I raised some questions last week about the Facebook “friend” who posted a vulgarism and couldn’t (wouldn’t?) delete it. Well, far be it from me to turn away from a custom-made bulletin article, so allow me to elaborate a bit.
I had the opportunity to counsel a “friend” through the process of deleting a Facebook post — a process I am downright evangelistic about, by the way; I know of no other “skill” so easily acquired, so desperately needful, and so seldom practiced. It’s basically a matter of clicking things that look like they would like to be clicked, looking for the word “delete,” then clicking that.
I got behind in my work during my recent vacation. That may not sound strange; getting away from work is kind of what vacation is all about. But my “vacations” are not entirely work-free, in most instances. I usually have a few articles and a sermon or two that need to be ready to go before I get home, plus I have my various online obligations and my regular, run-of-the-mill Bible reading.
Some of that had to take a vacation as well, though. My parents’ internet service was basically nonfunctional.
The word “trending” has gone through an interesting metamorphosis in the social media generation. Used to be, something was “trending up” or “trending down,” depending on whether one was discussing (respectively) butter or margarine, cauliflower or broccoli rabe.
Now things are just “trending.” It is as though the quality of an item or topic is irrelevant; all that matters is that people are talking about it. It’s the new version of “no publicity is bad publicity,” I guess.
One of my Facebook “friends” (actually a complete stranger to me — social media makes for odd relationships) posted the following last week: “Don’t you dare tell me who I can call my brothers and sisters in Christ! That is way above your pay grade!”
I was tempted to respond, “Is it above yours?”
It used to be that the ultimate enticement was, “I’ll be your friend.” Granted, a 6-year-old mind has a limited grasp on the “friend” concept. But it was a good thing; I got that much. And when the cool kid offered friendship in exchange for putting him on the same dodgeball team as the other cool kid, well, you have to seriously consider an offer like that.
Today, thanks to social media, there is the “unfriend.”
