Church divisions and Twitter wars aren’t really that different. Joining a cult and spending time wondering what people think of you online are different in degree, but perhaps not as much in kind. .
I sometimes post photos on Instagram of books I’m reading, usually just a stack on my table so my followers know what I’m thinking about at the moment. The pile is almost always very heavily redacted. This is not (necessarily) a list of recommendations, but a real-time overview of what I’m eating. Even so, I would never understand in the pile why I don’t believe in God or beyond good and evil or why country music is horrible, for fear that some might think I agree with these ridiculous arguments . There was one book that I didn’t post on Instagram for an entirely different reason; I didn’t want to be seen as a hypocrite. I still don’t know, but the case was so compelling that I decided I didn’t care.
The book, Ten arguments for deleting your social media accounts as soon as NOW , by Silicon Valley scientist and entrepreneur Jason Lanier, dealt, in some ways, with predictable issues familiar to the genre: addiction, attention span, bullying, and more. What caught my attention, however, was the section dealing with something that approached a disturbing narrative of human nature, one that rang true with what I saw in both the digital and real.
We all know that social media platforms amplify the voices of “trolls,” those extraordinarily wounded psyches who seek out such venues to express their inner demons in anger. Lanier’s point, however, is not just that social media hears the trolls, but that social media makes us all, a little, trolls. He uses a word that is less than evangelical-friendly, but is synonymous with jerk, mean, moron, and says that social media can actually make us into these people.
PERSON OR TRIBE?
To make his point, Lanier compares human nature to that of wolves, arguing that in every human personality there is the mode of the loner and that of the pack. When our “switch” is set to “Pack,” he argues, we go into emergency mode, to protect the real or imagined “tribe.” This mode is necessary, he argues; Think about when individuality should essentially evaporate into the larger collective, say, in a period of military attack. This should be rare, however, and the “switch” should generally be kept in “Solitary Wolf” mode.
“When the Solitary/Pack switch is set to ‘Pack,’ we are obsessed with and controlled by a pecking order,” Lanier writes. “We pounce on those below us, for fear of being demoted, and we do our best to flatter and snipe those above us at the same time. Our peers fluctuate between “ally” and “enemy” so quickly that we perceive them as individuals. They become archetypes of a comic strip. The only constant basis of friendship is shared antagonism towards other packs. »
This is why, he argues, nonsense is a more useful tool for constructing “viral” content online than reason, imagination, or the truth. When “truth” is defined by what is useful or “memorable,” acceptance of that “truth” is a signal not that it is based in reality, but rather that it is part of the “package.” digital. because the obviously absurd concepts they lock onto the Internet are not necessarily stupid (although they may be). They’re looking for a place to belong, and this is the price.
Lanier argues that capitalism and democracy cannot survive while “Pack” mode is permanently activated. He writes: “Tribal voting, personality cults, and authoritarianism are the politics of the pack.” The lone wolf is forced about the greater reality more than the perceptions of the tribe. This leads to the qualities of the scientist or artist as opposed to what happens when social status and “plot” become more important, a situation that forces one to act more “like an operator, politician or slave” .
INDIVIDUALS IN THE COMMUNITY
He is right not only about the economic or democratic conditions that surround us, but also about a reality that he does not examine at all: that of the church. The church requires a balance between individuality and community. When individuality is disconnected from community, we refuse to submit to or serve one another. But the opposite is also true. If I find my identity in the community, or in the community’s perception of me, I am no longer free to serve the community.
I can only do this if I bring to the community the gifts that God has given me, rooted in an identity that is found in Christ. This is why the Spirit uses the analogy of the body and the organs of the body for life in the church – organically related but distinguishable. Indeed, when the personal is absorbed in the rush to the collective, we end up with angry tribes in the church (“I am of Peter, I am of Apollos…” 1 Corinthians 1:12). Those who do so do not serve all selflessly; rather they seek to find themselves selfishly, in one tribe they can wage war against another. This brings us, the apostle Paul tells us, to the biting of animals and the devouring of one another (Galatians 5:15).
Church divisions and Twitter wars aren’t really that different. Joining a cult and spending time wondering what people think of you online are different in degree, but perhaps not as much in kind.
I’m not suggesting that we should all delete our social media accounts. However, I wonder if you should spend time wondering if your social media account is taking you places you can’t handle. Do you find yourself more subject to anger or anxiety or envy or thought? So maybe it’s time to step back, or even leave for a while.
After all, you were not created for a hive or a bundle. You were created for a church. And, for that, you need more than one tribe. You need a soul. Your church needs you too.
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