Tag Archives: technology

The idolatrous discarnation of social media

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I learned a new word today courtesy of Tim Challies who wrote some advice for pastors on using Facebook. He commented that there is a risk of becoming discarnate by substituting an online presence for real in-the-flesh (incarnate) interactions with people. His use of the word ‘disincarnate’ immediately caused me to think of Christ as God incarnate (as I suspect was Tim’s intention) and now the Church as the body of Christ in the world, in contrast to the strange ethereal melting pot of ideas and outbursts that is the internet and social media.

We now even even speak of having an online or virtual presence, in effect creating (or re-creating) ourselves in our own image. The innate sinful human nature so exchanges the glory of God incarnate in Christ for a cheap lie (Romans 1:21-23) that the literal images we use in social media to represent our presence are perversely called ‘avatars‘ (the manifestation of a Hindu deity).

The more I ponder this, the more abhorrent our self-idolatry and discarnation of true relationships appears to my Christian mind. God became flesh and dwelt amoung us (John 1:14), the final commission from Jesus was to (physically) “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). As Christians we are the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27) and while we are in the flesh we are to labour for the progress and joy of other believers (Philippians 1:24-25).

Both the first and second commandments of the decalogue (Exodus 20:3-4) stand opposed to the sort of virtual persona that is commonly used in social media and other realms of the internet. God delights to see truth in our inner being (Psalm 51:6) and out of such truthfulness we must not project a false image of ourselves into cyberspace.

Beyond that, we also need to humble ourselves in acknowledgment that it is only God who is omnipresent, only he can promise to be with us always (Matthew 28:20), we are finite – limited be both time and space. The nature of such limitations imposed by God should alert us to the importance of our physical lives and face-to-face relationships.

Distractions

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Why am I more likely to be thinking about a computer game while waiting for the bus than to be mulling over this week’s memory verse or praying for persecuted Christians in Somalia?

I am interested in how to constrain my mental and emotional focus so that I ponder Christ and am captivated by Him rather than the useless shiny glittering junk of my everyday world. I suspect that this is an issue for many Christians, I know that it is a multi-million dollar industry in the business world as the popularity of books such as Getting Things Done by David Allen attests. The tendency to get distracted is common to all and seems to be becoming worse as technology delivers ever more of the world to our gadgets. It has been shown that multitasking is a myth, all we really do is switch quickly between tasks and this actually reduces concentration rather than making us more creative, efficient or clever.

Clearly a wise solution to distractions is to reduce the number and frequency of them. I also find that some distractions are more distracting than others — people talking loudly is more distracting than music playing, phones ringing are worse than traffic noises, emotional turmoil is harder to ignore than a cluttered desk. It is this last contrast which gets me closer to my concern about maintaining my focus on Christ, how to get my emotions more engaged with the glory of God?

The things that take my attention are those with the strongest emotional pull. They don’t have to be good emotions — anxiety, stress and pain are not pleasant but they certainly hold my attention! However, emotions are slippery things, very difficult to control or manipulate at will. So is there any hope of taming my distracted heart?

I think there is. It involves that awful ‘D’ word… discipline! I have to discipline myself to place my attention upon what is edifying for my soul, I have to monitor the ‘inputs‘ into my life and turn off those that are pulling me away from Christ and maybe even find some more that will turn my thoughts towards Him. Most of all though, I need to think deeply about Christ. This needn’t be a dry academic exercise — if so there is not much hope for me! The intention is to move beyond superficial thoughts of ‘Jesus meek and mild’ and ponder the meaning of who He is, who I am in relation to Him, and how I can relate to Him. As I grow in my understanding of Jesus Christ my emotions are moved in solid and positive ways. I join the quest that motivated the Apostle Paul:

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
(Philippians 3:10-11 ESV)

Social media

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One of the great uses of Twitter and Facebook will be to prove at the Last Day that prayerlessness was not from lack of time.
John Piper 2:02 PM Oct 20th, 2009

My response to this was “ouch!”, it hits me on a sensitive spot — not only how I interact with social media, but the internet and computers in general. It also reminds me of another penetrating comment from John Piper:

We are made to know Christ; we are not made to do little diddly things.