I have written warning posts about Facebook and social media in general for quite a while. There is a new news item today to go along with Sean Parker's comments from a month ago....described below....this one is at the top of Drudge right now titled....."Former Facebook exec: Social media is ripping apart society." The exec is the former vice president for user growth Chamath Palihapitiya. According to the article he feels "tremendous guilt" for ripping apart the social fabric of how society works. Here's a direct quote...."The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops we've created [including the hearts, likes, and thumbs up of various social media channels] are destroying how society works......[There's] no civil discourse, no cooperation; [only] misinformation, mistruth." Sound familiar? I have over two decades of Tabletalks stacked in my basement and received the latest issue yesterday but I think that it is well past time for Ligonier and other excellent Christian ministries to get off of Facebook and thereby send a strong message and warning to Christians.
I'm bringing this post, and a more recent preface to the post, up to the front to highlight some comments that Sean Parker, the founding and former president of Facebook, recently gave in an interview. The article, on The Drudge Report right now, is titled 'Sean Parker unloads on Facebook "exploiting" human psychology. Parker alludes to his part in a "small group of insider voices exposing and criticizing Silicaon Valley's operations" and also the "rising debate about the power and effects of social networks." He cautions..."It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other...It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains." In summary and looking back at his part in Facebook he laments..."We understood this consciously. And we did it anyway."
Well Mark Zuckerberg seems to think that with the church in decline that Facebook might be able to fill the void. It's now being reported that Facebook has two billion monthy users! Hey...I wouldn't worry about it...God has everything all under control....that's the mantra right? We don't have to be overly concerned about anything....don't have to watch out or beware or be vigilant....God's got everything under control....pass the remote. The shepherds did not warn us and we "became food" (Ezek: 34:5) for the social media predators.
Pastors sure can't preach against Facebook because they have their own Facebook page. What are national ministries gonna do....warn us on their Facebook page? We don't want controversy and we don't want to be warned. We want gentle encouragement or we'll go somewhere else.
This generation....I'm not talking about baby boomers or millenials or any other ten year grouping....I'm referring to all of us right now....we have not only sat and watched the downfall of America....we ushered it in. We filled our mind with every conceivable entertainment such that it is nearly impossible to have discernment.
We look at this literal travesty taking place surrounding President Trump as if we had no part in bringing it about. Chaos rules everywhere....not just in the media or some other profession.... everywhere! We are incapable of accurately assessing the damage done to our country. Every navigational instrument on this our ship of state is inoperative. We have no rudder....no sails....no oars....and our captain is out driving golf balls off the stern trying to sink the dinghy CNN .
Meanwhile, back in port, our pulpits utterly refuse to put up any storm warnings for fear that their congregation might actually wind up thinking on their own and move on to another church that actually discerns the signs of the times.
God is indeed in control. We are so sure of that that we tuned Him out. He has warned us so much that one would have to wear blinders and cover their ears not to be aware of it. He is at the door and we are in our PJs sitting on the couch watching American Idol. Folks, it's bad and it's going to get a lot worse...put that on your Facebook page and see how many 'likes' you get. The following post is from March:
Visit My Facebook Page......When Cows Fly
We have a new grandchild.....and he's our first grandchild! When the guys at my work used to come around with pictures of their grandchildren, I'm retired now, I would smile...seem interested in the pics...and make nice comments. I now know what all the excitement was about! But wild horses....wild horses couldn't get me to look at a Facebook page even with pictures of our precious grandchild on it....such is my utter distaste for that social media from it's germination on Harvard's campus to its social media hegemony throughout this world. I'll wait for the Pony Express riders to come in with the mail before I partake of that medium.
Have you read the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the Harvard twins...whatever their names were...and the Napster guy? Have you read any of the enormous amount of research on the harmful effects of Facebook? And the word 'harmful' is an understatement. Have you ever just sat down and thought about what Satan might possibly come up with if he wanted to somnabulize the entire world? Well, you don't have to...he already did! Have you considered....even for a moment or two....the potential tyranny for such a monolithic entity that Facebook has become?
So what can we do? Nothing....sorry to say.....absolutely nothing.....except avoid it....not be a part of it. But alas there are so many good things associated with Facebook! Let me count them.........hmmm.........OK there's nothing good about it. But what about the person who may come across Ligonier Ministries through Facebook where they might never have encountered the gospel elsewhere? OK, so the world is awash in a narcissistic trance through Facebook but a number of people get saved....even Donald Trump wouldn't go for a deal like that! You are essentially telling me....are you not....that God could not find those people without Facebook? God whittled 32,000 of Gideon's men down to 300 but this is different...He needs Facebook.
Hardly a day goes by without a news story coming out on the abuses or inordinate growth of Facebook... or the negative psychological effects. Folks, these are not merely abuses, they are natural outgrowths of the phenomenon, and they will only get worse.
Time alone will have to prove this out. Actually it already has....but apparently more time is needed! In the hands of a Christian ministry Facebook poses no immediate problem....R. C. Sproul shares the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in a marvelous way.....if only that were the extent of it.....but it's not.....it also encourages people to participation in Facebook....and to bring along their children and friends. In other words it perpetuates the problem instead of identifying it and warning of the many and varied potential disastrous consequences to not only individuals but entire nations and the entire world!
