Many persons are deeply concerned that online social media is harming us, each as individuals and as a society. For example: it stands accused of coarsening the discourse in our public square, feeding us misleading or outright false information, dividing us and depressing us.
I believe these concerns are legitimate. For example, the web has damaged the media industry I’ve worked in for over twenty years in numerous other ways. I’ve described how the standard and the viability of journalism has been damaged and the way the avalanche of knowledge from podcasts and the plethora of media outlets we now have today means a person can only ever be badly informed.
The lowering in quality of writing and research, and unavoidable narrowing of our range of sources, signifies that there’s justification for the frequent accusations that the mainstream media is biased or poor quality. Yet sadly this might be an inevitable consequence of the web age moderately than anyone’s ‘fault’ specifically.
However social media’s harmful effects on individuals – worsening mental health, promoting tribalism and ignorance, for instance – might be ameliorated by how we elect to have interaction with it. With some intentional adjustments, its effects on us might be transformed from harmful to enlightening, from a spiritual perspective. When social media brings out the worst in us, we will use that awareness to encourage change towards a greater way moderately than treading the identical path.
My Twitter (X) love (hate) story
The title of this text might suggest I believe myself a “good Christian” on X, but that’s demonstrably not the case. X has proved beyond reasonable doubt that many individuals, including myself, should not filled with the love of Christ. At times I might be rude, pontificate on issues I don’t have any business in doing, and get into pointless arguments.
Social media appears to be particularly good at bringing out the worst in people. I actually have sometimes observed even people I do know to be kind and delicate in real life start out on X with numerous positive posts, peacemaking and diplomacy – only to be transformed right into a raging reactionary or radical inside a couple of weeks.
Yes, X has brought out the worst in me at times. It has also exposed me to a few of the worst racism I’ve ever witnessed, and essentially the most unpleasant abuse directed at almost everyone, including myself. For a reasonably mild example, after difficult some harsh rhetoric recently, an anonymous account gave this charming response: “Having read your output, with the upmost respect, you’ll be able to f*** off Heather” – (without the asterisks).
But it’s X’s ability to enrage and provoke that I feel has, surprisingly, produced spiritual fruit in me over time, when combined with prayer and the teachings of Jesus.
Early days
When I first began engaging with people on Twitter in 2010 I might get into heated debates with atheists.
For example, I recall an extended discussion with an anonymous account named ‘Satan de Sade’. Looking back on this exchange, I can see it was unfruitful, mostly just trading insults.
As has often been observed, taking away the flesh-and-blood person in front of you one way or the other makes it a lot easier to be rude. Now I rarely discuss anything unless I can perceive that a friendly and constructive discussion is feasible.
But the chats that brought out the worst in me were a great step towards change. The more that Twitter entrapped me in this manner, the more I became aware of my tendency to lash out and be defensive about my opinions. As a Christian, the words of Jesus present a worthy red warning light on such behaviour: “in the event you are even indignant with someone, you might be subject to judgement! If you call someone an idiot, you might be at risk of being brought before the court. And in the event you curse someone, you might be at risk of the fires of hell” (Matthew 5:22, NLT).
This type of challenge should bring us to our knees. Only a short while in prayer is required to explore the roots of this sort of argumentative behaviour on social media: anger and pride, which manifests in the assumption that your individual opinions are worthy of the respect of others. Inner resentment is dropped at light by having a web-based outlet for inner frustration. This catharsis might be not a great thing in itself, unless it proves to be the impetus for change.
These bad attitudes and lurking sins might otherwise have been hidden, but can as an alternative be dissected and delivered to God in prayer. 2 Corinthians 13:5 says: “Examine yourselves to see in case your faith is real. Test yourselves. Surely that Jesus Christ is amongst [in] you; if not, you could have failed the test of real faith.”
As the eccentric charismatic pastor Dan Mohler often asks: “If you might be squeezed, does Jesus come out?” X revealed to me that once I’m squeezed, Jesus doesn’t come out. Therefore, prayer and repentance was required, and a daily renewing of my commitment to follow Christ as Lord, moderately than my very own ego.
I can still respond in a rude or condescending way at times on X. But over time I actually have noticed that I’m less inclined to provide a knee-jerk response when someone is incredibly rude or expresses an opinion I consider to be ridiculous. On a great day, I can let it go completely, and feel no irritation or negativity in any respect, even love them. I don’t think that this progress would have been made if I had not been tested within the crucible of Twitter abuse and acrimony.
Ganging together
Another spiritual commentary is how easy it’s to develop into ‘tribal’ on social media, and the way identifying with a gaggle can sometimes remove all reason and kindness from an individual.
It doesn’t matter what that group is – Christian, atheist, Democrat, Republican, Tory, Labour, transgender activist or gender critical, conservative or liberal. All can gang together of their hatred for the “other”.
It seems particularly acute when the tribe has a way of their very own moral superiority – which some people in all of those groups are liable to feel about themselves, because they’re coping with essential ethical issues.
I actually have at times felt a tribal urge to associate with various different groups on different sides at various cut-off dates as my views have modified. I used to be once liberal and left wing, now more conservative. I once was not religious, now I’m a Christian.
My own experience is that the inner mechanisms and temptations are the identical. Our sinful natures wish to feel superior to others, and to accomplish that we criticise and even denigrate other people, dismiss their opinions and experiences, and elevate our own group and beliefs. Most people don’t show this trait to an obvious extent. But through prayer and reflection, I feel that almost all mild criticism or labelling in a negative way has not less than a grain of this tendency.
Like argumentativeness, I discovered that bringing this temptation into the sunshine was step one to vary to be less tribal and as an alternative feel and express like to all groups. When stepping outside of the “boxes”, it’s easier to see how the worst behaved people in each group are acting very much like those in others, as stating the sins of others is a lot easier to discover than in ourselves.
What appears to be happening in the web world is that while extremism flourishes on all “sides”, those in each group are mostly just concerned with others and ignoring what is happening in their very own “tribe”, which is one reason why it could possibly be getting worse.
But Jesus’s words in Matthew 7:3-5 are truly smart and potentially revolutionary: “Why worry a couple of speck in your friend’s eye when you could have a log in your individual? How can you’re thinking that of claiming to your friend, ‘Let me provide help to eliminate that speck in your eye,’ when you’ll be able to’t see past the log in your individual eye? Hypocrite! First eliminate the log in your individual eye; then you definately will see well enough to cope with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
This helped me to see that we’re all in the identical boat, and all of us succumb to the identical vices. I’m just as susceptible as anyone else, inside or outside my particular social and political groups. The first step then is to work on myself, moderately than worrying concerning the wrongs of others.
But while Christians might be just as guilty of the dynamics of tribalism that feeds on pride, anger and hatred as anyone else – we do have a novel path of redemption and correction. When we discover ourselves arguing or criticising, we will stop, look inside, and repent of the roots of such behaviour: searching for the gorgeous love of Christ in our hearts through prayer.
And so X has helped me to be more capable of resist this sort of sin and seek the best way of Jesus, though I actually stray off the trail more times than I would really like. But every time I accomplish that, I can learn more from Christ about love, if I bring the issue to him to cope with.
With the wisdom of Jesus, especially from his extraordinary Sermon on the Mount, our latest online social arenas can develop into higher places to be. Christ can redeem all places and communities, and X is not any exception. Which, it must be said, it desperately needs.
Heather Tomlinson is a contract Christian author. Find more of her work at https://heathertomlinson.substack.com or via X (twitter) @heathertomli
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