The Other Kind of Twitter snob

A few weeks ago, I blogged about what I call Twitter snobs. These are people who aren't really famous, but are using Twitter to create a brand for themselves. If you follow one of these people you will get a mention or a DM that essentially says "Thank you for following. Here is how following me benefits you." I wasn't saying everyone with thousands of followers is that way, I was just saying some Twitter users are more interested in monologue than dialogue. But today, I discovered another type of Twitter snob. I got a tweet from someone I follow that said:

"Facebook is to the web what Microsoft is to the desktop: mindbogglingly gargantuan, relentlessly mediocre & almost inescapable."

This gives credence to another post I wrote a few weeks ago about Apple snobs (and now that I am 6 days away from being an iPhone user I will have to be really careful not to fall into this technological abyss). But this tweet also tipped me off to a second variety of Twitter snob. That is those who feel that Twitter is superior to Facebook and that Facebook users are somehow the Morlocks of the tech world.

I am on Facebook and Twitter. I do not think either is superior, nor can I even compare the two. To me comparing Twitter and Facebook is like comparing a car hood to a hot sidewalk. Both items will cook an egg. But outside of that, the similarities really stop. So why do I think it's erroneous to compare the two?

• Facebook is a familiar, user-friendly interface that allows people who usually know each other in real life to connect in ways that are usually confined to geography and time. Twitter, in my opinion, is more suited to interactions between people who have never met in person or maybe strictly know each other on a professional level. Have you ever seen someone who has their Twitter account connected to Facebook? When their posts show up on Facebook, nobody comments on them because many times they don't know how to decipher the code lingo or they don't know they are supposed to click the miniature URL.
• Facebook is an online version of real world interaction. People who know each other can correspond about their shared experiences or ones they wish they had shared. Twitter is the online version of a business/professional conference. People share experiences to people they don't really know very well and everything is done with a premise that certain people are following me because I am either in a certain line of work, into a certain hobby, I have a certain religious view, or something else about me that makes me unique.
• Facebook is about stating what's on your mind whereas Twitter is more about being clever. Very few people on Facebook thrive on being profound (or even care about it). However, on Twitter, everyone is either a guru or a re-tweeter of a guru.
• More people use Facebook. Last month, nearly 25% of all internet hits were on Facebook. This is not to say that it's automatically better, but it is to say that it is where people are. Few people would agree that PCs are superior to Macs, but until more people start buying Macs instead of PCs they can get for less than $200, they will always have their place in the market. And while many PC users might learn to love the sleek, smooth, touch-screeny transition to all things with fruit pictures on them, many social media users could care less about the 140 character mini-thoughts filled with too many abbreviations, @user names, and tiny links. They just want to know what their friends are up to and how life is in certain places they can't be right now. And honestly, I don't think Twitter is not the best social media for that. My 80-year old father-in-law is one of my friends on Facebook. Sometimes I post links and he doesn't even realize it is a link to be clicked. But he's on there and we interact. He would never figure out Twitter, but because he somewhat understands Facebook, I think that makes it really appealing.

I did not intend this post to be written in defense of Facebook. But I think it is the nature of all things technological that we feel somehow superior to other people because we use/have certain tech devices, we are able to use our technology certain ways, or that we can speak a language people don't understand. All of this feeds our egos. The bible says in several places that God will exalt the humble. I like this one from Psalm 149.

So do you like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any other social network? Do you feel this form of media is superior to the others? That is great. But please don't look down on other people because they prefer something else. What are your thoughts? Twitter? Facebook? Both?

Social Media as Spiritual Discipline

Every follower of Christ knows (or should know) that this journey we are on is not one of accidental, whimsical, or random actions as we iron out this relationship with our creator, but rather it is intentional. I suppose perhaps one could coast through life without giving much thought to the disciplines of the faith, but it might raise some questions with other Christ followers who were more purposeful about the rites of their faith. I guess I would say this, if faith is a pinball machine, we should be more like the flipper than the ball. We should be doing the acting, rather than being the ones acted upon.

We call these "acts" spiritual disciplines, and they are pretty obvious to anyone who has spent at least a little time in church. Prayer, study of Scripture, and church attendance have for years been considered to be the important spiritual disciplines--and rightfully so. Another discipline that was always difficult for me was journaling. For a while I tried to journal and write down these "aha" moments I had when I was studying the Bible, but often it seemed canned and forced. I felt like every time I sat down with a Bible, I was supposed to have this mind-blowing revelation of truth and to be honest, it didn't always happen...not to mention the fact that my handwriting has been mistaken for ancient cuneiform. Also, I found that when I did journal something, I hardly ever went back to look at what I journaled. It just sat there in its nifty little book. The whole thing was frustrating and felt like in some strange way I was trying to earn my salvation.

But fast forward a few years. The internet and other technologies have taken over all facets of life. And for the longest time I heard about "blogs" but I didn't have a clue what one was. Then after the internet was established, social media came into the picture. Now everyone is on Twitter or Facebook and wouldn't you know I even have a blog. And what is my blog? For me, it's a journal. But rather than journaling every time I study and feeling like I have to write something, I try to be open for those teachable moments when God gives me those glimpses of who He is, then I sit down and write about it. Also, a blog can be shared with others, so maybe the things this spiritually dim-witted and hard-headed sojourner has learned can be of value to someone else. (side note, the blog is also legible because I can type rather than writing in my chicken scratch)

Some people do blog daily, like my online friend Adam McLane who has even written a post about how to blog consistently, which I highly recommend. His article has some great tips on ways he is disciplined in his blogging. If you have never had a blog, it is very easy to do. There are free blog sites (Wordpress , Blogger), where you can write your blog for free without paying any web hosting fees (such as this blog), or with a little web knowledge you can host your own blog on your own domain. In a blog of this type, all the copyright and content belongs to you and can be done for less than $100/year.