I'm bringing this post, and a more recent preface to the post, up to the front to highlight some comments that Sean Parker, the founding and former president of Facebook, recently gave in an interview. The article, on The Drudge Report right now, is titled 'Sean Parker unloads on Facebook "exploiting" human psychology. Parker alludes to his part in a "small group of insider voices exposing and criticizing Silicaon Valley's operations" and also the "rising debate about the power and effects of social networks." He cautions..."It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other...It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways. God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains." In summary and looking back at his part in Facebook he laments..."We understood this consciously. And we did it anyway."
Well Mark Zuckerberg seems to think that with the church in decline that Facebook might be able to fill the void. It's now being reported that Facebook has two billion monthy users! Hey...I wouldn't worry about it...God has everything all under control....that's the mantra right? We don't have to be overly concerned about anything....don't have to watch out or beware or be vigilant....God's got everything under control....pass the remote. The shepherds did not warn us and we "became food" (Ezek: 34:5) for the social media predators.
Pastors sure can't preach against Facebook because they have their own Facebook page. What are national ministries gonna do....warn us on their Facebook page? We don't want controversy and we don't want to be warned. We want gentle encouragement or we'll go somewhere else.
This generation....I'm not talking about baby boomers or millenials or any other ten year grouping....I'm referring to all of us right now....we have not only sat and watched the downfall of America....we ushered it in. We filled our mind with every conceivable entertainment such that it is nearly impossible to have discernment.
We look at this literal travesty taking place surrounding President Trump as if we had no part in bringing it about. Chaos rules everywhere....not just in the media or some other profession.... everywhere! We are incapable of accurately assessing the damage done to our country. Every navigational instrument on this our ship of state is inoperative. We have no rudder....no sails....no oars....and our captain is out driving golf balls off the stern trying to sink the dinghy CNN .
Meanwhile, back in port, our pulpits utterly refuse to put up any storm warnings for fear that their congregation might actually wind up thinking on their own and move on to another church that actually discerns the signs of the times.
God is indeed in control. We are so sure of that that we tuned Him out. He has warned us so much that one would have to wear blinders and cover their ears not to be aware of it. He is at the door and we are in our PJs sitting on the couch watching American Idol. Folks, it's bad and it's going to get a lot worse...put that on your Facebook page and see how many 'likes' you get. The following post is from March:
Visit My Facebook Page......When Cows Fly
We have a new grandchild.....and he's our first grandchild! When the guys at my work used to come around with pictures of their grandchildren, I'm retired now, I would smile...seem interested in the pics...and make nice comments. I now know what all the excitement was about! But wild horses....wild horses couldn't get me to look at a Facebook page even with pictures of our precious grandchild on it....such is my utter distaste for that social media from it's germination on Harvard's campus to its social media hegemony throughout this world. I'll wait for the Pony Express riders to come in with the mail before I partake of that medium.
Have you read the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the Harvard twins...whatever their names were...and the Napster guy? Have you read any of the enormous amount of research on the harmful effects of Facebook? And the word 'harmful' is an understatement. Have you ever just sat down and thought about what Satan might possibly come up with if he wanted to somnabulize the entire world? Well, you don't have to...he already did! Have you considered....even for a moment or two....the potential tyranny for such a monolithic entity that Facebook has become?
So what can we do? Nothing....sorry to say.....absolutely nothing.....except avoid it....not be a part of it. But alas there are so many good things associated with Facebook! Let me count them.........hmmm.........OK there's nothing good about it. But what about the person who may come across Ligonier Ministries through Facebook where they might never have encountered the gospel elsewhere? OK, so the world is awash in a narcissistic trance through Facebook but a number of people get saved....even Donald Trump wouldn't go for a deal like that! You are essentially telling me....are you not....that God could not find those people without Facebook? God whittled 32,000 of Gideon's men down to 300 but this is different...He needs Facebook.
Hardly a day goes by without a news story coming out on the abuses or inordinate growth of Facebook... or the negative psychological effects. Folks, these are not merely abuses, they are natural outgrowths of the phenomenon, and they will only get worse.
Time alone will have to prove this out. Actually it already has....but apparently more time is needed! In the hands of a Christian ministry Facebook poses no immediate problem....R. C. Sproul shares the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in a marvelous way.....if only that were the extent of it.....but it's not.....it also encourages people to participation in Facebook....and to bring along their children and friends. In other words it perpetuates the problem instead of identifying it and warning of the many and varied potential disastrous consequences to not only individuals but entire nations and the entire world!
NOTE: If I could only do one thing with these posts I would want it to be leading people to Ligonier Ministries (ligonier.org).....and I try to do that often.....but there is a lesson here in the last paragraph....not Martin Luther nor John Calvin nor Charles Spurgeon nor Jonathon Edwards nor Billy Graham nor R. C. Sproul.....were or are perfect.....nor would they want to be considered perfect.
