[This, of course, is my response to the question raised by Eric in the directly preceding post. Please feel more than welcome to join our conversation. But in the comments, of course. Please don't try to hack our blog and create an account for yourself. Unless you're Andrew, in which case you should feel free to do so. Anyways, back to the article.]

In the previous post, Eric asked “What is the purpose of Social Media?”* And just to clarify, I think that his question was not meant literally, but was rather asking, “In light of the chief end of man (to glorify God and enjoy Him forever), to what extent ought the Christian participate in social media? Can it be edifying and beneficial, or is it inherently pointless?”** So that’s the question I’m going to attempt to answer.

In my response to Eric’s original post (see the first comment), I established that I don’t believe any of the social media to be inherently wrong, or even inherently frivolous. However, I believe that Christians who choose to engage in social media on the interweb*** need to be careful to not fall into several of the traps that Eric listed–namely, the addictive, self-promoting, and time-wasting nature of many forms of social media. We must make sure that in all our actions, including what we do on the internet, we are living out our purpose (soli deo gloria), and not just doing stuff because we want to. Jonathan Edwards wrote when he was still young, “Resolved, Never, henceforward, till I die, to act as if I were any way my own, but entirely and altogether God’s”–we have been bought with a price. I don’t think we fully realize the seriousness and totality of this call, but if we have resolved that we don’t want to waste our lives–that we want to give God glory with our lives–then we must lay hold of that principle. Edwards’ Resolutions can once again be helpful to us here: he also wrote, “Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can”. If we take serious the call of Christ to take up our cross, deny ourselves, and follow Him, we must adopt a similar attitude to what Edwards expressed.

Now, I want to make a slight caveat at this point to keep from erring on the side of radical asceticism. I am not proposing that Christians can never do anything simply “for the fun of it”. I am not suggesting that all forms of entertainment are inherently wrong. I am not even implying that we should always have spiritual thoughts forefront in our minds. I believe there is a place for doing crazy and/or somewhat pointless stuff for the sake of fellowship and building relationships. I believe there is a time to just kick back and watch a movie or read a book because you’re stressed out and need to just wind down. And I certainly believe that it’s possible to honor God in all things without actually consciously thinking the thought “God, I give you glory in this”. But here’s what I am saying: if we really believe that true joy and true satisfaction and ultimate fulfillment are found in Christ alone, then we must determine what it means to abide in and treasure Christ in the midst of ordinary, everyday life that goes beyond just “having a quiet time”. We must be intentional about what we do with our time and energy and resources, asking “how will this enable me to better love God with my heart/soul/mind/strength?”

Okay, so now to get to the question of social media. Here would be my rule of thumb for the use of social media (and time spent on the internet in general for that matter): am I using this _______ as a tool for the development of the kingdom in my life and/or others’ lives, or is it simply something I do for the fun of it? And if the answer is the latter, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should cut it off altogether, because like I said earlier, I believe there is a time for doing stuff for the fun of it. But I would submit that that amount of time should be severely limited. And I mean pretty severely. I remember in perhaps the best Piper sermon I’ve heard****, he says “If you watch TV and don’t read biographies, then you’re…making a mistake” (he wanted to say worse, I think, but managed to restrain himself). So I think that a decent test to see if we are spending too much time in leisure–just doing things for the fun of it–would be to consider what we are or are not doing, like reading, spending time in serious prayer, carving out intentional time to evangelize, etc. And if we aren’t doing those things, but are spending three or four hours a week on social media just for the fun of it, we might be wasting our lives.

Now, if the answer to the question (tool or pleasure) is that we are using the social media as a tool, then I think we are on the right track to being good stewards of the time God gives us. What remains to ask is how effective we are being with our time, how pure our motives are, and how important the “work” we are doing on said social media needs to be in our priorities. I really appreciate Eric bringing this question up, because those of us who blog and tweet and facebook need to stop occasionally–often, actually–and reevaluate what exactly we are doing and why we are doing it, to ensure that we really do love God with all our hearts, and all our minds, and all our strength, and all our time, and all our resources, and all our blogs, and all our words. Let us not waste our lives, but press on toward the goal, which is to know Christ more.

Soli Deo Gloria

*By “social media”, I’m assuming that he is referring to social networking sites (facebook, twitter, myspace, etc) and the blogosphere. Perhaps this is a slightly flawed definition, but it’ll have to do for now.
**I’m assuming that this was really his question. If not, then I guess you’ll get a nice little unasked spiel from me for free. But I guess everything on Mere is both unasked and free, so it wouldn’t really be anything new.
***I’m pretty sure that at some point, this word originated as an inside joke somewhere, but from what I can tell, has passed into common usage to refer to the internet. Also, I’m trying to jack up my footnote count.
****It’s called “How to Fight for Joy”, I believe. In other news, I’d like to draw your attention to the fact that I’ve reached the point with asterisks that it’s starting to look like I wanted to cuss but edited myself. Which is awesome. #excessivefootnotesftw