In my last blog post I touched lightly on people’s preference for online social interaction over and above personal, real life relationship building. This week, MWEB was the first internet service provider (ISP) in South Africa to announce the roll out of cheap, uncapped ADSL internet in South Africa. Ten years after the fact, South Africa has joined the digital revolution. In short, internet penetration is set to become a nationwide phenomenon, and not limited to the 8 million or so current internet users.

 

Naturally, more and more people are likely to gravitate towards Facebook, and this social networking tool is gaining more and more cultural credence. Which is why this topic deserves a second look.  What people say on Facebook is more and more likely to become part of conversation “offline”. How you represent yourself on Facebook matters more with every new Facebook user. So you’re a Christian, how do you get that across on Facebook?

 

Well, in a nutshell, Facebook might not be the best place for you to communicate explicitly that you’re a Christian person. Why the heck would I say something like that?

 

For the average person, the highest level of their interaction with the Facebook interface is the updating of their personal “status feed”, or commenting on the status feeds of other people.

 

So at a base level, Facebooking (to coin an adverb) is a narcissistic activity. It’s all about me, and how I want you to perceive me. Many people would respond to this point that our Facebook profiles must, just like the rest of our lives, be an extension of our worship to God. I absolutely agree. But consider this:

 

Recent sociological studies of Facebook point to the fact that the typical Facebook user interacts online with a choice group of six people on average. So you’ll forgive the other three hundred or so for occasionally misconstruing exactly what it is that you’re trying to get across on your Facebook status update.

 

Many might suspect that the message you’re sending into the ether via your status update is aimed at bolstering your ego. It wouldn’t be a bad starting point for guess work, almost all of us, present company included, are guilty of it.

 

What’s more, even if every one of your status updates were to somehow avoid the pitfalls of self-worship and pride, there’ll be a total six people out of hundreds who have any chance of gauging the depths of your sincerity.

 

And that’s why it’s dangerous to make a habit of sending a constant stream of triumphant Christian rhetoric out onto the Facebook platform. If your secular friends (and most of your Christian friends) have a tacit agreement that Facebook status update time is a drawn-out-ego-stroking exercise, then it won’t be too much of a logical feat to tie Christianity together with our egos in their minds.

 

Where you might have intended honest and sincere expression, you may be sowing seeds of resentment against Christ and His allegedly smug followers.

 

So then, how do you make your Facebook profile a sound Christian witness? Consider the actions of the world, and then do the opposite. If everyone is revelling in their own petty glory on Facebook, be humble. Overall humility speaks louder than a written or verbal proclamation of victory, so to speak.

 

We could all do that more often, and I am highest on the guilty list.