We used to teach our children good etiquette because we
wanted them to know how to behave in public. The dictionary defines etiquette
this way:
‘The form of conduct or behavior prescribed by custom or authority to
be observed in social, official, or professional life.”
For years this was meant to understand that we do not talk
with our mouth full, we do not interrupt, we make eye contact, we says “Yes
ma’am” instead of “Yeah,” etc. When our children went off to school we expected
them to put this etiquette into use. The Golden Rule of etiquette is “Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you.”
But those days are long gone. This is the 21st
Century. We are the technological generation. For those reasons a new word has
been created: netiquette. This word came about by mixing the words network and
etiquette, and it’s definition, according to www.networketiquette.net, is
“the social code of the internet, because the internet is a network and
etiquette is a social code.”
Among the rules of netiquette are do not type all in caps
because that is considered shouting, spell check and proofread, and don’t send
emails late at night because that will call your lifestyle into question. The
Golden Rule of netiquette is “do unto others on the internet as you would have
them do unto you.”
If someone can create a word by adding on to the word
etiquette, then I think I should also be able to create a word by adding on to
the created word netiquette.
So I did.
I created the word Christianetiquette, which I define as
“How a Christian should behave in an electronic world.”
There are basic rules of courtesy, like don’t text at the
table, don’t interrupt a face-to-face conversation to answer the phone or check
a text, and don’t wear earphones when in a social setting.
But there are also rules of morality as well. We all need to
remember to respect God, respect others, and respect ourselves.
#1, respect God. Capitalize His name! I can’t stand seeing
Facebook statuses that say “9 out of 10 of you don’t love jesus enough to
repost this.” I want to comment, “If you love Jesus you would capitalize His
name.”
Don’t take His name in vain either. OMG is taking His name
in vain. You might justify it by saying that the G stands for Gosh to you, but
the person who reads it isn’t thinking Gosh; that is both confusing and
disrespectful.
And be consistent. Don’t post Bible verses one day, then
brag about watching Family Guy the
next day. Don’t “like” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”
and “baseball players have nice butts” at the same time. I have seen both of
those, and it confuses me. I can’t imagine what it does to a person who doesn’t
know Christ.
#2, respect others. Don’t air your dirty laundry. Comments
like “I hate fake people,” “I see who my real friends are,” “I guess some
people never change,” or “Not surprised by how she acted” don’t model the love
of Christ. They come off as unforgiving, unkind, and unloving, which should not
be modeled in a Christian’s life.
#3, respect yourself. Respect yourself enough to not post
pictures you will regret, to not “check in” places you shouldn’t be, and to not
list favorite things that should not be your favorite things. Remember that as
a Christian everything you say and do will either lead people toward Christ or
away from Him. When you write things like “effing” in your status you are
probably leading people away from Him (Matthew 5:14-16).
Have you taken your problem to God before you aired it out
in public? Have you taken your problem to the person one on one before you shared
it with all your friends? Consider the biblical model to follow in Matthew
18:15-20, and ask yourself if you are following that.
Do things you do glorify and uplift the name of Christ, or
do they confuse people and turn them off to Christ?
Perhaps you need to edit your profile today.
Comments
Thanks for your comment, and good to hear from you again. I certainly understand the frustration you are speaking of. As a big Kirk Cameron fan I was sad to see him so harshly attacked by GLAD; they are allowed to say whatever they want, but they do not like people to say something they disagree with, and they attack the person, not the viewpoint.
To answer your question, I would suggest unsubscribing to anyone or anything that causes you to become upset. I would also recommend joining pages that bring encouragement. Pages like “Support Tebow’s Super Bowl Ad” (https://www.facebook.com/TebowSuperBowlAd) will give pro-life updates about positive legislation and, and pages like Randy Alcorn and John MacArthur will post blogs, sermons, Bible verses, and other bits of encouragement. There are also plenty of Bible pages that will post a verse of the day. Customizing your Facebook page to see only encouragement and no discouragement can transform FB from something that makes your stomach hurt into something that makes your spirit rejoice.
I would also recommend using your Facebook to be a source of encouragement to others. Post verses yourself, and link to uplifting blogs or websites. You might get some negative comments, but you will probably be encouraged by all the positive feedback, which helps sometimes when you feel discouraged.