How Twitter is Like Prayer

The following is a re-post from about two years ago. I thought I'd re-post it after a discussion I had today with one of my intelligent friends, who mentioned that though the "like" button on Facebook doesn't create real community, it evidences the desire for true genuine human friendship. So, enjoy this re-post.

So I caved to the Twitter craze. I love the "connection" it brings to other people. I love the fact that I can sync it with my cell phone and with Facebook, and thus kill many birds with the one stone.

But Twitter can bring a false connection. If I spent all of my time on Twitter telling people what I'm doing, well then I wouldn't be doing anything, would I? And, if I spent all of my time on the internet, I wouldn't really have friends, would I? That's the irony of social networking: sometimes the more we're networked electronically, the less we are networked in real life. Real friendships suffer. But with that said, since being on Twitter for 2 days, I had an epiphany: Twitter is like prayer.

Think about it: I constantly hope for more people to follow me. Maybe they'll think I'm important. Maybe they'll actually care what I'm doing. I must admit that in the last few days I have tweeted in the hopes that somebody out there was seeing it. Maybe somebody out there cares. And that's the essence of Twitter, human beings want to be known. And not just known, but known deeply. We want to know that there is a place for us to be accepted, loved, and wanted. That's why we crave for relationship. And it's even why we crave for followers on Twitter and friends on Facebook.

That universal desire is a lot like prayer. Gallup and other poll organizations regularly report that around 90% of Americans pray. Forget that many of those people are not Christians and do not claim to believe in a personal God. People still pray.

Neither atheism, nor new age, nor Islam, nor many other religions believe in a personal God. People who subscribe to those worldviews may still maintain prayer in some fashion, but ultimately prayer cannot be interactive in those worldviews in the sense that a personal God will not interact back with the person who prays. And even still, peoply pray.

To be known deeply, to offer a picture into our lives, to have someone else listen in our despair-- these are universal human desires. The personal God that establishes Christianity does know, does pay attention, and does listen to us. Twitter is imperfect, but Jesus is perfect. Thank God!



Media and the Nature of Revolution

Some of the better conversations I've been in recently have been ruminations on what is happening all over the world, particularly in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Yemen, and many other places. It's got me to thinking about the nature of revolution and how it's carried along by new media. Consider the following:

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• The Protestant Reformation was fueled by the advent of the printing press and movable type. Several figures, with theology similar to Martin Luther, preceded Luther by one hundred years (Wycliffe, Hus, et. al.) but most all were condemned as heretics. Gutenberg comes along, then Luther, then the whole scope of the western world is changed.
• The American colonies acted like 13 different countries, with differing reactions against England, until a guy named Thomas Paine comes along and writes a tract called Common Sense which spreads and fumes the American Revolution.
• The advent of the radio makes it really easy for people in Germany in the 1930s  to hear this influential speaker with their own ears, and they hang on his every word.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not meaning to make complex historical circumstances simplistic. I'm not insinuating that new media is the cause of revolution, or even the primary factor in revolution. But at a very base level, new media, throughout the world's history, has certainly had a role in increasing the scope and size and influence of revolutionary feelings at a popular level.

It's hard to know, though, if human history is in a pivotal world moment. Influential prognosticators are discussing the fall of Mubarak in Egypt, the Jasmine Revolution, and other middle-eastern revolutions as historically unprecedented for that region. On the other hand, people keep warning that we've seen revolution in the middle east before and all it's begotten is further Islamic Fundamentalism.

The lynchpin in all of this is new media. Twitter, facebook, and cellphone texting are the trump card for these new revolutions. These new technologies allow speed, ease, and massive groups of people to swarm to important areas in a hurry. Consider Twitter hashtags and texting. In a way that makes even Google seem monolithic, these technologies can be real-time, and provide rather accurate information within seconds. The role of the historian is being decentralized, and now history is being played out for all to see. On Twitter.

In all of this, it's important to remember what a philosophy professor once told my class: "that media technology isn't inherently positive or negative, but it isn't neutral either." Playing on Marshall McLuhan and Neil Postman, his point was that technology doesn't just give us information neutrally, but that media technology shapes the very way we think about that information. 

Twitter isn't inherently evil or good, but it's use of being bad or good is in the eye of the user/preventer (as many governments are shutting down the use of the internet). But Twitter isn't neutral either. It is absolutely shaping world events as we speak. Because of Twitter,  these world events are all happening faster, with greater frequency, and with more widespread support in a way like never before.

Kinda reminds me of something Jesus said once.