Do you know what a whipping boy is? I looked it up. It's a person who is blamed or punished for the faults or incompetence of others.
The problem with a whipping boy is that he is whipped so often people begin to assume he deserves it. Or the boy just accepts his fate and acts into the very nature of who people believe he is.
But who is defending the whipping boy? Who is taking a second look and asking if the boy really deserves all of the ire he is receiving? Today, it’s me.
Social Media is the Whipping Boy
Social media is just entering its adolescent years, and like many adolescents, it is acting in some strange and unconventional ways that make people question what is going on.
Many words have been written about the dangers of social media, none the least of which would be the supposed separation from real life interactions. But it doesn’t take a highly educated look to put some things together and note that, for our youngest generations, there is no separation between what happens in real life and what happens on social media.
In fact, for many, if it doesn’t happen on social media, it probably didn’t happen in real life!
Is Social Media the source of all our problems?
I’m not saying all the pastors and pundits are wrong to speak against the sinful things we see on social media. There’s some messed up stuff. What I am saying is the crazy (dare I say sinful) things we see on social media did not originate because Mark Zuckerburg created an online hangout space.
There have always been shady practices happening in big business. There have always been questionable actions being done by presidents and other political leaders. Celebrities have always had feuds and done bizarre things to grab our attention. Nations have always been at war with other nations and using the latest technology to interfere with one another.
It sounds simplistic, but there is this thing called a sinful nature. We all have it. We all see it, at least in others. We all struggle, to one degree or another, with living one way in public and another in private.
It did not begin in a post on social media. It began in a garden, but I don’t hear anyone talking about the dangers of gardening. Why isn’t someone warning me about the mishaps surrounding the planting of seeds and waiting for something to grow?
Then why do things seem worse now?
This is a good question, which is why I wrote it.
Things seem worse now than before social media because things are much more public. People were always doing shady things, but now more people are aware of it. All of it.
Social media didn’t create narcissism. Has it fed into it? Certainly, but let’s not pretend that people weren’t trying to be noticed before 2008.
We see it more because we are on social media. All of us. Together. It’s where we live now. It’s not just an escape.
It reveals the nature of humans that’s been there all along. Surprise, we are all sinners. It bursts the bubbles we live in. We can no longer afford to assume everyone looks like the nice people in our pews.
How do we fix it?
Some would say we should put limits on it. Some would call for it to be eliminated entirely. Our problems would just move to the next platform.
If anything, I believe social media should be celebrated for causing all of our junk to be broadcast so publicly. We can no longer choose to ignore it. We can’t hide from it. We can’t run from it.
Sure, we can hope for the 24-hour news cycle to run its course and bring its glaring light to the next ridiculous happenstance, but anyone who is a Christian will understand that God is not distracted by the next event.
As with all things, the Gospel Story is our only hope for a solution. Unlike the many who blame social media, God was not content with just finding something to blame.
He came to fix it! And He is still calling out for people to follow Him on His mission. If you’re in, start talking about it with people you know.
I’d suggest doing so on social media. I hear there’s quite a few people on there.
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