The Point

The Point: Feasting on Facebook

12/21/17

John Stonestreet

There’s an old saying about chefs. For the Colson Center, I’m John Stonestreet with The Point.

Maybe you’ve heard never trust a chef who won’t eat his own food. Well, some of the chefs that helped cook up Facebook for our culture don’t eat it themselves.

For instance, former Facebook president, Sean Parker, says he worries what his social network is “doing to our children’s brains.” He calls the process of posting statuses and photos for “likes” a kind of “social-validation feedback loop” that hijacks our dopamine circuits.

And just recently, Facebook’s former head of user growth told students at Stanford that he feels “tremendous guilt” over the way Facebook has contributed to tearing apart our social fabric. “No civil discourse, no cooperation, [just] misinformation, mistruth,” he said.

This former exec encourages others to at least take a “hard break” from social media every once in a while. As Christians, we can gain mastery over this monster by filling that time with prayer, Scripture reading, and singing hymns together.

Social media is tasty fare, but take it from the chefs: we need a more balanced diet.

Images courtesy of fotosipsak and nito100 at iStock by Getty Images. Illustration designed by Heidi Allums.

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