24-7 Rewind - Life in the movement for Tuesday, 11 February 2014

24-7 Rewind - Life in the movement for Tuesday, 11 February 2014 24-7 Prayer Rewind - Social Media and the Approval Addiction
In this weeks feature we look at the impact of social media and society's growing online presence. 10 years following the launch of Facebook - have we become approval addicts? http://24-7prayer.com/features/2190
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Social Media and the Approval Addiction
Nick Beasley
We lived on farms, then we lived in cities, and now we're going to live on the Internet - The Social Network, 2010
This week saw the 10th anniversary of Facebook and the revelation that the social media platform, launched from a university dorm room just a decade ago, is now used by 1/6 of the world’s population.
Social media isn’t just a reality of the 21st century; it’s shaping peoples realities in the 21st century.
At the beginning of 2013, when the population of the earth had surpassed 7 billion people, The Huffington Post reported that, to date, 163 billion tweets had been sent, 625,000 people were joining Google+ every day, 5 million photos were being uploaded to Instagram every 24 hours and that Facebook’s 1 billion users have listened to over 210,000 years worth of music on the site. And all that was over 12 months ago. 
So The Social Network was right. Only now the tense has shifted from the future to the very present. There isn’t any ‘going to’ about it anymore; we are living our lives on the Internet.
And as it was in the farms and the cities, if we don’t understand this new way of life, we can find ourselves lost in it. And in this newly digitized generation, arguably the greatest threat to our integrity, our self-belief and our faith, is ourselves.
In John Ortberg’s The Life You’ve Always Wanted, he speaks of peoples “bondage to what others think of them”. This ‘Approval Addiction’ manifests itself in people’s desire to actively gain approval from others, regarding their appearance, their opinions and their personality. It drives them to compare themselves to others and mark their own successes according to the successes of those around them.
Now, over a decade since John Ortberg wrote those words, we find ourselves in a society where we, as addicts, can find a constant fix. We aren’t restricted to working hours to compare ourselves to our peers; we have the ability to trace, study and ‘Facebook stalk’ every hour of the day. We can read the thoughts and conversations of those we only know from a distance and have the same done to us, as we each become celebrities of our own walls and newsfeeds.
Yet, it’s within this place of near limitless potential for self-esteem crushing, that we so often try to find vindication.
How many times have we ranked the worth of things we’ve said and done according to ‘likes’ and ‘Retweets’? And how often have we judged the worth of others in the same way?
We need to remember how it tends to work online.
We rarely present the lives we really live; we present streamlined versions of ourselves, concentrated down to the good stuff. We only post photos where we look good, we only tag ourselves in places it looks like we’d be having fun and we have an inordinate amount of time to craft clever witticisms and articulate them as if they’ve rolled off the tongue.
This is how it is for almost all of us. But what we forget what that actually means.
If our own ‘presented lives’ aren’t true to ourselves , they have no power to alter our own self-perception. However, when others do the same; that snap shot of their life is all we get. We have no reason to doubt that they’re not extremely fun and attractive people because we have no evidence tweeted to the contrary. 
And our false perception of others impacts the perceptions we have of ourselves.
Comparing our own reality with someone else’s imagined reality is an entirely natural but entirely unhelpful thing to do. If the source of our vindication is unstable, so is the vindication, and we can’t rely on the unreliable.
 “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself… It is the Lord who judges me.”-- 1 Corinthians 4 v 3-4
Social media is a wonderful thing. We’ve found a way to connect with each other and with society instantaneously. Walls have been broken down and bridges have been built by social media; on an international scale. We can learn more, connect more and grow as people, every hour of the day. 
But as with most wonderful things, (fast cars, Big Macs, religion), we can use them wrongly and use them for harm.
We have to approach social media as we approach all things; with a heart for God.
If social media is shaping a generation, then in order to take that generation, our generation, seriously, we have to take social media seriously. And this involves active participation. 
For many of us, learning how to function properly on line is an important part of our Christian lives. As a church and as individuals it’s crucial to engage with the digital side of life. 
It is a powerful, authentic tool for the mission of the church. And that means it’s our responsibility to understand this new language, with all its customs and etiquettes. 
That is how we integrate ourselves into a generation, and help to lead a generation.
We just need to make sure we’re using it right.
