First, because we are so awful to people. We are so awful to people because we are awful people. Technology does not create fresh wickedness in us. It can, however, invite our wickedness out to play. Social media that seems to encourage the worst in us.
Some suggest that it is the social distance. We say things about and to others that we would never say about and to their faces. Shame often serves as a blessing when we are actually in the presence of others. This is one reason why pornography consumption has skyrocketed since the advent of the internet. Now you can get to it without having to look in the face of the clerk who knows how you’ll be using it.
Some suggest that it is the lack of non-verbal communication that would otherwise help to soften our discourse. Emojis are not up to the task of filling in that gap. In addition, when you are limited to 280 characters it’s tough to wrap your criticism in encouraging words. That in turn can create a response not smothered in grace and the flame war begins.
Some suggest the issue is the ease of reply. When I was a younger man and I got angry with someone and wanted to communicate it to them I had to first find paper and a pen. I had to write. Then I had to find an envelope, a stamp, and the address to which to send it. By then my jets had usually cooled. Now we can send off our thoughts before they’re even formulated.
While these suggestions have something to do with the problem, they miss what may be the most important point. Social media, in contrast to email or discussion boards, come equipped with voting mechanisms. Shares, likes, re-tweets all feed us where we are often most hungry, in the ego. Every post transforms into a referendum not just on the issue we post about but on us.
It’s not enough that I tell those closest to me about my disappointment with someone. Now I have to tell the whole world. It’s not enough that I tell the whole world about my disappointment with someone. I have to get them to share my disappointment. Which means I have to paint that someone not just as someone who let me down, but as someone the whole world needs to be warned about. I have to make this person out as a monster so your need to virtue-signal meshes with my need for social media approval. Soon enough I see myself as the heroic crusader against this movement, that person, or this other sin.
Here’s the tweet-sized version. We’re awful to each other on social media because we’re awful. We’re awful because we’re prideful, and, like our first parents, are not satisfied in Him. The solution is humility and rejoicing in all that we have in Christ. Moral indignation, more often than not, is just the veneer under which we try to hide our pride. But it always shines right through.
