Ok, I tried. I really did. Facebook is supposed to be a great way to get the word out—a great way to help people connect with one another. But there’s a dark side to Facebook—many dark sides actually. Tonight I found another and it may just be the last straw! Before tonight (I’ll tell you about it in a minute) the following already annoyed the living daylights out of me regarding this fickle form of social media:
- People use it to publically dump their boyfriend/girlfriend
- It’s become the leading form of gossip
- Many folks lose hours of productive time ‘checking up’ on one another with it.
- It’s a vehicle for outright slander at times
- It has incredibly annoying little “likes” and games!
- I don’t give a hooping flap about your animals on ‘Farmville!’
- I could care less if your virtual fish die!
- No, I don’t want to spend the next 6 hours of my life playing Mobster or Triumph or Risk or anything else! No thank you! Stop asking!
- I don’t care in the tiny tiniest way whether or not ‘someone’ answered a question about me.’
- And on and on and on…
But tonight, as I said, may just be the death nail for me and Facebook. Tonight I was looking up some of the famous soccer players from the world cup so far—with my young son (and soccer enthusiast looking on) and we got to Lionel Messi’s page (no, this link isn’t to Facebook, and you’ll see why if you keep reading). Many consider him to be the number one player in the world right now—my son included. So he wanted to see what he could learn about him.
So where did we go?
Off to his fan page. And we read and started looking at photos. Now listen closely blog reader—do not go to this page right now. After about 10 soccer pictures and fan pictures there will be some of the sickest most disgusting pictures ever. As soon as the first one popped up I clicked Facebook off and turned to see if Nathan had seen.
He had.
He wasn’t quite sure what he had seen (thank goodness!) but I immediately shut it down and reported the pictures to Facebook. But I was furious! The damage was already done! For the next hour or so I prayed with Nathan and talked about why anyone would ever do that. We talked about people who do not know Jesus and how they are (according to scripture) ‘slaves to sin.’ We prayed about it and I thought long and hard about what good there really is to this most recent form of Internet interaction.
Sure, you can reconnect with old friends. You can also communicate to a large group (such as the church body) of upcoming events and all. The there is the…umm…well..NOTHING. So, as if you care facebook people, here is one person quickly tiring of your ‘not so innocent’ social media site. Do something! There are young kids who spend hours on this thing! And, after the world cup there will be little boys and girls—young aspiring players—who will search for there favorite stars. I pray to Jesus they don’t find what we did!
* BTW, This is a ‘fan page’ I believe. Which simply means “fans” can post stuff—unfortunately, even raunchy stuff without Messi knowing about it. To my knowledge Messi (the player — not your child who doesn’t clean their room 
) has nothing whatsoever to do with it. Which makes it all the worse! People can throw whatever they want on another person’s page and it can sit there for weeks without anyone noticing it (except children looking for info on their heroes!). Just thought I should add that this post isn’t about Messi, the person. That being said (and CLEARLY, I might add) I also realize there will be a handful who say I was blogging about Messi anyway—they always do. Guess it makes for better gossip.
Sad.
Soooooo, “why even mention him, Pastor Rob?”
Good question. Here’s the short answer. I mention it because one little email written to facebook central isn’t going to do squat—maybe a hundred will! Contact Facebook and add your voice to the mix. Let them know that it’s not okay with you that they don’t have some better way to manage this. There is software readily available that can scan and block nudity, vulgarity, etc. Tell them to use it!
There, that rant is over. But I feel another coming on…
And as for those who sometimes ask if my kids have a facebook account, here’s my answer… “Are you crazy?!” Seriously. I need to be asking you why in the world your kids (some of them as young as 5 or 6) need so desperately to have one—even if it means you putting your name on it because they are too young (according to Facebook guidelines) to have their own account. There’s a reason there’s an age limit people. Maybe now you know! My kids can get one when they’re 30! Fortunately, Facebook will probably be in the Smithsonian by then.
For now my prayer is that Nathan will learn to do as 2 Cor. 10:5 says and ,
“demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (NIV)
and I like how the MESSAGE puts it,
“The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
I’m mad at Facebook, but the truth is, I’m madder at myself. I need to be on the look out for my children. I need to protect and guard their innocence as long as I can from a culture that is so preditorial in nature and seems to care nothing for innocence and virtue—character and integrity. I do care.
And so does my Lord!
To him, character counts!
** So, what about joining my facebook? Invites? The whole nine yards? Right now it is only used for church stuff and blog updates, etc. I’m still stewing right now, and yes, deleting my account may be the sollution—or moving to a fan page—I don’t know. When steam stops coming out of my ears I will be able to decide!