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Podcast 16 - Advantages of Social Media
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Join us as we discuss some advantages of social media
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Transcript
Introduction to Social Media Wisdom
00:00:09
Speaker
Welcome back to Grove Hill Church to our podcast here. We're excited to have you back with us. This is going to be episode three of what has been our continuing conversation regarding social media. And this is the part of the conversation where we balance it out, you know, kind of like Fox News, you fair and balanced. but that's us We want to talk about the advantages of social media, but the key word here, I think, is wisdom.
00:00:30
Speaker
being wise and discerning and how you use it, what you use it for, those kinds
Positive Impacts of Social Media
00:00:35
Speaker
of things. So, i just kinda wanna start the conversation right off the bat when you hear a wise use of social media, what are some of the things that come to mind for you?
00:00:43
Speaker
It's a platform to get the truth out. And so in the same way that be used to spread negative things, it can spread positive things if we're doing it properly. So you put the gospel out there and hundreds of people see it within seconds. And so it's ah it's an avenue to spread the word. Yeah, it's a huge tool for communication. Right? Yeah, I want to give a highlight to our church, the attenders of our church. Was it like 22,000?
00:01:09
Speaker
Uh, yes, yes. I don't know. 2000 hours. yeah was that bias just yes well Yeah. So things like that, uh, and kind of the birth child of a church that started this, you know, decades ago and they saw the need to put the Bible in, you know, a digital platform as much as we're like, man, and I've grown accustomed to, man, I love the digital, but I love this even more. like There's nothing, comparatively speaking, but I think it's been a good avenue.
00:01:37
Speaker
but like sure For people who drive a lot, they love that that accessibility that the Bible, is they can just listen to it in their car or whatever.
Social Media in Church Engagement
00:01:44
Speaker
yeah Unless you are in ministry like we are and in the day-to-day of it, you may not be aware of this, but most, and I'm saying an overwhelming number of people today,
00:01:53
Speaker
find their church home, their new church home, by going on social media. yeahs yeah Whether it's a Facebook page or a live stream of the service or something of that nature. Some of the bigger churches who have the staff to maintain it have Instagrams, TikToks, they use it all. yeah So yeah, absolutely. It's a great tool for sharing the gospel, sharing good news, offering hope to people, encouraging them, those kinds of things. What are some other areas where you have seen it used well?
00:02:18
Speaker
um Encouragement. I've seen it whenever it's used right. Whenever Facebook in the very first form of it and the way that I like to try to still use it, I know it's very difficult, but the way that I like to try and use it being ah kind of an out of town guy, this is my home now in Tennessee, but that's the way I catch up with family. yeah Whenever I'm looking back to you know what they're doing in Oklahoma, what's going on with my nieces. And I love to go look on there. And I also love to see the encouragement in the body of Christ where it's others spurring on others. And it's just yeah stuff like that that I think is still good.
00:02:54
Speaker
yeah That's one of my favorites because i I do come from a very large family, most of which are... minimum, you know, six to eight hours away. So I still kind of, it's weird to say it, but I get to celebrate birthdays with them. I get to know what's going on, you getting married, having children, those kinds of things. You just don't get to do that very much. We live in such a mobile society.
Social Media for Family Connections
00:03:15
Speaker
It's very rare to see people like you who had roots in a community for a very, very long time. I mean, I've been here seven years, you've been here four, and you've been here seven and a half. I've been here for 20. Keith's been here for 47. You and I are considered long-comers in the community nowadays. no You're just a rare breed.
00:03:32
Speaker
Well, I mean, yeah, but but even but even us with our family still being right here, we can still share things on social media that we don't normally... no Nobody writes letters anymore. Everyone does you know Facebook things, and so we still get to see pictures of our family. um One of my favorites... um And I know she's going laugh when i say this because she knows me so well One of my favorites is just learning things. Trivia, facts.
