Social Networks

Social Media is so negative - which is why I advocate for remaining

I have heard so many people these days tell me that they are not getting on social media because it is full of anger and hate. Which can be true. If you look at my Facebook feed you will see comments and stories that are full of rage and pain. It is not always easy to look at and read through, it is depressing. 

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Social contagion is this idea that things in society move through groups similar to viruses. We have all experienced the "contagious yawn." And just like yawns there are other things that we don't think can be contagious ARE contagious. It turns out things like quitting smoking are contagious. So are things like frowning and smiling and even body temperature. 

Knowing this, that there are things that are contagious, it gives me a tool to remember when I tend to social media. Yes, negative things can be contagious - BUT so can the hopeful. While social media may not be the exact same as the unclean places of Jesus' day, for some, social media is an undesirable place to hang out. And just like Jesus hung out at the undesirable places with the unclean people/ideas, maybe Christians need to consider the ways we interact with social media and not run.

Do not forget, you are more contagious than you think.

#umcgc Twitter Feed and our Church

First of all I am sorry to anyone who was on the #UMCGC Twitter feed for a bit this day who saw images that were not appropriate. It was not too many (I think I saw 1/2 a dozen or so) but one is too many. These images were created and posted by spammers and no one from the General Conference.

When this happens on Twitter, there are a couple of options. 1) The people can decide to change the way they label (known as tagging) tweets so the inappropriate images do not appear or 2) people can clean up the current tag and report the spammers. 

What was interesting is there were those on Twitter who wanted to split from the original #UMCGC tag while there were others who asked people to report and block the spammers.

Cleaning up a Twitter feed takes time and it is not immediate, it takes about 30 minutes and it also requires individuals to stay on top of it to report every piece of spam that may show up. Additionally, once the feed is cleaned up, there must be a rebuilding of trust among the users to use the original tag. There is a hesitation to look/use that tag in the event that the inappropriate images appear again. 

The group that wanted to break away to start a new tag (#gc2016) forget to remember is that spammers will find that tag as well. Then they will have to create a new tag, only to be exposed to spammers again. 

Unless we are willing to do the hard and continuous work we will always be breaking off to start new Twitter tags. We will never able to have a pure and unified Twitter tag for users that is always safe and following the orthodox intent of creators of the hashtag.