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Blogging: a subtle appeal to human pride?
In a world of pervasive blogging and social media Andy Wharhol's 1968 prediction that "everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" has lost non of its allure. Is the desire for public attention now invading the church?
by Watchman
 COMMENTING on the practice of blogging, the broadcaster Andrew Marr opined:
"A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate pimpled, single, slightly-seedy, bald, cauliflower-nosed young men sitting their mothers' basements and ranting. They are very angry young people."
Marr qualifies his observation by referring to 'a lot' of bloggers who 'seem to be'. So he is referring to many, not all; and to his perception rather than proven fact. Having said that he is probably not too far off the mark.
However there are many - an increasing number even - who do not fit Marr's description. Many professional journalists and business people make good and – for their readers – helpful observations on current issues.
Who cares about domestic trivia?
But then there are others. Even amongst those newspaper columnists who have something interesting, amusing or informative to say there are othes who seem to think that the average reader has the time or interest to read about what their cat had for breakfast or their baby doing a whoopsie on the carpet - or the other way round.
It's banal and it's boring, but it also worse that that. This form of behaviour illustrates a facet of the human psyche – the need to be noticed; and the inate pride which suggests that the world is poised on tiptoes to learn which brand of toothpaste the writer uses.
Now please don't misunderstand me, there is nothing whatsoever wrong with a blether over a cup of coffee, or its equivalent over the phone or on a Facebook page. It's when the time spent doing these things consume hours of our day or become an addictive form of pride which believes that the world will be bereft it is denied its daily dose of our received wisdom that the difficulty and problem arises.
How we spend our time...
In an earlier age someone once said that you can tell who a person's god is by looking at their cheque stubs and diary. The message being that how we spend our discretionary time and money shows where we place our values.
So, the question is just how much time is being spent by the followers of Christ in front of computer screens or on mobile phones in order to read or write about trivia.
Amongst those who are the most vulnerable to the seduction of social media are the socially-maladjusted youths of Andrew Marr's perception. But is there a wider spectrum of people caught up in all of this? Could it be me? Could it also be you?
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Watchman, 02/02/2011 |
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| | | Rosemary Cameron | 21/02/2011 19:09 | If my minister gave me the 'facebook or the church' ultimatum I would leave the church! Not because I'm a facebook addict but because I won't put up with a dictator. Fortunately my minister and his wife are both my facebook friends.
Anyone who uses facebook regularly will know that it is constantly changing and, for every change, someone usually posts information on how to get round the change! It may be that facebook is influencing us but, equally, it is responding to us - they make changes in response to how we use it.
At the end of the day, it's just a tool.
| | | | Martin Lisemore | 21/02/2011 22:51 | I go back to my point about technology and the way we use it.
Rosemary, we agree yet again. Ministers are not dictators, well, not in my book, and I've met a few who thought that was their role. I will not be told what to do, think or say by any man or woman. That's a matter for my conscience, and the relationship between God and myself.
I've had a minister tell me I should wear a three piece lounge suit on Sunday when I didn't own one, and couldn't afford one. Does that exclude me from fellowship? Perhaps I made the church look shabby!
Let's get real here. The minister in question may have had a point, but to rule by dictat from the pulpit? I don't think so. If he felt his fellowship was threatened by Facebook, or any other internet service, a good, strong sermon would have laid the foundations for something better.
I do have some sympathies with the minister. But if he can't handle the wired world, then don't pronounce on it from the pulpit.
It's really up to us and our conscience how we use the wired world. There's opportunity for all sort of mischief, but succumb, we must not!
| | | | RF (Guest) | 22/02/2011 09:12 | 'The wired world' I like that ML.
The wired,weird, wonderful, worrying and very wanting world.
| | | | Martin Lisemore | 22/02/2011 09:54 | That's a yes to all that, Roland.
The more correct form for the consumer wired world is, digitally interconnected consumer media. Not got the ring of wired world.
| | | | Peter Carr | 22/02/2011 12:49 | Rosemary said, "At the end of the day, it's just a tool."
Really? From my experience it is proving a very dangerous tool for both Christians and non alike. It is being used in a malicious way, as well as to keep unhelpful tabs on others and their relationships (or lack of them)!!
| | | | Penny Lee | 22/02/2011 14:02 | Peter,
A chainsaw is just a tool. It can be used to cut someone from a mangled vehicle or to commit a massacre. It is the hands that use it which determine whether it is used for good or evil, which is the same as the internet.
| | | | Pawlo | 22/02/2011 14:49 | Mat 18;7-8
"Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire."
So are all these things Benign?
Hmm, well that chainsaw could come in handy!
| | | | Penny Lee | 22/02/2011 16:01 | Paul,
Just about everything in our modern world can be (and usually is) also used for a sinister purpose. Does this mean we should have nothing to do with any of them? Each person has different temptations and I agree that, if you feel tempted to be looking at websites which are not wholesome, then maybe it is better that you don't have the internet at all. That is no different to, say, alcohol. A recovering alcoholic would be advised not to have alcohol in their house whereas someone else could have a bottle of wine in their cupboard for months and take only the occasional glass with a meal.
We all need to take responsibility for ourselves and make sure that we do not make it easy to indulge our particular temptations. Removing that temptation to sin is the equivalent of "cutting off our hand" or "plucking out our eye". However, we shouldn't expect everyone else to cut off their hands too! If someone you know told you that they had got into serious debt ringing sex chat lines and had got rid of their phone, would you throw yours away as well? I doubt it!
| | | | Martin Lisemore | 22/02/2011 16:07 | This is not a note I really want to introduce into this debate but ...
Does anyone not read books, even the Bible? It's printing technology that helped fuel the Reformation.
Does anyone not use electricity? That was demonised in the beginning. Now we use it to beam the gospel across the world.
Does anyone not ever watch a TV programme. There's false prophets galore on all the channels, not just the god-squad, though that's bad enough. East enders is reshaping the popular morality of this nation faster than Blair ever could, calling sinfulness goodness. Does that prevent us having a TV and watching a Godly programme?
I won't go on, the point is made.
No technology is benign, just grab a live wire to prove it. Put that same electricity to use and it will keep food fresh, start your car so you can drive to Church, amplify a soft spoken speaker so he may be heard through the building ...
Paul, the second phrase in your quote is the most important. 'but woe to the man through whom they come!' It's the Godless people who make available porn, gambling and other evils using a technology through whom such evil comes. The fact that there are books of magic, murder, porn etc., doesn't stop us reading a printed Bible.
The chainsaw mentioned above: I have one, a 24", used to cut wood for my stove for winter.
The responsibility is down to the user. In my view branding most everything evil when the fact is it could likely be a gift of God is a dangerous fundamentalist viewpoint that takes us back to the Dark Ages of witch hunts, and ever decreasing circles of mind control by fear, spread by the few to control the many, and that in God's Name.
Begins to sound a little like the Catholic church, doesn't it?
Wouldn't we be better to put more effort into evangelism and speaking out against society's excesses and evils rather than branding so much as evil?
| | | | Pawlo | 22/02/2011 17:02 | OK, I wasn't expecting that to be taken so seriously as it was a little tongue in cheek, but yes I agree with you Andrea on that.
And yes I'd agree with you Martin, I've given up on loathing modernity and have you lot on CT to thank/blame for that! ;)
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