00:03:56
Speaker
I wear these people out with all this stuff. I know I do. They probably grip their teeth when I come in and go, hey, have you heard this? Yes. But there's things that you learn. Stop it. ah yeah There's all kinds of things you learn. And I'm one of those that just, I'm constantly wanting to learn. And as much as I love reading, sometimes it's easier to sit down and read a synopsis of something without having to go through all of the... the actual pages of a document. You get to learn about people's history. You get to learn stuff that, you know, different. And quickly. And quickly. You don't have to go to a library and check out that book and get the card and write your name on it and all the things. You know, it's a quicker way to get things done.
00:04:32
Speaker
um Something else that I have noticed too back when when I was really engaged with social media is it's a cool way to find out some of the hidden talents of your congregation. That's right. Some of the people who write for us some things sometimes, I will read their post and you really have a gift? for that. yeah You should be doing this. Or somebody who posts them just aimlessly singing in the kitchen at their house and you're going, you should be on our stage. You're not just a normal singer. Yeah, yeah definitely. so those So be careful
Challenges and Discipline in Social Media Use
00:05:01
Speaker
what you post. Yeah, yeah yeah might be recruiting they come back to bit you yeah so that's cool. So um obviously it's like anything else. And we've been talking about this. We'll continue to talk about this.
00:05:13
Speaker
There are many good things in our culture or even neutral things that can become bad if you don't practice discipline. It's like anything else. I'll be the first to confess. I have a chocolate problem.
00:05:26
Speaker
you know why It's a good thing. and oh yeah Without discipline, it becomes an issue. So there's there's all kinds of areas where that falls into place. So what are some of the practices that you, again, that you would throw out there as you say, okay, if you're going to get on social media and, you know, here you are, we're working with students and saying to your students, okay, if you're fixing to get a phone for Christmas and you're going to start social media, here's where I would tell you to start with sent some rules for yourself.
Student Engagement on Social Media
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, so it's extremely hard, and I've gone back and forth and even talked to you guys about it and got counsel on it. um the like Say the Student Life Instagram page is highly beneficial. If we post a ah video of the gospel, it's very likely it's going to get 8,000, 10,000 pretty quick. And so I like that, but then also it almost encourages students to be on Instagram. And then there's so many hangups on Instagram. And so I'm kind of broken on whether I even want to have a page at all. And so if I just discourage anybody to even get the social media um or if we train how to engage, training how to engage is
00:06:31
Speaker
you have to be very strict because even casually browsing, you are going to see pornographic material yes like that. yes And so is that an area we even want to go?
Discernment and Addiction in Social Media
00:06:41
Speaker
And if we do go there, it has to be extremely um regulated and you have to you have to be accountable to it. And so, yeah, it's ah it's an ah ongoing conversation on how involved I am actually in it. So currently currently I don't have either one of them because of that reason. no I mean, I think the biggest thing that I've done in little sprinkled efforts here and there, because to say that you're going to have all these under your watch to cold turkey, everything is hard. You want to get them there. And I think the one thing that I've emphasized, find things of value. and wherever you're looking because you will eventually find that in this place, the social media space, a lot of times there's little value. right So with little value,
00:07:33
Speaker
have little prioritization on it because some people they'll put such a high priority rating on man this is my you know what's my clout you know i didn't even know what that word meant until like a year ago but all these things they put so much emphasis on what am i looking like to the rest of the world and you should be saying what am i looking like in the presence of god right and so that's where the the differentiating kind of thing comes is We can't have the expectation, I think, that everyone's going to cold turkey, but man, we want to get them there yeah to where they're not putting the emphasis as high as they should. Yeah, I looked this up before we started, and it's 1 Corinthians 6, 12. It says, everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me.
00:08:16
Speaker
but I will not be mastered by anything. And I think that's a part of it. Like when we get social media, a lot of times it becomes everything yeah and we're consumed, we're addicted. It's where we find our identity. It's where we look for other people's identity who they are. And so, um, if we could entertain the idea of it and just be another little resource of how to stay connected with family, how to get the gospel out, but keep it there and not let it overcome our life. Um, there's still potential for it to be beneficial. Yeah.
