Submitted by Admin on 9 August 2011 - 11:34am
- Is your time online honouring before God? Is your language and manner online distinctive and godly or is everything “OMG”?
- Do you treat people who disagree with you in online forums with kindness and respect or are you willing to “flame” them with abuse, knowing that here will be little comeback?
- Are the websites, forums, chat-rooms and social networks that you go to likely to build your Christian character or rather burden you with temptation and transform you into someone superficial with a limited attention span?
- What can you do to make cyberspace a place that increasingly honours God? Consider how you might get involved in a Christian website or blog or petition. Even if you’re not technically gifted, lots of online projects need people with gifts in design or writing, for example.
- Think about how other people experience you online and whether they’d be aware of your faith (Rom 1:16). Change your social networking profiles so that they mention your faith. Most email accounts allow you to set up a standard signature: could you include a link to a Christian website or to a quotation from the Bible or your favourite Christian hero? It’s probably wise to be moderate in displaying your faith online (just as it is in regular life), but your discreet choices (eg choosing online identifiers that are Bible references or famous saints) can provoke interest.
- Resist projecting a false self online (eg Mr/Miss Popular, Fun, Perfect, Gifted etc) and aim to be authentically yourself online. You probably won’t want to be Twittering about your latest bout of depression or a death in the family, but try to do small things that portray more of the real you. Maybe upload some photos where you don’t look your preened, tanned best.
- Ask those who are close to you for their feedback on how you are online. Do they experience you as godly and distinctive? If when you come off the computer you are ranting about something that made you angry or distant and disconnected because you’ve been immersed in a fantasy world, then choose something better in future (Phil 4:8). Maybe you could be one of the few people online who is prepared to say sorry.
- To avoid the voyeurism of just spectating on the news and lives of others, take what you learn online and turn it to prayer.
