Facebook & Spiritual Community
A ministry friend of mine, Jerome Mammen, recently wrote an assessment of the “social-networking site” Facebook based on some research he conducted for a class he was in. I was interested in what he discovered, and offered to post his research here. I’ve broken it into 3 posts for your blogging pleasure:
Introduction
Since the onset of the information age, the landscape of much of the western world has changed dramatically. Computers and technological media devices which were once expected to “make life easier” have brought an entirely new set of problems to our society. According to John Drane, we are experiencing a sense of “fragmentation of neighborhoods, the corrosion of family life, and the constant disintegration of personal relationships.” Instead of creating a utopian society that runs like a well oiled machine, we find ourselves longing for relationships, meaning, and purpose. One of the main questions that we are faced with is whether or not the advancements in technology can offer any help to the predicament in which we find ourselves.
In recent years the internet website Facebook, has become a popular place for people to spend their time. Known as a social networking site, the purpose of Facebook is to connect people to friends and others who work, study and live around them. Because these connections happen in virtual space there is much debate as to whether or not Facebook is actually beneficial in relationships. Some argue that these social networking sites, ultimately perpetuate the fragmentation that is already occurring. The purpose of this study is to identify what Facebook might demonstrate about the Biblical concept of community and its relationship to the human need for God.
The Modern Perspective and Critiques of Facebook
From a modern perspective Facebook is a threat to human relationships because it is perceived as being shallow. For many people who grew up in the modern era, relationships were formed by working together, spending time together, and living life together. These avenues provided space for conversation and experiences that were both positive and negative. For a person familiar with this type of environment it makes sense that they are suspicious of Facebook. Connecting to people virtually is a foreign concept and it raises the question as to whether any significant interaction can occur.
Recent reports from both secular and religious circles have questioned the use of Facebook and its ability to offer anything productive to society. In an article from BBC News in February 2009, Dr. Aric Sigman claimed that websites such as Facebook ultimately kept people apart.
“Social networking sites should allow us to embellish our social lives, but what we find is very different. The tail is wagging the dog. These are not tools that enhance, they are tools that displace.”
Interestingly enough Dr. Sigman made this conclusion because his research found that Facebook users had less time to interact with people in “real” life. Thus he concluded that this lack of real-time interaction was serving to displace rather than connect. The main problem with this conclusion is that it assumes that virtual connections are not worthwhile.
In a recent article Dr. Lady Greenfield, a professor of synaptic pharmacology in Oxford, claimed that Facebook was not simply displacing, but was in fact damaging humans in their attempt to connect.
Real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf. Perhaps future generations will recoil with similar horror at the messiness, unpredictability and immediate personal involvement of a three-dimensional, real-time interaction.One is forced to wonder whether or not Facebook actually has this kind of affect on people. Does Facebook reveal a journey towards sanitized relationships where people have no concept of how to relate in “real” life? Ultimately these kinds of question must be addressed, but rather than going to those who seek to study social networking websites from the outside, it is essential to analyze what users genuinely think about their experience of Facebook.
Part II - Facebook & Spiritual Community