This decidedly pissed off peacock is
going to be my go-to retort
in social media conflict
I have reflected before upon the utility of social media in the church and in our world. I have talked about how I have built relationships with new friends and subsequently met them in real life. I have talked about how I have been challenged, loved, and opened up to new ideas by so many wonderful people. This is the good side of social media.
But today I want to talk about the bad and the ugly sides of social media. Online communication is by its very nature anonymous. It is possible to be a "registered" user on Facebook or twitter or instagram or part of any comment section on a blog. But you are always behind a computer screen. You do not have the experience of seeing how your words impact someone else. Words typed in an online forum are without context of non-verbal communication and it is incredibly easy to "read" something wrong.
I am a professional communicator. I spend my entire day communicating with my patients and the words that they say are only a very small part of what they are saying. Body language, tone, emotion, facial expression, and what they are NOT saying is just as important if not more important than the words that are spoken. Online communication is devoid of this important context. This is the bad side of social media.
The anonymous nature of online communication means that you get to put some distance between yourself and your words. You do not have to "own" them. It is in this sort of communication that words can be used as weapons. You can lob a digital grenade and then hide behind your screen name. This is the ugly side of social media.
Social media gives anyone a platform, even if they have nothing constructive to say. It is a transactional form of communication, instead of a broadcast form of communication. Anyone can say anything and anyone can respond to what you say. This means that there is a sheer avalanche of things going on in the realm of social media at any time. It is possible to choose how you want to engage and conduct yourself in online communications.
My friend, Pastor David Hansen, posted a helpful guide to online communications this week on Facebook. He found it posted on the wall of an elementary school, which should tell us something about how basic these thoughts should be. Unfortunately, this sort of common sense is not that common.
Think before you post online:
-Could someone misinterpret what I'm saying?
-Am I showing a bad side of myself?
-Am I revealing too much about myself?
-Could someone feel disrespected?
-Am I posting in anger?
-Who might be able to read this?
A few years ago a church was expected to have a website in order to be seen as credible. It could be relatively simple, just a place to post service times, a mission statement, contact information for the staff, etc. I still believe that a website is absolutely necessary, but I would also boldly suggest that a social media presence is fast becoming a necessity, if it is not already. The entire world of communication has shifted from a one-sided broadcast model (such as a church sending out a newsletter to the congregation) to a transactional model (congregation members can interact online to share prayer concerns, dialogue about a sermon, etc). Many congregations are not here yet, but the rest of the world is in this place. This is just another way of illuminating that our model of church is no longer working. The Social Media Revolution video dictates that it is no longer a matter of deciding whether or not you are going to participate in social media, but how you will participate.
And this is terrifying to people, primarily those who are not digital natives or naturalized citizens, which unfortunately, comprises a large number of pastors and church attendees. There are certainly concerns about privacy, which should not be dismissed (well maybe those conspiracy theory-type fears should be thrown out), but most concerns center around the issues of Promise, Tools, and Bargain (what am I going to get out of this, how will it happen, and what is it going to cost me) as discussed by Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody. Misunderstandings arise when expectations of use are not clear, and I think this is tremendously important for navigating the changing ecologies of faith communities.
The answer is not to completely prohibit social media usage, but rather to explore the reasons why you are using it and to be open to evolving needs, rules, etc. The tide has changed, and here are some things that I have figured out about social media (some from my own mistakes, some from the mistakes of others!).
Amy's Suggestions for Social Media Use in Faith Communities:
1. If you wouldn't want your parishioner, pastor, candidacy committee, professor, congregation, etc to see it, don't post it. It has been argued that there are specific privacy settings that allow you to post certain things for certain people. Yes, that is true. But it is also a ton of work and inevitably you are going to miss something. It is easiest to control what you post before you post it.
2. Don't post pictures of other people or their children unless you have asked them first. And even then, reconsider whether or not you should be posting it. This also applies to "checking in" functions on facebook and twitter and other social locating apps as well. Never assume anything.
3. Make it clear that you speak only for yourself on your personal profiles. If you also represent an organization on a social media platform, conduct yourself accordingly.
4. Social media allows life and ministry to happen in real time. Which is great. But it also has the potential to completely encroach on your non-virtual life. Think about how you will respond to pastoral care crises that happen in this forum. A long way of saying, think about your boundaries for self care and sabbath in advance of when an issue arises.
5. Have multiple layers of involvement in social media spaces. Congregations should have a public page that provides information for visitors about service times, mission, etc, but also a backstage space to foster online community. Think of it as a coffee hour that occurs 24 hours a day.
6. As Shirky notes, "everyone is a media outlet." Our actions online as church leaders can have ripple effects that we are unaware of. You never know who is reading, watching, listening, etc. This post, by way of example, had a much greater impact than I was aware of until it blew up. Someone who follows this blog on a RSS feed saw a new post. This person told a person who attends this church. Who told a few others. Who told the pastor. Who I was interviewing for a research project, and who called me in to her office, and very nearly refused to participate after reading this blog post. Nothing was untruthful, but it has a different impact as a result of online permanence. If it was mentioned in passing, it would have been quickly forgotten. Instead, it was up on the interwebs for further review.
