St. Ignatius believed that love should be demonstrated more through deeds than through words. Yet it’s so easy to use words—and now we can put them out there instantly via Facebook or other social media. Can we express love—truly—through such means?
Now that we are firmly in the Internet age—and I suspect we’ve already evolved to something beyond Internet, but I don’t have a term for it yet—part of our work in this world is to figure out how to use social media in ways that are edifying to the world.
So, I’m asking for your ideas. Please post some observations about how you have observed social media being used to express faith, hope, and love. How do you see yourself using Facebook, Twitter, and other sites to further the values dear to you?
You can find me on Facebook/VinitaHamptonWright.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I post things daily on Facebook, but they are not usually my own personal words. I do not really consider myself a Facebook user, the way that many younger people use it. But I have had some feedback and do know that those who visit my site (younger folks, often between 18 and 35 y.o.) that they see what I post. So, what do I post? I get all kinds of “participatory democracy” e-mails, what some would call “political” e-mails. I see them as part of my citizenship and of my participation (like a teacher) in my stewardship of the planet (advocating for recycling, or for labeling of GMO’s, or for tougher regulations for oil companies when they spill). Other things I post relate to other ethical and moral issues, such as “bringing sunshine” (light) to the Wall Street banking practices, or calling for diplomacy rather than weapons, in the Middle East and elsewhere. But, though this is a small way of using social media, still I think it may have an impact. Sometimes, I respond to persons who comment, if I feel that a dialogue is truly desired. I prefer to respond by e-mail, usually, since then it seems more personal and more “face-to-face” though it is not. I have also used Skype for teaching students in other countries and find that this is a beautiful way to share ideas about who we are, where we are going, and what values we want the world to hold onto, in our quickly changing techno-driven world. Students from Russia, Thailand, and other places are very happy to have a face-to-face conversation (via Skype) not just to practice English but also to have a person to guide them. I hope this is useful information for you, Vinita, and for others who read it. Blessings to you all in creating new ways to further values dear to you.
I use facebook to share uplifting moments.
Sometimes I like this site: http://www.thenicestplaceontheinter.net/
You might call this entry: God is on Facebook. No friend request required!
We found the child that will soon become our second daughter through social media. My husband and I adopted a little girl from China last year. Before we traveled I “met” a woman from Canada through an online user group for families with children from our child’s particular orphanage. She posted a question about how to find out what shoe size her waiting son was wearing. I offered to try to find out information on him when we went to the orphanage for our daughter a month later. The orphanage was wonderful and allowed me to visit his room, take lots of photos of him and ask his nanny all sorts of questions. When we got back home I emailed my new friend all the pictures and information on her son. She was beyond grateful and from there we became Facebook friends. When she traveled to get her son, many months later, she posted pictures to Facebook of her visit to the orphanage. In her pictures was a little girl who she said was waiting for a family to adopt her. My husband and I were wanting to go back for a second child and had really hoped to go back to the same orphanage. Upon seeing this little girl, we knew that God was directing us to our second daughter.
Fast forward six months. We are still waiting to travel to bring our new daughter home who was moved to a foster home some months ago. We have received several pictures of her over the months and she is always in the photos with another three year old girl. I found out recently that this other little girl didn’t have a family waiting for her so I made it my mission to find her a home. I collected all the photos I had of her, and sent them to my adoption agency to forward to their advocates. Her picture and her story got posted on several blogs, adoption advocacy sites and Facebook pages and a wonderful family is now in the process of adopting her. We’ve already made plans with them to Skype once we bring both girls home.
There is a Chinese proverb that says that those destined to meet are connected by an invisible red thread. I am here to tell you that the red thread is woven all through social media and God holds the needle.
Fb can definitely be used to stay connected deeply – and can be used superficially and for causing harm, like any form of communication. The difference is the potential for digital communication to be infinitely multiplied. So it behooves us to use it in the best most deeply connecting way we can.
I was not an internet person specially where I come from, we relate more than use the internet. But coming to the country where I am now I felt the internet was a very important tool for me to communicate and keep me going. So my goal was more to find Good Sites that will help me in my well-being. And actually I greatly am thankful that the Jesuits sites is there to support me. The Creighton online and Sacred space and pray as you go, These were my first websites that I’ve known and following it was deepening Friendships, Dotmagis that which supported me deeply more and more and had made me discover more and felt that The Jesuit Spirituality is my spirituality. If I may say, The internet is just a tool and I am the one who is choosing what will make me grow and live. Internet, for now is a companion to keep in touch with my family and friends and share with them what I feel can be of help to them. In Facebook, I choose and post websites that I know may help my friends grow, just like me, in their friendship with God as we journey in this world. Thank you so much
I consider social media my ministry – or one of them, anyway. I love reading and sharing the Loyola Press sites, but the only one I comment on regularly is People For Others. There are many good Catholic and Christian blogs, and I hope that someone might say the same about any one of my three blogs.
Social media has changed my life of faith. It has broadened, deepened and enriched my life and spirituality in so many ways. I am even in an online small faith sharing group, we use Google hangout, so that we can see one another. The whole experience is very powerful.
Add to this the gifts of meeting so many of my online friends in person, such as Paul Campbell. More recently another People For Others person passed through my town, and we had a meal together. Such rich blessings!
Please see my posts on this topic over at dotMagis! And forgive the further shameless self-promotion when I mention that I used social media platforms extensively before and during my wedding (last year) thus making it possible for far-flung dear friends to participate, as well as share our joy as well as their blessings.
If not for social media, how would I have come to count Meredith Gould as a treasured friend and companion along the way?
Over the past few years II found the news sites to bring forth the haters and naysayers who must spew hatred in their comments (at this writing we have the pit bull lovers telling the rest of us we’re insane and uneducated etc etc blah. Last month they praised the advent of assisted suicide and before that they glorified their gay pride parades, all of which the rest of us are too ignorant to understand according to them. On the other hand the religious sites tend towards pretty pretty in the altruistic sense of what’s around them although a very few bloggers do show us HOW faith, hope, and/or love works in their life. This group spews love.
I gave up using the news sites to try and show them the loving way, they only reply with mispelled allusions to my sanity. I use the religious sites once in a while if I see something I wish to respond to when I am working and waiting for a customer to call.
Oops I misspelled the word misspelled.
Twitter and Facebook have been incredible tools for me to deepen my faith and understanding of Christianity and to express love. I came to faith as an adult, so I am still searching and learning, which I now realize I will do for the rest of my life because I keep learning new things.
Twitter is my favorite tool because it is like a tiny advertisement and sometimes I want to go deeper. Fr. James Martin, SJ, @JamesMartinSJ, for example, will Tweet something with a link and I usually click through to an article. I use TweetDeck so I can quickly see what a handful of people are Tweeting and occassionally I look through a reader feed to see what many others are saying. I have Twitter & FB linked so when I post in one, it feeds the other. I am @MarieGoocher
FYI, my book study group is reading Silf’s “Just Call Me Lopez” and I’m going to send them to your video interviews. Thanks!