The internet is arguably (and I would say almost definitely) the most significant technological advancement in the history of mankind. Yet as it is still relatively new, we are still learning how to use it. There are many ways we can use the internet for good, but there are also a lot of negatives that it has introduced to our lives and the world around us.
I have been following Chris Martin for a few years because I appreciate his perspective on social media and his warnings about the dangers of it. When I found out that he had a book coming out (Terms of Service), I pre-ordered it from Amazon so I could have it as soon as it was available. So I started this book with some anticipation and high expectations, and it was every bit as good and important as I assumed it would be.
From the book’s description:
Do we use social media, or are we being used by it?
Social media is brilliant and obscene. It sharpens the mind and dulls it. It brings nations together and tears them apart. It perpetuates, reveals, and repairs injustice. It is an untamed beast upon which we can only hope to ride, but never quite corral.
What is it doing to us?
The main theme of this book is a challenge for us to examine our use of the social internet (he explains why he uses the term social internet more often than social media) in order to be aware of how it is affecting us and how we can avoid some of the pitfalls of it.
The entire book was good, but these are a few quotes I wanted to highlight:
“The social internet is designed to be addictive. It is not a neutral tool humans discovered and decided to use nonstop on their own. Since the start, and especially in the more recent iterations, the social internet has been designed with the intent to get people addicted. The people who create the social media apps and websites you use every day and compulsively check at the dinner table, before bed, and while sitting at stoplights want you to become enslaved to these platforms.”
I touched on this point in the lesson on social media that was part of the Social Issues series I put together. Even if something is “lawful” in itself, we are still to guard against being “mastered” by it (1 Corinthians 6:12). The social media sites we use were specifically designed to keep us addicted to them engaged. This doesn’t mean we can’t use social media, but it does mean we need to be aware of how and why we’re using it to make sure the algorithm hasn’t become our master.
“If you are a hard-core Conservative, and your Facebook feed is full of hard-core Conservative articles and opinions, you can’t flip over to ‘hard-core Liberal’ Facebook to see what they’re saying. If you often feel like you are living in a different world from the people with whom you disagree, it’s because you are. Living in our own little ideological worlds is not a new problem, but it is amplified by social media because we have no simple opportunity to peek into the little worlds of people who hold opposing views.”
I think this is probably something that all of us have experienced, even if we didn’t know the cause behind it. If we are ever talking with someone and we have no idea where they’re coming from, this is likely the reason. No two people have the same social media feed. That means the information, opinions, “facts,” and arguments that you are seeing are completely different from the ones that someone with an opposing worldview is seeing. As Christians, it is critically important that we understand this as we are ultimately trying to lead people to the truth that is found in Christ. To convince anyone of anything, we have to start with some common ground. Yet because of social media, any “common ground” could be an illusion. This means we may need to take some more time or be more intentional about understanding where someone is coming from before we can help them.
“One of the major pitfalls to being consumed by the social internet and spending hours scrolling and ‘just checking’ our phones every day is that we neglect a few of our senses and miss out on so much of the beauty around us. Instead of appreciating the beauty in our backyard, we long for the beauty we see as we meander our way through the virtual wax museum of Instagram or yearn for the perfect family we see in photos on Facebook. There is beauty all around us, and we have five different ways to experience it—if we would just set down our phones and go outside.”
Whatever benefit we might be able to gain from social media, it will never replace the people, places, events, and everything else in the world around us. We need to be careful not to let the internet and social media become a substitute for what we can experience in real life.
This book was one of the more important books that I’ve read in the last few years. There are so many good points beyond just the ones I highlighted here. I believe it would be good for every Christian to use the material in this book to evaluate their own social media usage to make sure they are using social media for good, rather than being used by social media. So I definitely recommend this book.
This book is available on Amazon – Terms of Service: The Real Cost of Social Media (affiliate link)
