Resolution 10 - Vision

Transcribed from our YouTube video:
10 Resolutions for the MediaWise.church - Resolution 10 - Vision

The term “social media” is an oxymoron. Try as it may, it’s just not very social.
 So, why is that? What’s the problem exactly? 

Bear with me for a moment as we consider the two kinds of activity on social media: consumption, and connection.

Social media provides all the opportunities to connect, to engage, to interact, to dialogue.  

With incredible tools that connect us in ways that were impossible to those in all the centuries before us. But in spite of all that - our connections have never been more shallow, our fellowship never more superficial, our communities never more lonely.

Social media fails to live up to its name. So, is this a consumption problem or a connection problem?

It’s true that our online activity naturally defaults to consumption. This is the laziness reminiscent of days gone by when screens could only be used for consuming content, for viewing. This is the modern manifestation of the couch potato tendency in all of us, where after a few hours of scrolling, swiping, and binge watching, we turn off the devices and call it a night, without any meaningful human interaction to speak of. Okay, the problem is consumption. Case closed.

Or is it? Has connecting with one another become so convenient, so commonplace, so without limits or cost, that it has become an insignificant commodity. We take connection for granted, and as is the fate of all things mundane, we just don’t give it any priority. 

Or are we simply overwhelmed with the potential for engagement, and find ourselves paralyzed with indecision or insecurity, preferring to simply wait for someone else to initiate meaningful contact? Okay, the problem is definitely connection.

Or is the content of our consumption so emotionally charged, so fraught with divisive and polarized ideas, tactics all designed to capture our clicks and views, that we get lost in convoluted rabbit holes, lies disguised as facts, with the illusion of value, convincing ourselves that the time spent has been profitable, but ultimately cutting us off from: connection, healthy discourse, and that shared reality with those around us. The problem is consumption.

Or was Solomon expressing profound psychological insights when he wrote “A person of too many friends comes to ruin”. (Proverbs 18:24) That is to say, we simply are not designed to find satisfaction in the transient, erratic, untethered, deluge of micro-engagements that flourish on social media. 

Even when face to face online, it’s not too many minutes into a ZOOM chat before we acknowledge that God did not design us to interact with pixels, blurry and stuttering, faces entirely detached from voices due to the latency of unreliable bandwidth. The problem is connection.

Or is it the overwhelming static of social media, ensuring that we are constantly in a haze, somewhere between the nonsense and the essential, but consistently failing to distinguish between the two.

This is the noise that Switchfoot doesn’t want any part of, when they sing, 

If we're adding to the noise
Turn off this song
If we're adding to the noise
Turn off your stereo, radio, video...

... cell phone. This is the noise that we find difficult to avoid, and so effortless to get caught up in. Jesus warned us about this when he said, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” Matthew 12:36 Worthless noise, that we are both consuming and spewing in abundance.

The problem is consumption, the problem is connection, the problem is misinformation, the problem is information overload, the problem is emotional fragility, the problem is intellectual laziness, the problem is… the problem is… the problem is… us.

With our guards down, without intentionality, social media functions exactly as it is designed… to capture our clicks and views. Our eyes, captive. Our minds, captive. Our hearts, captive. Our buying habits, captive. 

This is not an unintentional side effect of social media, no this is the underlying premise of the algorithms that decide what content you’ll be seeing next. This is the business model that makes you the product, where YOU are sold to the highest bidder, the ones buying the ads. And the more the algorithm knows about you, the more it can generate results for its customers, again not you.

This is the recognition that when you are angry or afraid, you are far more likely to engage and spread content. And so, the gradient slopes towards either end of a very polarized spectrum. Each side, diametrically opposed to one another, each side radicalized and frothing at the mouth, fearful and angry, albeit over almost the exact opposite things. But each side, an army, unknowingly enlisted for underlying economic interests, not that of themselves, the church, or Jesus.

That’s a lot to chew on. I hope you stick with us, in spite of how overwhelming all of this may feel.

Enter the MediaWise.church. Our vision is to equip the church with the necessary tools to identify truth or spin, facts or manipulation, connection or isolation, edification or simply the consumption of noise.

To “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” 2 Corinthians 10:5 To stand firm against the emotional hijacking, the ideological subversion, and the misplaced hopes, that convince people to march down capitol streets and ransack the government.

A vision where the church can take a stand against the polarizing effects of social media and see it for what it is, disorienting, deceiving, dividing, and damaging the Church, your family, and your faith.

The resolve of the MediaWise.church is NOT to put the social back in social media, but to put the wise. A vision for the Church that is not tossed here and there, at the mercy of every wind of thinking, by human cunning, by crafty deceitful schemes. Ephesians 4:14

The resolve of the MediaWise.church is for vision, to gird up our minds for action as 1 Peter 1:13 puts it. That is to say, be prepared for battle. A vision to see the need, and a vision to understand that God’s Word speaks directly to the issues at hand.

Will you resolve to share this vision? Will you join us?