00:08:44
Speaker
You want anything there? i I think it's like what we talked about before. We have to teach our families, our kids, even our adults. We have to teach them how to use it properly and why we have it. Keep it focused on gospel conversations and you're keeping up with your family. And if you like to look up recipes, great. But if you start getting distracted with...
00:09:06
Speaker
oh, look at this person's brand new car. Look at this person's beautiful decorated house, whatever. That's where it gets a little hairy. We just have to teach ourselves and remind ourselves this is the this is the purpose of it, and keep focused. And if it's not something you can manage properly, it may be something you have to cut out completely. Right. You know,
00:09:24
Speaker
can we encourage people to go into a bar but not drink? you know like how how far do you How far do you allow someone to get to temptation? And in some instances, we don't go near the bar, right? like You have to draw a line. And so it's really up to you and where your struggle is, where your your downfall for sin is, and then being able to keep it there and not allow
Balancing Social Media with Life
00:09:45
Speaker
temptation in. yeah So I'm glad you brought up that verse as as we were getting ready to go online because it kind of, to me, framing the discernment it takes to properly use social media starts with that idea. Everything's permissible, but not everything's beneficial. So you start asking yourself the question, is this redeemable as a good thing? Can I use this time? I think another verse that I want to read here just a second kind of frames the other side of it. You put it into parentheses. It's Ephesians 5, 15 and 16. says...
00:10:13
Speaker
Pay careful attention then to how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise, making the most of the time because the days are evil. um If I could walk up to you on the street, complete stranger, and say, i have a magic potion that could give you back eight hours of your week.
00:10:31
Speaker
Most people would pay money for that. They would say, man, if you could extend my week eight hours, I could get more laundry done. I could get this, and I'd have time for hobbies. I'd get more sleep. No, we would probably take it and we would spend it on things that just don't matter. right And that's what most of us do. And so the Bible even encourages us, make the most of the time you've been And to your point, man, we took that...
00:10:54
Speaker
thing and threw it in the trash can, we'd find we'd have a lot more hours to our week. yeah Same thing's true with the TV. The TV's one of those mindless things where you can sit down you spend hours and look up and suddenly you're going, where did my day go? right yeah So it yeah I think it's just a it comes down to a lot of basic common sense, but unfortunately even some of the smartest of us forget we have that common sense yeah and we shrug our shoulders go, where did it all go? And I think we like to give ourselves plenty of excuses. yeah I mean, really, even even the the best intention where we're trying to direct kids away from that, even us as adults, we're like, well, hey, we pay bills on this. Well, hey, this is it. well I don't really deal with the computer. This is my computer. yeah And I think we have to be more intentional because without intention towards the direction,
00:11:40
Speaker
you know, we don't have any good direction that we're going. So I mean like this podcast is on people's phones. Yeah. Right. yeah You know, like, I mean, we're, we're, we're talking about something, but they're using what we're talking about. So it's, it's again, just figuring out what is beneficial for you versus. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I think that's a great thing. lisa taught me this a long time ago. She taught me a lot of things, but this one's a good job, lisa yeah pretty a good Lisa. Um, This question you can ask yourself as families when you're considering things, is it life-giving or life-taking?
00:12:11
Speaker
There are a lot of places I can go on social media and I can look at you in eye and honestly say, it's life-giving. I was encouraged by that sermon I listened to, really enjoyed that podcast, that music was uplifting. All of us can find those places, but the truth is, if we were really sincere about answering that question, most of the time we would go,
00:12:29
Speaker
I just wasted 30 minutes of my life watching YouTube videos. know right um So I think it's a legitimate question that we should ask, not just with social media, but many of the things that we do in our life. Even places where we volunteer our time or we engage with other friends in the community. Am I really...
