I don't know about you- but I personally find Facebook has been a great way to keep some fun contact with my friends, both at home and abroad, as well as being a fantastic tool with which I have found my old school and youth group friends from over a decade ago. And to a lesser extent, Myspace has also been great for this.
What has bothered me recently though has been something my wife said. She is openly defiant of virtual social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook. For her, if someone is a friend and when they want to talk to her, they can call her up on the phone or meet up somewhere for a chat. And I can see the validity in such a line of thought.
One of my favourite TV shows is "Bones". Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan is a highly skilled forensic anthropologist who works at the Jeffersonian Institute in Washington, DC. For those who don't know, anthropology is the science that deals with the origins, physical and cultural development, biological characteristics, and social customs and beliefs of humankind. And I like that. Down the track, I may even become an anthropologist (what with my missions leanings). :)
The reason I bring it up, is that I find the virtual social networking of Facebook and Myspace to be an interesting anthropological study, and wanted to take a look at that (briefly) today- and specifically, I'll talk of Myspace.
Myspace is predominantley the realm of a younger audience. My personal involvement began out of the need to stay relevant with the young people in my church's youth group. But I have noticed that Myspace does not, by default, have safeguards to protect its members. Your details (things such as pictures, about me, who I'd like to meet, schools, and much MUCH more) are available for perusal for anyone who has a Myspace account. This, without saying, there is an inherant abuse-ability that can be played upon.
That's not to say that one can't go through the account settings and make it all private, so that only those who are "friends" can see your details- but as the social networking goes, you're actually messaging and inviting people to be your friends whom you don't actually know. A horrible case of the system being abused was found in this case, where a young 14 year old girl had been socialising with someone she thought was a guy. And as teenagers do, she fell in love with him... and continued the liason with this "guy" for 18 months, after which they finally organised to have an "FTF" (face to face).
As it turned out- the guy was not a guy at all... but other girls from this teenagers school who were playing a cruel joke. I don't wish to belittle the heartache, shame, and feelings of utter foolishness this teen must have experienced... but it could have been a much worse scenario.
In another situation, a man of about 30 years of age utilised a fake account, stating he was a young 20-something year old woman. In less than a week, he had over 100 "friends". These were ALL accounts which had been set to private (meaning, even if you have a Myspace account, you cannot access them unless you have been accepted as a friend), with a notice stating only women friend requests would be accepted.
The internet is a great tool with which we can spread the gospel ,and utilise it for many other great and noble tasks which would have been impossible 15-20 years ago... But it is also full of pot-holes that can do great damage- and deviants who only wish to have their own perversions satisfied.
Anthropologically speaking, I believe that the "social customs and beliefs of humankind" are on a fast track downward, reducing to a more debased reality than the one God has designed. The internet makes it easier than ever to pander to that debasement... and ill-informed, poor-decision making virtual social networking members are the ones who get bitten by these wolves. Indeed, the male existentialism of this generation may well be captured in the song lyrics, "You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals, so let's do it like they do on the discover channel..."
So, as the technology continues to develop at a ridiculous rate over the coming years, as Christian's, as parents, as youth leaders, as friends, as families... Let's do what we can to be out there on the cutting edge, doing what we can to protect those we love, and the public in general- helping them to make informed decisions about the internet, and how to best navigate through these treacheries.
- Shane Miller.
Shane Miller is the founder of the web-site and blog, The God Shack, and has been actively involved in numerous Christian minitries over the last decade. These have included being a youth leader for seven years, being involved in creative arts ministries (including CD recordings), as well as being a missions assistant to Kazakhstan for a year (working with Teen Challenge). Shane is married to his beautiful wife Marie, lives in Sydney Australia, where he works for his home church, as well as being a Core Team member and consultant for the internationally developing youth movement, Generation Fire.
Posted at: 05:19 PM | Add Comment
