Social media is often accused of making society more narcissistic and self-centered. Although there is truth embedded in the diagnosis, I argue against the treatment that is often prescribed. The disease does exist but the underlying problem is not the technology – it is us.
In many ways, social media is a technology that has given everyone a platform and a megaphone. It allows everyone a voice without filter or control. As a result, the megaphone amplifies what we all, unfortunately, have always cared most about – ourselves. These megaphones are addicting, ubiquitous, frustrating and, I would argue, hopeful.
In many ways, social media has taken the web of the Internet and placed interconnected megaphones of self-expression everywhere. This reality frustrates us and, as a result, we protest, complain and even threaten to give up social media completely. We consider and contemplate putting the megaphone down in protest.
Before you give up on social media and put the megaphone down, try turning it around.
There are reasons people are posting information about themselves on their social media channels. People desire to be heard, loved, respected, etc. Social media provides a unique and amplified opportunity to express these needs but it also provides a unique and amplified opportunity to hear what is going on in the lives of our friends, family, and culture.
I often picture social media as millions of people with megaphones shouting words, ideas, pictures, links, etc. at each other in amplified fashion. But what would it look like if we took that same technology and turned it around, allowing us hear the hurts, challenges, successes, desires, etc. of our friends, family, and culture? What would it look like for God to use us in amplified fashion through our amplified listening and awareness of others? What would it look like to use social media in a way that allows us a unique and amplified view of what God is doing in our world?
Before you give up on social media and put the megaphone down, try turning it around.
