An Ethic of Social Media - Part 2

For the sake of brevity, I'll just say Twitter from here on since that is the form of social media I use most often, but the principles apply to all forms of social media, whichever one you use.

Because Twitter is an electronic media, it may be easy for us to forget that Twitter really is just another form of speech. The words may be in text and they may be delivered via the internet, but it is still speech. So, the same biblical instruction related to how we speak should govern our use of Twitter.

There are two scriptures that have particular bearing on our use of Twitter. Ephesians 4:29 relates to what we post. It says, "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." The first question we need to ask before we tweet is, "Is this beneficial to the people who listen?"

Now, granted, there is a lot of room for what can qualify as "helpful for building others up." As a pastor, I often tweet about my normal, day to day stuff. I think it is tremendously beneficial for my people to get to know their pastor as a real person. I also often tweet humorous stuff. I think laughter builds others up, and it is really just an important part of my personality. So, I'm certainly not saying that everything you tweet has to be serious or teaching something life-changing. However, it does mean that the general tone of our tweets should be positive, encouraging, and uplifting. Stay away from negative, mean-spirited, cutting tweets.

The second scripture, Colossians 4:6, relates to how we respond to others: "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone." Second, ask yourself the question, "Is my response to this person a demonstration of the incredible grace of Jesus Christ that I have received?" I often see people jumping someone else on Twitter. I'll get into more of the details of that particular piece of Twitter ethics later, but simply following this scripture should keep us from doing that. Frankly, some Twitter conversations get very uncomfortable very quickly for everyone else who is "listening." Remember that other people are witnessing your conversations, many of whom are not followers of Jesus Christ. Is the way you respond to other people on Twitter more or less likely to make your pre-Christian followers want to experience the grace of the Christ you profess to follow? Twitter is a social media, so the way you respond to others is very important.

Proverbs 16:28 says, "Gossip separates the best of friends." Although a great tool, Twitter can become one of the largest gossip machines we have ever encountered. Be careful about what you post about other people.

One of my personal favorites is Proverbs 17:28: "Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue." Sometimes the best thing to tweet is nothing at all. I'll confess, I'm not always the best at this. Sometimes I tweet before I think, and that's dangerous. It's probably a good habit to get into to read back over a tweet and pause just a moment before you hit send.

There are a lot of other scriptures related to our speech and the use of the tongue that should govern our tweets, but I'll stop there. Next time, I'll share with you a way of understanding Twitter and how that should inform how we use it.