As technology expands and grows, many of us are almost constantly plugged into at least one form of social media. In one of this afternoon’s workshops, Kyle Heimann encouraged all of us to elevate social media.
While social media can be a tool for great good, Kyle explained early on that it can also be destructive. When social media begins to replace our social interactions and relationships rather than improve them, we need to start examining the amount of time we are investing.
It isn’t just the amount of time that we spend on social media that matters – it is also what kind of media we are consuming. Kyle asserts that we are all the sum of what we consume. That’s a good gut check when it comes to the social media accounts that we follow. For some of us, it might be healthy to unfollow some accounts…
Most of today’s workshop focused not on eliminating social media from our lives, but elevating it. Social media has tremendous potential for evangelization. This doesn’t even necessarily mean always posting things that are explicitly Christian. We can start to be evangelizers of the media by simply being positive. Kyle shared a study that found that we are greatly impacted by the type of posts we see. Those who are exposed to more positive posts tend to be more positive themselves. Our role as Christians is to make social media a more positive space.
Beyond simply making social media a more positive experience, we are called to bring Jesus with us onto our social media profiles. By sharing the experiences that we have with our faith, such as attending a Steubenville conference, we can help others encounter Christ through social media. Kyle recommended posting from the conference or even reposting things that are posted by SteubySTL on various social media platforms. Sharing inspiring quotes or uplifting videos and comments can begin to shift the culture of social media!
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