{"id":4881,"date":"2020-11-18T14:35:34","date_gmt":"2020-11-18T21:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/?p=4881"},"modified":"2023-08-09T11:34:36","modified_gmt":"2023-08-09T17:34:36","slug":"stop-deleting-your-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicsquaremag.org\/media-education\/stop-deleting-your-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"Stop Deleting Your Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you heard the news?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s happened again.\u00a0 In your own neighborhood.\u00a0 With someone in another family just like yours.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Pushed to the brink.\u00a0 Unable to go on the same any longer.\u00a0 Unable to endure the vitriol, the anger, the preening comparisons, and the nonsense.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Until that person felt there was no other way. And so…they did it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

They deleted their Facebook account.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Can you really blame them?\u00a0 When was the last time you spent an hour on social media and came away saying to yourself, <\/span>\u201cAhhh, I feel so much better now about my life!\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

In the first study to quantify the effect of Facebook on everyday life, <\/span>researchers from Yale and the University of California<\/span><\/a> monitored actions of over 5,000 adults across two years (between 2013 and 2015) doing what we do on social media\u2014clicking, liking, updating statuses, scrolling\u2014 while also tracking a range of measures of life satisfaction, emotional health, and even body mass index.<\/span><\/p>\n

The result? Overall, they found that \u201cwhile real-world social networks were positively associated with overall wellbeing,\u201d the use of Facebook was \u201cnegatively associated with overall wellbeing.\u201d\u00a0 This was especially the case, they noted, when it came to mental health.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, there we have it, right? What more do you need to hear?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is not to a Great Comfort that disciples of Jesus Christ have been called.\u00a0 It is to a Great Commission.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

How about <\/span>this from Elder David A. Bednar<\/span><\/a> speaking to an audience of Latter-day Saints in 2014:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What has been accomplished thus far…communicating gospel messages through social media channels is a good beginning\u2014but only a small trickle. I now extend to you the invitation to help transform the trickle into a flood. Beginning at this place on this day, I exhort you to sweep the earth with messages filled with righteousness and truth\u2014messages that are authentic, edifying, and praiseworthy\u2014and literally to sweep the earth as with a flood.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s not just Christians, of course, that have things of great worth to share with the world.\u00a0 Imagine what would happen if everyone had a chance to share<\/a> what they found to be good, true and beautiful with the world?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We do believe that Christians have a special responsibility to share a special message, though.\u00a0 And in view of that, it’s not to a Great Comfort that disciples of Jesus Christ have been called.\u00a0 It is to a Great Commission<\/span>\u2014reiterated to multiple people in multiple places and times, but most famously to eleven apostles on a mountain in Galilee <\/span>where the resurrected Lord said<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

Go ye therefore, and teach [or \u201cmake disciples of\u201d] all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How are we to do this?\u00a0 The same as disciples from the beginning\u2014<\/span>in any way we possibly can.\u00a0 <\/span><\/i>\u00a0In summarizing their own efforts to fulfill this same command, <\/span>the Sons of Mosiah report in the Book of Mormon<\/span><\/a>:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have come, and been forth amongst [the people they hoped to teach]….yea, we have traveled from house to house…And we have entered into their houses and taught them, and we have taught them in their streets; yea, and we have taught them upon their hills; and we have also entered into their temples and their synagogues and taught them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For most of human history, this was the only way to share the message of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 House by house.\u00a0 Door by door.\u00a0 Occasionally in a synagogue\u2014or perhaps standing on<\/span> a wall in the city.<\/span><\/p>\n

What would these disciples have thought about standing out on a Facebook wall?\u00a0 Would they have scoffed and turned away in disgust at the vitriol that some people post back in response?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That certainly didn\u2019t <\/span>stop them in real life<\/span><\/a>:\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We have been patient in our sufferings, and we have suffered every privation…We have been cast out, and mocked, and spit upon, and smote upon our cheeks; and we have been stoned, and taken and bound with strong cords, and cast into prison; and through the power and wisdom of God we have been delivered again.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

