Social networking sites – your opportunity
Do you have your profile in several social networking sites? Do you keep on adding friends from world over? Do you join communities of your interest like music, literature, travel or any other hobby and interact actively? Do you run a long list of what you like and what you don’t like on your profile? Every person is born with deep desire to express his or her uniqueness. We all have deep longing to be recognized and accepted for our worth. We all need a space of our own to be ourselves. Not everyone is fortunate to find a family, a circle of friends, colleagues or any other associations so good who would let you express yourself or share your interests. Others may have enjoyed a wonderful social life in the past but because of a job or further studies one is separated from these wonderful associations. The social networking sites are mere replacement of your need to express and socialize.
Although we have been alarmed by negative incidents of online networking resulting in kidnap, murder or abuse, many still use the medium to meet like-minded people online. According to Nielsen//Netratings, social networking sites grow 47 percent every year, reaching 45 percent of web users. If you carefully study the profiles from your friend’s list, you begin to see the real person behind it. You begin to see the person’s frustration- enthusiasm, experiences-dreams, creativity-stupidity, ambitions-plans, and convictions –influences. The social networking sites are filled with profiles with desperate need to share and express which they lack in real life. They open up to cyber world more honestly than they do in real world. They need affirmation and acceptance. They need honest feedback. They simply need to get refreshed talking to an online friend without any past baggage or future consequence. And among these multitudes of profiles one is yours. As a Christian how do you respond to these needs while tackling your own desire to express and share?
Some people are obviously abusing the social networking sites. They are spreading fast like a virus. You and I as Christians who value every person preciously must make best of the opportunity to spread encouragement, admiration, hope and wisdom. We must populate the cyber world impacting the real people behind those unanimous profiles. It doesn’t require us to quote scriptures or remember sermons to preach. Just being a real friend that they are searching for will give us ample opportunity to transfer the fragrance of life that Christ called us to spread. We can impact lives sitting right in our homes.
So many times we pass by these profiles without a care. So many times we fake it online fooling others and ourselves. Let’s rise above it. If we have believed in Christ, let’s also believe that God places great trust on us and sufficiently empowers us to be His messengers. While meeting needs of others God meets our needs too.
Do ask God for wisdom to take necessary safety measures while you explore cyber world as mission field.
For stats on social networking visit this link:
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_060511.pdf
