Facebook goodbye?

I’m thinking of giving up, or at least, deactivating Facebook. I’m not comfortable with their privacy settings and I’m starting to feel strongly about how the ‘like’ system seems to feed a sense of wanting acceptance by others. I find it easy to be tempted to post stuff with the hope of getting ‘liked’, whereas I know that my sense of self and acceptance is because I am “accepted in the Beloved (Christ)”. No likes needed.

I had uninstalled Facebook for a week on my mobile and when I returned to see what I’ve missed, looks like I hadn’t missed much. More political rants, ‘what I had for lunch posts’, silly cat or talent videos, some ‘if i get a million likes my dad will buy me a rabbit’, and oh, ads! So many ads! Nearly 1 in 5 items in my timeline is an ad. Nothing of great value. Surely I can live without this.

Oh and not forgetting, it seems that Facebook is becoming a bit too pervasive on the web. Many websites I go to have a Facebook Like button and its already showing my profile pic. I don’t like it. Feels very ‘big brother’ like.
In fact my account got pseudo-hacked recently using this and the password reset system. Quite unsettling.

Time for goodbye?

Why I use both Path and Instagram (@path @instagram)

Both these apps seem to be apps with ‘similar functionality’ and I think the developers of the apps consider each other competitors. Both allow users to share pictures, both allow applying interesting filters to pictures.

Usually, you’d be inclined to choose either one, but after using both, I think I’ve found enough reason to use both.

There are some fundamental differences between both apps.

Instagram: All pictures get posted to public domain – meaning anyone, and everyone can see it. Yes you can also opt in to share your pics over Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. But you don’t have the ability to suppress it from being shared publicly.

Path: Only friends you have chosen to share your ‘Path’ can view the pictures. You can also share it with those who are not on Path. In other words, you have control over who can see your pictures.

The difference between these two help me decide which app to use.

I like taking photographs, not so much as a hobby, but as an interest in seeing and taking photos. So, there are some pictures that are taken which are purely for the love of framing a scene and capturing it ‘on film’, and then there are pictures which are taken for the love of people and capturing moments you share with them. The latter is more private and not so much for public domain.

So most of my pictures taken out of interest in photography are posted in Instagram, where everyone, including my friends can see, but pictures that are of family or more private, get posted in Path, where only my ‘white’-list’ of friends can see.

Of course, there will be the occasional deviations from this rule

Facebook, Twitter and the hypocrite

Matthew 6:5-6

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

The Lord Jesus called people who prayed aloud in public places hypocrites, revealing that the ‘real’ purpose of their prayers was wanting to gain the attention of men. He went further to imply that such prayers, will get no response from heaven.

Now, how different are we from those hypocrites, when we post our prayers online for everyone to read, like in Facebook updates, or twitter tweets, and blog posts?
I’ve seen quite a number that go, “Lord, help me to be patient”, or, “God, give me a good day today” … I’m sure you’ve seen such posts.

I’ve been trying very, very hard to reconcile such ‘prayer updates’ with the Lord’s clear instruction on prayer, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…”, but I can’t, the Lord’s instruction goes against the need to pray online.

Not that I desire to judge others, but I cannot think of any reason that has spiritual benefit that should give us reason to post such posts.
In fact, the only reason I can think of, is a desire to display our piety in the sight of others, which is exactly the hypocritical attitude the Lord was rebuking.

Even when expressing thankfulness for something, it ‘may’ be okay to post a statement of thankfulness, like “I’m thankful for…”. But even then, we should ensure that we’ve actually gone to God in private prayer to express our thankfulness first.

We all have things to pray and be thankful for, but unfortunately, sometimes God is the last to know.

So the next time we think of ‘praying’ online, let’s rethink our motives for doing so.

In the overtly social world we live in, we must reclaim some privacy for things both personal and sacred.

How youth kill time

I happen to be an inactive member of a youth community hosted at Youthsays.com, a supposedly buzzing online youth community that’s full of activities and interaction.

Recently while trying to unsubscribe myself to its endless email notifications, I logged into the website and had a bit of a browse to see what I’ve been missing, and I was pleased to see a ‘Most Recommended Thought of the Week’ runner. Excellent, I can catch up on what’s ‘hot’ on the youths’ minds. This is what it read…

Recommended thought of the week

Roughly translated, it says:

Hi gang.. wanna lose your boredom? lets play ‘join the sentences’, i mean lets join sentences to make a great story. So I’m starting with just 3 words, “jie follow Ali”…

Nothing really bad with this, except I found it quite intriguing that this would turn up as the ‘Most Recommended Thought of the Week’ – meaning in the whole week, nothing else sparked youth participation more that this ‘join the sentences’ topic.

It baffles me that youth have nothing more constructive to say to each other.