None of this sounds fun.\u00a0 So, why keep at it when so much nonsense comes back at you?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Because of <\/span>the one <\/span><\/i>you might still reach, <\/span>as they went on to say<\/span><\/a>, \u201cAnd we have suffered all manner of afflictions, and all this, that perhaps we might be the means of saving some soul.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As elaborated in other Latter-day scripture, <\/span>the Lord told the early Saints<\/span><\/a>, \u201cIf it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Cannot this kind of sharing best happen one-by-one, and especially face-to-face?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, it can! And should. However we can reach others in need around us, we should try.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But how are we to find those in need?\u00a0 And in what ways can we best determine what it is people are seeking for and what is on their hearts?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These are the age-old questions\u2014questions about which our new-fangled tech (for all its flaws and gaping misapplications) has something important to say.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What if, rather than just scrolling our news feed for any new titillating factoid or entertaining soundbyte, we were looking for something very different?\u00a0 <\/span>What if, rather than approaching social media to compare our own life negatively to whatever we see, our eyes were trained and hearts focused on discerning something else?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Signs of need. Or suffering. An openness. Or an opportunity.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To support.\u00a0 To encourage.\u00a0 To love.\u00a0 To lift.\u00a0 To teach.\u00a0 To share.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If <\/span>that\u2019s <\/span><\/i>what we were looking for on social media\u2014rather than mere distraction or entertainment\u2014do we really think that engagement would harm our mental health?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No, it wouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 (Nor was that what participants were doing in the aforementioned study).<\/span><\/p>\n

Within certain bounds, this kind of engagement might lift our spirits\u2014and who knows, might even make a difference for someone else?\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean, of course, that we need to become \u201csocial media experts or fanatics\u201d as <\/span>Elder Bednar cautioned<\/span><\/a>\u2014adding, \u201cwe do not need to spend inordinate amounts of time creating and disseminating elaborate messages.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He went on to cite <\/span>President M. Russell Ballard who likewise cautioned<\/span><\/a> that \u201chandheld devices, such as smartphones, are a blessing, but they can also distract us from hearing the \u2018still, small voice.\u2019 They need to be our servants, not our masters.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bottom line:\u00a0 Not all activity on Facebook is the same\u2014something President Ballard went on to underscore by the following illustration: \u201cFor example, if later tonight you share inspiring thoughts from this devotional on social media, your smartphone is a servant. If you randomly surf the Internet, your smartphone is a master.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While certainly we can all share goodness in other ways\u2014through a text, a call, an email, a knock on the door, these things need not be in opposition to sharing online.\u00a0 On the contrary, <\/span>new efforts to minister in the Church of Jesus Christ have underscored a spectrum of ways<\/span><\/a> to connect, support, and minister – with online touchpoints often leading to in-person opportunities (and vice-versa\u2014with in-person opportunities often followed-up on more easily online).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In-person and virtual communication can thus become complementary methods to achieve the same thing…especially when held in balance.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But rather than calling on people to reject and forsake social media, what have prophetic leaders invited <\/span>and modeled in <\/span>their<\/span> own<\/span> lives<\/span>?<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote><\/div>\n

In fairness, that balance can be hard to come by. And it\u2019s also true that the addictive, entertaining-elements of social media <\/span>have <\/span><\/i>threatened to eclipse meaningful activities in people\u2019s lives, as attested by other studies. <\/span>President Ballard went on to raise concern<\/span><\/a> that \u201cexcessive text messaging, Facebooking, tweeting, and Instagramming are replacing talking\u2014talking directly one to another and talking in prayer with our Heavenly Father and thinking about the things that matter most in life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But rather than calling on people to reject and forsake social media, what have prophetic leaders invited <\/span>and modeled in their own lives<\/span><\/a>? <\/span>\u00a0To use these channels in a Godly way, with a laser-focus on achieving inspired, uplifting purposes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After explaining how missionaries were sent on sailing ships in the 1830s, then steamships in the 1860s, and airplanes in the 1960s, <\/span>President Ballard explains<\/span><\/a>: \u201cThe Church has always adopted advances in technology to help push the work of the Lord forward.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Will you as well? Don\u2019t feel bad if you feel great hesitancy in saying yes. For instance:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n