00:12:45
Speaker
given any life in that? that doesn't
Social Media's Cultural Impact
00:12:48
Speaker
mean you need to be selfish. I mean, sometimes yeah it's not so much that you're getting life, but you're giving life to somebody else yeah by your involvement in them. But I think it's a great question ask. Something to look is what you're exchanging for that time. And so if you spend...
00:13:04
Speaker
let's just say, this is probably conservative, two hours a day scrolling, because a lot of the students have screen time of six to eight hours a day. But if you have two hours of scrolling, what else could you be doing with with that? if you're If you're out of shape and overweight, do you have two hours of workout time? You don't, right? And so how are we tending to ourselves? How are we tending to our relationships? How are we tending to our scripture reading? Whereas the Bible app might have our verse for the day,
00:13:30
Speaker
for one minute and social media has an hour and a half of our time. yes What are we exchanging for that time? yeah I think sometimes we have to also, and we're weighing these things out to look beyond the immediate results and look long-term.
00:13:45
Speaker
Back in one of the earlier episodes, maybe episode one or two of this this conversation, we talked about how damaging it's been to young people that they can't have face-to-face conversations people because they are buried in these things. Relationships, no doubt, are hurting this day and age because of people getting on and comparing themselves to other people and the outcomes of those. And so...
00:14:07
Speaker
I would say, would argue that the mentality of our culture today where you cancel everybody who disagrees with you is a byproduct of what happens on social media. Oh yeah. Where you just go in and you just delete people or unfriend them or unfollow them just because you don't agree.
00:14:22
Speaker
i worry about the next generation if they don't. somehow find a way to overcome that. Yeah. Because everything from diplomacy to counseling, all those things going to go. Oh, yeah. If we can't handle kinds of things. Well, I've seen a lot of little kids that they want their parents' attention so bad because their parents are scrolling. Yeah. And that breaks my heart because it's like, okay, they're they're never going to be this age again. Put your phone down and be with your kid. I mean, they'll be shopping or doing anything and they just give the kid the phone. Yeah, I've done that. i've had my son trying to ask me three or four different questions and I'm like, later, later, later as I'm scrolling. And yeah right absolutely then I lay my head down an eye and I go, what am I exchanging that for? right like exactly like What is the value in what I'm holding in my hand? Even if it's texting you guys, right? What's the value of holding this in my hand if my son doesn't get my attention? And so weigh it out. Look at it and weigh it out.
00:15:13
Speaker
Because we like to pick on the younger generation, but it's really we as adults, too. We do and it's our problem. Yeah. I mean, truthfully. And I would say, too, you know, in another area, and we've talked about this before, but I just kind of keep coming back and underlining it.
00:15:25
Speaker
um I think every one of us would realize there's no real good common sense choice to run through a minefield. Right. But when you get on social media, that's exactly what you're doing. Right. That's true. And a couple of guys that I've talked to just in the last couple of weeks coming to me going, man, my porn problems's back the less problem's back. problem's back.
00:15:44
Speaker
we start narrowing down what the issues are. yeah Well, I was scrolling on this page the other and happy-dressed woman came up. and So again, why expose yourself to that stuff? right yeah yeah This is this is like the SOS for any app developers or any other developers of Christian-related things. ah Man, we've got plenty of people that want to direct you to a way where there's introduction of pornography. Yeah. because I think I mentioned it earlier on another episode, Facebook, I don't think their intention in the first outset was, Hey, we're going to, you know, we're going to show pornography. We, you know, they wanted to connect college students to college
Creating Positive Online Content
00:16:24
Speaker
students, right? Instagram.
00:16:26
Speaker
I think as you've gotten in the last decade, decade and a half, you're, that's probably a part of their message is they're saying we can sell this yeah and we're going to go pay for this. yeah And so we, we've just got to have more people that are going to stand up in the public forum, uh, in those web spaces that are going to say, we're going to stand for Christian belief beliefs and we're going to minimize our emphasis on these things and put them back on the family, back on the home, back on the time with the kids, uh, where, where there's true value and true residual value.
