16 Feb Social Media

A trend of our time is to be a member of a social net work like Whats App, FaceBook, Tweeter etc
To be a member in any of these is a matter of prestige these days for youngsters, middle aged and for some older ones as well. And people ask each other as to how many friends do they have.

Human beings are social beings. Man can’t live in isolation. He needs to communicate as he is a part of a community.
One of the advantages we enjoy is to trace out and be in touch with our old and child hood friends. It was so wonderful to find my school/ college friends and be connected with them. It is great to enjoy the richness of friendship. God’s goodness can be shared with all my friends. We can also find new friends across the globe.

WhatsApp has made it even more advantageous as it is available freely at global level at our finger tips everywhere we go. It’s great to be in touch with our friends globally all the time. As videos and images are posted freely many times it comes at the very moment of desperation.

The communication line is alive with one’s own family members and children. We can update what are the happenings at our side.

We can send good messages to any of our friends, even to friends of other faith. It has no separate expense as such. No travels needed to communicate and so on.

One of the disadvantages of it is to enter into an unhealthy relationship with opposite sexes whether married or unmarried. Many times strange people come closer to each other. Many of them exploit others. A college girl told me once that she was in relationship with a boy whom she had contacted through Face Book. They are in deep love [actually it is infatuation] though they haven’t met each other and have contacts only in the last few months. Photos had been exchanged. But what’s the guarantee that the boy is a boy or an old person/even married one as he is in another country. How can a girl trust this relationship? But girls blindly believe them and get trapped. Some want only money and sex. They misuse photos of girls. And girls’ future will be badly affected and boy’s as well.

This is one of the curses of social media. As it is interactive it is interesting to continue. As the distance is far there is no fear of being verified or caught.

Another thing is self projection. These are the days of Selfiee. And people just put news and details of what and how they cook, eat, what and how they wear dresses and where they went etc, etc. Who has got interest and time areas to read someone else’s personal details? And it has become a place where one’s own photos are uploaded.

People are tempted to look at the messages each time, even while practising Quiet Time. It becomes an addiction. Our spiritual discipline is affected. Some have removed WhatsApp saying it is difficult to manage. However we must have good control of it. We must learn to control anything of that sort.

We have to be well aware of the dangers involved in this and take corrective measures through strict and stringent actions against the misuses of social media.

Nevertheless there is a way we can influence the community if only we are present there. There are some who condemn the social media and say we shouldn’t be part of it. But we can be good influencers in the media if we are present there with selective forwards. Have good images that can influence people about social needs and social evils. It is a very good platform where we can teach people in the group. We can be salt and light in the group. Where ever we are present, darkness cannot prevail and also we can prevent decay as salt.

May God give wisdom to us to be careful and be safe in this kind of media and to love and interact with one another for the glory of God.