I continue to be fascinated by how the facets of honour and shame emerge in our 21st Century Western society.
A report in a recent news bulletin on the lecture of a neuroscientist Susan Greenfield, that warned of the dangers of re-wiring by digital technology of young brains, contained some startling and insightful content....
Here is an excerpt from that news article:
Impressing your social media 'audience'
She said an inspirational teacher or parent could be the key to young people developing the skills "to join up the dots" of the world around them.
Baroness Greenfield said social media had its worthwhile uses, such as for communicating with family or friends across the world, but there was a problem when people had lists of friends "they didn't actually know".
She said such "friends" were actually more of an audience.
"You are out to entertain and seek their approval and the danger lies then in constructing an artificial identity that's not really you at all," she said.
"Everything you do is done for the approval and to impress this audience, who inevitably will be vicious and nasty because they're not constrained by face-to-face communication."
She feared some young people might grow up with short attention spans, keen to conform with their peers and lacking an ability to discern impact of their actions.
"I just wonder whether we might be looking at a generation who are completely self-centred, short attention spans, not very good at communication, rather needy emotionally and with a weak sense of identity?" she said.
"[We need to] look at how we deal with that situation rather than just saying it's all cool, 'we've all got iPads and aren't we trendy?'"
To summarise some of her statements, she is saying that:
....the current generation of children risk gaining an 'artificial identity' by seeking 'approval' from non-'face-to-face communication' that are more of an 'audience' than really friends.....
* though she makes very insightful observations, I believe she is actually observing a consequence of a deeper cause - that being what happens when we seek approval primarily from people rather than from God. The problem she sees here is true - but its step 2 of a process where step 1 of neglecting God has already occurred and been ignored.
* when we stop living first and foremost 'Coram Deo' (before God's face), and are only living before the face of people and those people are only through a 'cyber life', we have the problem she describes.
* though God as our Creator desires us to live first and foremost before His face, He also created us for relationship - person to person, face to face. When we put aside the first commandment to love God with all our heart and soul and mind, we have trouble. When we go even further and put aside the full context of loving our neighbour and settle for 'cyber life', we are in even more trouble and are denying both ourselves and our neighbours the love of true friendships, and destroying our lives, families and communities in the process. Even if we say we are Christians and we desire to live for God's approval, we need to be very careful that we are not being taken 'off track' by the world's obsession with technology. It can all too easily become an obsession that destroys part of God's purposes for us as human beings who are meant to be loving one another as God has loved us. God loved us in such a way as to 'dwell among us', interact face to face with us, touch us and be touched and experience others lives 'warts and all'.
* living this 'virtual world' way removes us from the accountability of personal interaction in addition to the accountability we should have before God. Society then creates a collection of self-absorbed and self-worshipping individuals rather than any sense of true community. Without God and without living according to how He created us to live, we as sinful human beings will simply do a very good job of getting ourselves deeper and deeper into the traps set by the Father of Lies, the Devil himself.
As the excerpt above nuances, this issue is all about honour and shame and identity- whose approval we seek and what we are trying to hide.
Consider what Jackson Wu said on a recent blogpost:
If we don't think God alone deserves worship, then we will worship some other created thing. Yet, we should be aware that what we worship and our view of ourself are always intertwined. What we worship reflects our value system and worldview.
We become what we worship.
As result, our "face" and our worship are tied together. Eventually, our worship and our seeking of face are indistinguishable. Our "face" belongs to what we worship. We pursue our face more and more. Before long, we start worshipping ourselves.
Our mirror becomes our altar.
When we all pursue "face" (mianzi) in this way, human relationships disintegrate.
Though contrary to popular belief, we can see why biblical monotheism is the only hope we have for harmony in the world.
While technology has its positives, we must not take it as some neutral issue in all its forms and functions - we must be aware that the Father of Lies is also the Angel of light and is out to steal, kill and destroy while making it look like he offers something wonderful, enjoyable and beneficial. If we don't weigh it against the absolute truth of God and His word, we can so easily get sucked in. Those who don't know God and think they can ignore His absolute authority and truth, are beginning to see that there is a trail of damage emerging alongside the benefits of technology.
May we as Christians set the example as ones who reflect a more balanced godly use of technology and not neglect the need for tactile interaction with God's world, and the need for true, deep, face-to-face friendships where the 'love one another' and 'love your neighbour' commands are lived out for the world to see and be blessed by.
May we as Christians be more careful and bold to live 'Coram Deo' and desire to live primarily before the face of God.
May we with grace and sensitivity take the opportunities around us to shine true Light into such conversations, the Light that brings LIFE and true HONOUR in God's eyes!
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