So what if you don't have a blog? Are you on Facebook or Twitter? Part of the Christian experience is the idea that we are on this journey together. We may go hear a sermon at church, but in a Sunday School class or a small group we have a chance to interact, discuss, and share our experiences with one another. Social media gives us that ability as well. As followers of Christ, who are we to keep the things we learn about God to ourselves? Surely, if God teaches us something, others will benefit from it if we are just willing to share it. So I want to offer some ways we can make social media a spiritual discipline.

1. Be intentional about sharing spiritual things with others. While we all want to update our status about how we are cheering on our favorite sports team or how we are proud of our child's good grades, be also willing to share what God is teaching you with others, even if it's just in a few sentences.

2. Be willing to pass on what others have learned. None of us have written the book on being a Christian, but there are a lot of other believers just like you and me out there who have been given some tremendous insights about God. Whether it's the pastor of a 20,000 member megachurch or your neighbor down the street, when these people share insights that they've learned about God, repost or retweet them so others can learn, too.

3. Be consistent. You don't have to blog daily like my friend Adam, but be on the lookout for things God is doing in your life and try to share those things on a regular basis. If I learn something while I'm not at a computer, I try to write it down somewhere so I can remember to write about it next time I sit down at my desk. This allows me to share things on a regular basis.

4. Be yourself. I write this because part of social media is being who we are. So if we decide we are going to be more intentional about sharing spiritual insights, that doesn't mean we have to stop sharing about our life experiences, our thoughts and feelings, so that we can be the next Facebook guru who brings peace, comfort, and healing every day to all of our 178 friends. I think if all we ever post or tweet is Bible verses or quotes from great Christian thinkers it becomes a turn-off to those who are not on this journey with us and they begin to formulate opinions of us because we don't seem like we live in the real world. I think it's great to post things about how you are excited about eating at your favorite restaurant or how your favorite baseball team won its first playoff series in the history of the franchise, but if God is an important part of our life, shouldn't we be sharing what we learn about him with others?

So what are your thoughts? How do you use social media to share about what God is teaching you? Have you ever been turned off by someone who used social media for spiritual purposes?

Establishing Boundaries with Technology

I don't remember how many years ago it was that I was introduced to social media. After email, Instant Messaging was the first thing I guess that was considered social media. I can remember thinking, "You mean, my friends can know when I'm online and they can type things to me right then?" This blew my mind. Then I was introduced to a thing called Myspace, then Facebook, then Twitter, and who knows what's next.

How Social Media Has Made Me Lazy and What it Means for the Church

Has social media changed the way people think and experience the world? In 1997 I didn't even have a computer. I was the college kid who either used the school's computer lab or mooched off my friends who did have them. I remember how the internet became this new thing and how you could set up your own free email account. I also remember how cool it was that I could type something and my friend could respond. Not only was there email, but there were websites with all kinds of information about my favorite bands, celebrities, and sports teams. Any time I wanted information about these things, I could just go to www. "thatthing" .com. And that was all well and good for another 10 years or so until the popularity explosion of social media sites, like Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Now my favorite bands, celebrities, and sports teams don't wait for me to come to their website, they send information to me through social media.

While this is a great way to receive information, this has made me lazy (lazier than I already was for those of you who know me). In some ways I'm content just waiting on my favorite feeds to be updated. I find myself, not going out looking for new information, but watching the stream on Twitter or Facebook waiting for new information that might be remotely interesting from someone, somewhere. And I can't help but feel that I'm not alone in this. So what has this paradigm done to the church?

1. We are so plugged into people commenting "about" scripture, that we don't consult scripture itself like we used to. Everyone seems to be concerned with being profound (and some people are or at least they retweet those who are), but in all of this profundity, sometimes we forget about the original substance of all of it-scripture. We all follow church leaders and great Christian thinkers and hang on the tidbits of wisdom they have to share, but what about scripture? I'm not saying that mega-church pastors and authors shouldn't be followed, but we get so excited about something Francis Chan or Rick Warren said, all the while our Bible is sitting on our desk (I'm convicted as I type this).

2. People may be decreasingly seeing the need to attend church as we know it because so much spiritual fodder is delivered right to their favorite tech toy. While the world may come to our fingertips through social media, the gospel demands that we "go." Christianity is proactive. So for the church leader, we must still find ways to impact the world. For the lay person, it means continuing to attend church and being involved as a spiritual discipline, rather than waiting for the kingdom of God to manifest itself through your Blackberry.

3. One-sided monologue sermons may be losing their luster as people are enamored with the interactive "reply/comment" nature of social media. Whether or not the Sunday sermon is becoming a thing of the past remains to be seen, but I do think that many churches are taking strides to explore different models for their services in an attempt to stay culturally relevant. Many pastors are using their Twitter accounts to put out sermon teasers in the days leading up to Sunday, while others are even tweeting during the sermon.

What trends have you seen as social media has impacted people and the church? Do you think things are changing or do you think while some things change, some things are here to stay?