00:16:56
Speaker
you know, things that'll show 20 years down
Parental Vigilance on Content Quality
00:16:58
Speaker
the road. Well, there's, you see more streaming services now that are Christ centered and are yeah more protective for your kids more now than, I mean, when my kids were little for sure, i mean, there's so many different options, minnow kids right now, media, there's so many different things that parents can use that if your kid's going to watch a show, make sure it's safe. absolutely And here's some safe options. I've made that conscious decision. Sometimes I'm like, even Even the history documentaries that I love to watch, yeah I'm like, hey, I could win a Jeopardy competition with this. But in all honesty, nothing innately wrong with that.
00:17:32
Speaker
But there's times where I'm like, man... I'm going to go on to write on media and I've done that on my TV at the house and me and the kids will watch something and there's something that we learn value about God's truth. Bible man. and value yeah It's things like that, that just the simple choice of this over this, yeah ah it doesn't have to be earth shattering in that one moment, but you string together.
00:17:54
Speaker
a year or two of those moments, your kid's going to see the impact. yeah And one word of caution I would throw there, because I love these ideas you are throwing out, they're practical for people, but parents, you have to stay engaged. Yes, absolutely. You can't just turn them on to a show that's good in the beginning, and then seven episodes in, they're reducing homosexuality, yeah or you know something like that. it happens all the time, some of the well-known YouTube and PBS shows that started out pretty clean. yeah turning And it's something that everybody deals with. I know Dude Perfect, they have an app, and they vet everything that comes. They have kind of biblical standing, and and they have they vet every YouTuber that they allow to come into their app, and they end up having to remove somebody because they started to yeah waiver, right? And so even them keep things accountable, and then i
00:18:37
Speaker
determine what it is allowed in my house. right and so they They have permission for the Dude Perfect app, but they have to get approval for each person that they watch on that app. right and so Just being intentional about keeping accountability for what comes into your house. yeah and you Again, that puts a lot of responsibility on you as parents, you have to know what you believe first, right way of protecting your kids. I'm giving perfect example. Last week, millions of Americans watch Kevin Costner put out a show about the first Christmas Tuesday night special. He paid for it, produced it, all this kind of stuff.
00:19:11
Speaker
I watched it just to see. ah I was pretty excited because I've read articles that Kevin Costner, who started out in church as a kid, was kind of coming back to his faith. and And I don't doubt it, don't question it, but several things that were taught in that show, as good as it was, were obviously anti-biblical. And I was like, ah you know, he was taking some liberties with the story a little bit. They kept repeating the thing, the idea that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was perfect and sinless. And was like, no, that's not biblical at all.
Conclusion and Feedback Invitation
00:19:41
Speaker
So, yeah, you you just got to know. You got to yeah you gotta know if you're going to be guiding your kids. And your kids know if you're trying to put on an act because they see the other days of the week, too. Right. Oh, yeah. Exactly.
00:19:54
Speaker
Exactly. All right, so we're going to wrap up today. um Probably come back, I think, maybe next week. We are close to winding up the series. We've just kind of been playing it by ear. yeah I hope it's been helpful for you, and I hope you'll join us for next week's episode where we're going to be talking about, again, some more practical stuff.
00:20:10
Speaker
Even you know ideas about when your kids could be ready for social media, if they are ever ready for social media. inna i' in situation on this I've been stewing on this lately for my own self. yeah yeah um Like us, follow us, share the podcast. Hope the content been beneficial for you. We would love to hear your comments, even thoughts and questions about some of the stuff we've been talking or even ideas for future shows that we'd love to bring to the table for you. i We love you and hope you will join us at worship over the next few weeks, 8, 9, 30, and 11. We'll see you next time. Bye.