So Long, Social Media

Well, the time has finally come to say goodbye to my Facebook account. I have realized that social media is what is called in the medical profession, a sucking wound.

Medical Definition of sucking wound according to Merriam-Webster
: a perforating wound of the chest through which air enters and leaves during respiration. How does this relate to Facebook and social media you may ask? Well, a little thing called “Screen Time’ on my iPhone. It alerted me to the waste of time I was passing in my day by checking social media. Hours were lost in my day observing others, sucking me in.

This sucking wound allowed my heart to be exposed. A wound that allowed negative posts to come into my heart and return through the same wound to my outward thoughts and posts. I would feel sometimes envy, disappointment, and even hatred for people because I allowed their posts to enter the wound, fester around, and crawl into my thoughts. I knew this wasn’t from God but from the world.

If you know anything about my ministry you know it focuses on being present for those in need. I could use the excuse that I was on Facebook to find those in need of prayer since many people start posts, “I need my prayer warriors!”. I would publically pray for them on their post and think I had done my job in the crusade to use Facebook positively. I was wrong.

Let me jump back a bit. Four years ago when I started my Facebook Grateful gratitude page I felt I wanted to share a daily post actually, a morning scripture with the world. I thought maybe someone would read that scripture and their day would improve. God’s Word always lifts me and I felt this would be the same for others. My page was quickly growing to over 5,000 followers in a few months. I began developing prayer relationships with people in Mexico City, Venezuela, and across the USA. I knew people by name; Eric Gomez, Linda Rodriguez, Irene Garza, and many more. People would message me and ask for very particular prayers.

I would look daily for regular followers and if they were absent for a while I would message them to make sure they were okay. This was my lifeline to serving those people needing to know others cared about them and would pray for them.

Then November 12, 2020 hacking hit my Facebook page. According to Facebook, someone tried to change the password on my account 30 times in 3 minutes at 3am. They said for my protection they locked the account. I no longer had access to this page or my personal page for 11 years. Gone in a flash.

I felt violated, controlled, lost, and hopeless. I was so angry to have someone choose to lock me out instead of freezing it temporarily to check my identity. Facebook offered to restore my account if I provided a picture copy of my driver’s license, passport, or other very personal identifying information. Oh, yes, and because of the pandemic plan for the investigation and restoration, if approved, on being several months. I was devastated. We were living in a confused and unsure time known as the pandemic. People needed stability and prayer in their life. Many people were constantly on Facebook looking for hope.

I did find a way to continue to post to Grateful gratitude Facebook when Instagram and Facebook joined forces. I was able to post to Instagram and have it automatically post to my original page. It was a work-around but I could post. Unfortunately on Facebook, I couldn’t respond as Grateful gratitude or interact with original followers or message them to pray. What really was the point of this I thought.

This past weekend I attended a women’s conference at my church. One of the speakers was talking about Barabbas and Jesus standing before the crowd with Pontious Pilate. The crowd was deciding who would be set free and who would be crucified. Jewish leaders mingled in the crowds convincing them to choose to crucify Jesus. The leaders were threatened and feared Jesus’ message so they manipulated the crowd. Barabbas was a well-known criminal that reputation proceeded him. He was in and out of jail, a murderer, a robber, and fought openly against the Romans. Pilate said he found Jesus guilty of nothing yet the crowd chose Barabbas to be set free. The people in the crowd allowed themselves to be swayed by others instead of speaking for themselves. They even shouted that they would take Jesus’ death on themselves and on the lives of their children if they would just crucify Jesus.

In Matthew 27:22-25, Pilate asks the crowd, “What shall I do, then, with Jesus who is called the Messiah?” The crowd answers, “Crucify him!” Pilate publicly proclaims Jesus’ innocence, but “they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’”. Pilate then famously washes his hands, declaring himself to be “innocent” and telling the crowd that Jesus’ death “is your responsibility!” It is a responsibility that the mob accepts, shouting the chilling words, “His blood is on us and on our children!”.

We reap what we sow. Are we selling out to the crowd or responsibly thinking for ourselves?

Social media is the same representation of these people in Jesus’ day. They listened to the crowd (Jewish leaders) and fell into line without thinking first of the consequences or what their own opinion was.

I have friends that were sharing things on Facebook that simply are not true. They would cut and paste or share posts without any personal fact-checking or soul searching. They got inflamed (just like the crowd at Passover) because they were filling themselves with misinformation. Sound familiar in any way?

Have you heard of Cambridge Analytica? If not you may want to click here and see how your personal Facebook information was used. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cambridge-analytica.asp

Facebook can take my voice away on their platform but they can’t touch it on God’s platform. I ask you, are you experiencing a sucking wound that needs to be plugged to stop the good inside you from escaping each time you log in to social media sites and allow yourself to be vulnerable and controlled? Social media chooses what you “need” to see on your feed. You make 1 wrong click on an ad and your internet search becomes focused on that wrong click. You are defined by your click. You see what they want you to see, they are thinking for you and defining your thoughts. I am going back to the simple life. The life of using a phone for phone calls. My words in a phone call instead of a text. My time is a gift from God and I will simply be using it for His glory.

My love and gratitude for you always-LoLo