the caller ID http://www.telespoof.com/freecall/agi
- teal all of your contacts, text messages, photos, videos, credit card information, and anything else you have stored or have linked to your personal device
- http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/what-does-your-phone-know-about-you-more-than-you-think/237786/
- http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/what-does-your-phone-know-about-you-more-than-you-think/237786/
- http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/what-does-your-phone-know-about-you-more-than-you-think/237786/
- The internet is a cache of information– there is no true delete option. Facebook Stats: Facebook has been translated into 70 different languages 70% of FB users are outside of the USA More than 3 BILLION photos uploaded every month More than 5 BILLION pieces of content are shared every week
- http://www.bupa.com.au/health-and-wellness/shine/spirit/social-media-and-its-impact-on-health-and-wellbeing
- Text or cell calls can be intercepted easily You never know who is calling you Texting is viral—anything sent in a text can be easily forwarded and shared Never to reveal cell phone numbers or passwords online Sending sexually explicit or provocative images or text messages = You become a registered sex offender for life…. If the cell phone is on it can be triangulated even if the location services are off Any web site or app can get your IP address then it can do a lookup to find where are located and they can also pull a lot of information as well…. Review cell phone records for any unknown numbers and late night phone calls and texts. Texting is viral—anything sent in a text can be easily forwarded and shared. Never reveal cell or passwords online Talk to your child about the possible consequences of sending sexually explicit or provocative images or text messages. When shopping for a cell phone for your child, research the security settings that are available.
- An article in the New York Times carried the following headline, “Long-Married Couples Do Look Alike, Study Finds”. Dr. Zajonc, a psychologist at the University of Michigan says, “…people often unconsciously mimic the facial expressions of their spouse in a silent empathy and…over the years sharing the same expressions shapes the face similarity.”It seems that modern science is just now discovering something that Scripture has revealed for a long time; you will become like what you behold. Paul said that as we behold the glory of the Lord we are changed into His very own image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18). There is an incredible, transformational power in what we set our eyes, mind and heart on, and I believe that it goes much deeper than we even realize.
- Mention good apps for the phone