Jun 2, 2015
Sharing the Journey with You
Pastor Scott Hausrath
North Loup, NE
Recently I was asked if social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) are a blessing or a curse. I think they can be both. They’re like prescription drugs, since they can bless us powerfully, or harm us severely. It depends on how we use them. Wisdom and self-discipline are key.
Part of wisdom is knowing why we’re doing what we’re doing. About four years ago I stopped using Facebook because it had become an addiction for me. I would waste a lot of time by trying to keep up on everything my friends were doing. There’s nothing wrong with being connected with others. Indeed, God created us for connection. However, I was allowing these connections to take over my life. That’s when I knew I was addicted, so I pulled the plug on my FB account.
The problem was that I had never stopped to think why I was spending so much time on Facebook. My mistake was that I had been prioritizing online connections above in-person connections. This was easy to do, because so many of my friends live hundreds and thousands of miles from me.
More recently I’ve been learning how to set wiser priorities. I’m realizing the importance of focusing more on those connections where I am actually with people. Yes, I still want to hear what’s going on with distant friends, and I still want to interact with them online, but it would be a mistake for me to focus more on these relationships than on my local relationships.
Proverbs 27:10 tells us not to go to our relative’s house when disaster strikes us. It says that a neighbor nearby is better than a relative far away. The context of this passage is disaster, but the verse still brings up the notion that we have a choice to make when we’re looking for connection with others. Sometimes connecting with distant friends online will take precedence over a local connection. This, however, should be the exception, not the rule.
Setting wiser priorities has enabled me to start using Facebook again, without allowing it to take over my life. This has been a wonderful lesson for me.
When it comes to utilizing social media, not only is wisdom key, but so is self-discipline. One of the biggest challenges I have regarding Facebook, for example, is to realize that there’s a time to access it, and there’s a time not to access it. For example, when I’m writing a sermon, lesson, article, etc., I need to focus my thoughts on that one project. Checking my FB news feed at that time is more of a distraction than a blessing. It’s a very tempting thing to do, because I love hearing what’s going on in my friends’ lives, so I need self-discipline to keep my thoughts focused on the task at hand.
Social media are amazing tools, and they have revolutionized our everyday lives. Let’s just make sure that it’s a revolution of enhancement, not a revolution of distraction.