7. Be willing to reevaluate why and how you are doing something, and do not be afraid to change the "terms of use."
8. What happens on social media has a real world impact, particularly on interpersonal relationships. This is a part of pastoral care and preaching.
9. Crowd-sourcing is both a blessing and a curse. If you are posting something in social media, you are going to get people's opinions whether you want them or not. And disabling comments is a cowardly way out. If you don't want others to share their opinions with you, don't post it in the first place.
10. Social media should never be a way of "getting in the young people," "growing membership," "reaching our target audience,"etc. If you are thinking this way, you have missed the point already. Never, EVER, use social media as a bait and switch for evangelism or a membership drive. Social media is not a means to an end. It is an end in and of itself.
11. Never make assumptions about a person based on their online presence. Assume that each person has a much bigger story and then seek it out.
12. Know that the Holy Spirit works in social media too. I have a TON of stories about this. I think I will file that away as a future post.
I had a mild disagreement with a fellow seminarian a couple weeks ago. This fellow student stated that it was important for pastors to be able to tell parishioners what to think. I remarked that while it was important to have the theological preparation to be able to respond knowledgeably to questions, it was the pastors role to determine why someone was the asking the question in the first place. Because anyone can type a question into a search engine, they are asking their pastor a question because of the relational aspect. This sort of "knowing in the presence of others" that happens when you are in community is a basic human need. And this need has only been amplified with the tidal wave of information available with one click. This need is not merely about gathering information, rather it is a desire for connection and shared meaning making.
I do not believe that participatory knowing in faith communities is anything exceptionally new. This is what lies behind many generations of Sunday School classes, confirmation, and adult forums. A different kind of learning takes place when you are surrounding by others. But I do believe that participatory knowing takes on an increased level of importance when we are surrounded by information instantaneously. We need to participate in knowing along with others to help make sense of our experience. And in knowing along with others, we are opened up to things we might never have considered if we were sitting alone with a book or in front of a computer screen.
Part of my sense of call is to actively engage people in becoming theologians in their own right and participatory knowing is a huge part of this. I hope to never lead an adult forum, because that sort of top-down pastoral authority is no longer something that works. I would much rather engage people in genuine conversation in an informal setting. This is why I LOVE theology pubs. Also, I do not believe that text studies should be limited to those with a seminary education. Sometimes I wish I could go back to seeing the Bible before I started studying it academically, which is why participatory knowing is important for pastors too.
Last week at Luther Seminary's convocation, I had a new experience. I had just had breakfast with a friend of mine from Denver who was visiting for the conference. As we were walking back to campus, he said that he wanted to introduce me to some of his friends from seminary who would also be attending the conference. He introduced me to his friends Colin and Jeni, who said to me, "I feel like I already know you. We follow each other on twitter." I have definitely connected with other people by way of social media and we are friends in the digital world, but rarely have I had the opportunity to meet these friends in real life. But now I have new friends near Fargo-Moorhead and a standing invitation to visit, not to mention two new badass pastor colleagues.
My life has been decidedly enriched by social media. As defined by Keith Anderson and Elizabeth Drescher's book, Click2Save, I am most certainly a digital native. I have had a blog since 2005, have been on twitter for about three years, and Facebook for seven years. I have set-up a Tumblr account, but find that it is not necessary for me at this point. I don't even think twice about using any of these platforms. It intuitively makes sense to me. I was excited to read Click2Save, because my friendship with Keith also came about through social media. He was the keynote speaker at my Synod's theological conference last year. I can't remember who friended who on Facebook now.
When the book that he co-authored was official published I sent him a congratulatory tweet. This is absolutely unprecedented and makes for an exciting digital frontier. Social media is a place for connection and relationship building and growing in the body of Christ.
Upon reading Click2Save from cover to cover, I wrote Keith on Facebook:
"My initial observation is that as a person just on the cusp of Gen-X/Millenial, I am very surprised at how my native context informs so much of how I view the world, take in information and put forth information. I live the world that you talk about in the the text with little or no extra effort on my part. I never thought about how much I post on various social media platforms, I just do so. I never thought about using or not using social media to connect with community, it is just a given. I would be curious to get your impressions of how the book has been received by the baby boomer crowd and how it has informed your preaching and ministry."
He responded (I don't want to quote a personal conversation here without his permission, so I will summarize):
Because the prevailing demographic of congregations is older, and much of the ministry that we do is to this demographic, this book is useful in navigating generational differences and explaining what you do instinctively to an older set that does not naturally operate in this way.
However, social media usage can also have a dark side, but that is a post for another day.
I am taking a class at Luther Seminary this spring called Gospel and Global Media Culture. So, consequently I am required to make weekly postings on a personal blog. Since I have already maintained this blog for 7 1/2 years I thought that I would just use this blog for that purpose in addition to my normal writing.
If you are interested, you can follow the pace of the class on the public blog:
