When it comes to Facebook, I'm a latecomer.
While most ten year olds can run rings around my Facebook skills, I'm convinced my disconnect to this point has given me a perspective that seasoned Facebookers lost a long time ago.
For one thing, I want to know why so much of the Facebook world amounts to so little.
Why is it acceptable to post to the public a message that only applies to one or two out of the earth's 7.5 billion people?
And why is so much of the content —dare I say a convincing majority—void of any real substance?
- “Changed the oil in the car last night.”
- “Can't believe I missed the season finale of” (insert name of TV show here).
Minutia and mundane are the main fare.
Now we're not all called to write like Ernest Hemingway and I’m not suggesting every Facebook poke needs to be profound. But surely we can do better than total self-absorption.
It’s as if we've forgotten to ask before clicking the mouse, “Does anybody really care about this—and honestly, should they?”
I’ve arrived at a theory—and please try not to be too offended. My theory is that most people write shallow things on their Facebook pages because that's precisely the kind of life they're living: shallow.
Could it be that shallow living compels a shallow people to share shallow things in the vain hope of finding significance? I honestly wonder if all the “spare-me-please” postings on Facebook, are a sick attempt at finding some sort of personal significance.
Yet insignificance is exactly the byproduct of a person—or a culture—that has jettisoned God. Worse, we babble foolishness—dare I say, like much of Facebook. I'm drawn to the observation Paul made in Romans 1:22: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became foolish.”
Wondering if there’s a connection between Facebook…and the Good Book…