What should Christians do with things like the internet and social media platforms?

More than 1500 years ago, Augustine expressed some of his reasons for preferring a written debate over an oral one:

"I have heard it said that you are still willing to examine, in debate with me, the question which separates us from communion with each other. See how promptly all ambiguities may be cleared away: send me an answer to this letter if you please, and perhaps that may be enough, not only for us, but for those also who desire to hear us; or if it is not, let us exchange letters again and again until the discussion is exhausted. For what greater benefit could be secured to us by the comparative nearness of the towns which we inhabit? I have resolved to debate with you in no other way than by letters, in order both to prevent anything that is said from escaping from our memory, and to secure that others interested in the question, but unable to be present at a debate, may not forfeit the instruction." (Letter 51:1)

Augustine's influence on the world has occurred primarily through his writings, like the letter just quoted. We have to take more into account than what Augustine mentions above. He wasn't trying to be exhaustive, there have been changes in technology since then, and so on. But people at every stage of history should be taking factors like the ones mentioned by Augustine into account.

These issues are large and complicated to some extent. I wouldn't claim to have a high level of knowledge about everything involved. I could easily be wrong about some of these things, and surely I am wrong about some. (And so are you, most likely.) But I want to provide an overview of my current thinking about these matters, in this post and in others that will follow.

As with other things in life, there are tradeoffs in these contexts. You get one thing at the expense of another. As I've said elsewhere, social media platforms largely involve the search for shortcuts. Looking for shortcuts makes sense up to a point, but, like other things, it can be and often is abused. There are advantages to things like radio and YouTube videos, and we should make use of those. They're good supplements to writing and reading, but they've become too much of a replacement for many people.

My intention in this series isn't to discourage the use of things like podcasts and videos. Rather, I intend to discourage the abuse of those things and to encourage better use of those resources and others.

We need a lot more Christians doing a lot more work in these contexts in general, to do more with writing, audio, and videos. But we also need to have the right balance within these contexts and think more about how these things are affecting us and other people.