The Balrog Scrolling Meme
I hadn’t scrolled that all far before I came across the Balrog. It made me laugh and then it made me stop scrolling.
I have been on Facebook for 17 years this year. My first job as a church minister involved looking after 18-30s who were easier to contact through Facebook than email. So I signed up. It was a pretty good way of publicising events or online resources to that age group in the early noughties.
I quickly realised that Facebook was a very easy place to cause controversy or fall out with people. Early on, I would post my Christian viewpoint on some news item or other and then have to make peace in every-which direction as the insults and accusations flew between friends down the response feed. My friend list has always been restricted to real people whom I have actually met – school and college friends, colleagues and clients, faith and family connections. Despite their connection through me, they seemed to have no compunction about falling out with one another online.
Having seen the pastoral fallout of Facebook gossip, bullying and manipulation, I’ve always been a bit cautious about posting personal information. You won’t find the names of my family on posts and you’ll rarely see their faces. It seems clear to me that whatever I post online passes out of my control permanently, so I don’t post anything I don’t want you, or ‘the man’, to see next week or next year. The various data scandals of the last 20 years have repeatedly confirmed to me that this is a sensible approach.
Facebook was better when my feed was full of news from old friends. It led to a wonderful 20 year university reunion in 2013. These days it seems to be full of ads and tik-tokery ‘I might be interested in’. I came close to quitting for a couple of months last year when algorithms dictated that hardcore porn images were suitable for my feed despite repeated reportings and settings checks. During both of my sabbaticals in the last 20 years, I hardly touched Facebook which was refreshing for my soul. I’ve also had other time-outs when the temptation to scroll was time-wastingly strong.
I hope I have used Facebook to help other people think about pure, right, true, noble, excellent, praiseworthy types of things over the years. I have stuck with it because of the Christian principle of incarnation. Jesus came into the sinful mess of our world to shine a light in the darkness. I think he wants his followers to do likewise. Can we use the online info-world to point to the spiritual-physical life, Jesus is calling us all to in the real world? I think the answer is yes on balance… just....
Australia’s planned social media ban for U16s is such a good idea. The compulsion to scroll is a challenge to self-controlled adults and seems to be utterly irresistible for teenagers. The Balrog and all other manner of horrors are down there. For the time being there will also be some good and positive stuff from me.