Comes for the clickbait-ish title, stays for the balanced, sane, and fantastic post :)
I do have one question though: where does hating social media by proxy fit in here? That is, where does hating social media because of the problems it creates for other people - and eventually their problems cause problems for you?
This is a regularly recurring ministry reality for me. I've long tightened up my social media with the suggestions you give here, as have most of the staff I work with. And yet, we regularly find ourselves putting out fires in the lives of our people that were directly caused/influenced by social media. As you know, its the biggest discipleship issue we face - but my individual social media habits/tailoring doesn't impact the problems our youth ministry students face through *their* social media usage. In that sense, I hate social media not because it directly causes problems for me, but it causes problems for people that I love and care about and am largely powerless to address in a meaningful way.
Yes, of course. Good question. In writing this post, I am of course talking about if you hate social media personally, as in *for yourself*. But it can definitely make using social media more difficult if you see it ruining the lives of people you love. Whether or not that impacts how you use social media, I think, is probably a personal decision. Some would say, "It's hypocritical for me to use social media when I see it ruining peoples' lives." I understand the sentiment of such a statement, but there are myriad things with which we involve ourselves despite how those things may hurt others. I don't think the sad reality that something can be bad for *someone* should necessarily lead us to never engage with that thing. I don't think this applies to alcohol. I don't think this applies to one's participation in military service or law enforcement. And I don't think it applies to social media. Necessarily, anyway. If someone like you decided to totally abandon social media because it hurts the students in your ministry—by all means—I just don't think it's *necessary*.
But yeah. Good thought. I wrestle with this idea often. "If I think social media is a net negative, should I still participate at all?" For me, the answer is a qualified "yes." But I understand if, for some, it would be "no."
Comes for the clickbait-ish title, stays for the balanced, sane, and fantastic post :)
I do have one question though: where does hating social media by proxy fit in here? That is, where does hating social media because of the problems it creates for other people - and eventually their problems cause problems for you?
This is a regularly recurring ministry reality for me. I've long tightened up my social media with the suggestions you give here, as have most of the staff I work with. And yet, we regularly find ourselves putting out fires in the lives of our people that were directly caused/influenced by social media. As you know, its the biggest discipleship issue we face - but my individual social media habits/tailoring doesn't impact the problems our youth ministry students face through *their* social media usage. In that sense, I hate social media not because it directly causes problems for me, but it causes problems for people that I love and care about and am largely powerless to address in a meaningful way.
Yes, of course. Good question. In writing this post, I am of course talking about if you hate social media personally, as in *for yourself*. But it can definitely make using social media more difficult if you see it ruining the lives of people you love. Whether or not that impacts how you use social media, I think, is probably a personal decision. Some would say, "It's hypocritical for me to use social media when I see it ruining peoples' lives." I understand the sentiment of such a statement, but there are myriad things with which we involve ourselves despite how those things may hurt others. I don't think the sad reality that something can be bad for *someone* should necessarily lead us to never engage with that thing. I don't think this applies to alcohol. I don't think this applies to one's participation in military service or law enforcement. And I don't think it applies to social media. Necessarily, anyway. If someone like you decided to totally abandon social media because it hurts the students in your ministry—by all means—I just don't think it's *necessary*.
But yeah. Good thought. I wrestle with this idea often. "If I think social media is a net negative, should I still participate at all?" For me, the answer is a qualified "yes." But I understand if, for some, it would be "no."