All images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms:
Feature image is a derivative of the image 'Intruding on a selfie' by Michael Coghlan, 'Selfie' by Still ePsiLoN  'Malaysia Night 2013' by Garry Knight and 'DSC_0127' by AnaManzar08
Nick Beasley is an English Literature graduate who spent a year studying at the London Film Academy before joining the 24-7 Prayer Communications team. He’s mostly interested in films and music and is a Manchester United fan, though he has no geographical right to justify his allegiance.  
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Blogging
24-7 Rewind The God Story now available in the 24-7 Shop
Nick Beasley
The first time I heard The God Story, I was riveted to the core... it's something I wish I could get into the hands and hearts of everyone in our generation Jonathan David Helser - International Worship Leader The God Story is now available as a direct download through the 24-7 Shop. Created by Adam Cox (the Team Leader of the Kansas City Boiler Room) it offers a chronological, narrative study approach to Scripture, covering the entire bible - from Genesis to Revelation. Spanning across 5 sessions and totalling 9 hours and 20 minutes (pretty impressive, considering it covers the whole Bible), The God Story represents one of the most exciting and important teaching resources that 24-7 Prayer have ever released. You can read more about The God Story on its website or in our interview with Adam from earlier in the year. The God Story is one of the most transformational teaching tools I’ve ever encountered. It immerses participants in truth, familiarising them with the Bible and giving them a vision to live out the story of God today. Adam Cox is one of the most gifted Bible teachers of his generation, and has developed this course over many years and in different cultures and counties. I commend it to you wholeheartedly Pete Greig Nick Beasley is an English Literature graduate who spent a year studying at the London Film Academy before joining the 24-7 Prayer Communications team. He’s mostly interested in films and music and is a Manchester United fan, though he has no geographical right to justify his allegiance. 
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24-7 Rewind The Nine Commandments of Twitter
Andy Freeman
A Church of England Diocese has suggested some Twitter commandments.
The Diocese of Bath and Wells in South West England posted the guidelines after a flurry of twitter related media stories of people speaking inappropriately or offending others on Twitter. 
The Diocese’s idea did cause some chuckling as people wondered if this was just church morality stretching too far. However, the context for their ideas does need a second look…
Did you know that there were 4,507 reported cases of “cyberbulling” in the UK last year? Sadly there are several stories too of people taking their own lives as a result of the abuse.  Maybe you don’t think four thousand is a big number in a country with several million twitter users, but these cases are just the ones that have been officially reported – and even these are up from 2,410 in 2012.  
It seems that social media has created some ambiguity about the way people treat each other. Maybe cyberbulling is at the extremity but I suspect many of us know people who’ve received abuse or “trolling” through Twitter.  It seems to that on the other side of the scale many of us experience people “firing off” a tweet without really thinking. Twitter is all about the moment and reacting, but is that always the best idea?
The Diocese of Bath and Wells suggested some handy guidelines for their staff to help them use Twitter well. These were all nine...
    •    Don't rush in
    •    Remember tweets are transient yet permanent
    •    Be a good ambassador for the Church
    •    Don't hide behind anonymity
    •    Be aware of public/private life boundaries
    •    Maintain a professional distance
    •    Stay within the law
    •    Respect confidentiality
    •    Be mindful of your own security
In the letter to the Ephesians Paul asks us to:
“be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”
These are wonderful words in any setting but think about what they would make Twitter, if we acted kindly, being forgiving rather than being quick to condemn. 
All images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms:
Feature image is a derivative of the image 'Twitter Bird Sketch' by Shawn Campbell and '53 Twitter Icons Promo Pack' by webtreats 
Andy Freeman is 44 years old and a father to 5 beautiful kids.  He lives in Winchester, England.  Andy was part of the team that pioneered 24-7's first Boiler Room community and is a regular contributor to New Monasticism in the UK and abroad.  Andy works developing resources and supporting those in pioneering mission in the UK Church.  He's also a freelance writer.  Andy loves reading, movies, music, cricket (the sport) and Arsenal football club.  You can continue to dialogue with Andy on his twitter (@AndyF247).
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Going deeper
The Prayer Course
Six videos to fuel discussion and deepen the prayer life of your church
24-7 Prayer and Alpha have teamed up to produce The Prayer Course - six 10 minute videos, hosted by Pete Greig, to help you explore different themes of prayer found in the bible: adoration, petition, intercession, unanswered prayer, listening to God and spiritual warfare. Available for free download at www.prayercourse.org
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