Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Why I unfollowed nearly everyone on Twitter

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First, I apologize that this post is off-topic. But some who follow me on Twitter may notice that I unfollowed nearly everyone and might be curious as to why I did it. The following is my explanation.

With the goal of being polite, I had the policy of following back anyone who followed me on Twitter. Exceptions were made for accounts that were overtly pornographic; these I did not follow.

What I am finding is that by following over 46,000 people, my Twitter timeline had become useless to me. It was physically impossible to read all the Tweets that appear in my timeline. I ended up avoiding my timeline because it was overwhelming. It was like drinking from a fire hose (to use the well-worn image).

The second issue is that even though I had some selectivity in who I followed back, Images that I consider pornographic kept popping up in my timeline. I did not do a good job of screening those who I followed back because it takes too much time to do so. I was getting on average 100 new followers a day and I don’t have time to examine each follower closely.

I considered unfollowing select accounts, but to do that I have to view the images in order to unfollow the one who posted them. This is not something that I want to do. It is also a very time-consuming process.

So while running the risk of alienating many or all of my followers, I decided to do a mass unfollow and only follow a small number of accounts that will be helpful for me to get news, information, and encouragement.

The way it is currently configured for me, Twitter has ceased to be a communication tool. The only reason to continue on the trajectory that I am currently on would be to brag about the number of followers I have. Bragging about this number has not been something that I care to do.

I anticipate that many or most of the people that follow me did so because they assumed that I would follow back. If I unfollow them, I am likely to get unfollowed in return.

If you are offended by my unfollow and feel you need to unfollow me back, I understand. I’m OK with that.

Social media and the need for validation

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Twitter Follow Me BirdI recently read where a social media guru said something to the effect of, “there are two types of people involved in social media, those who want more followers and those who are lying about it.” There is a part of us that wants to be validated by those around us and social media provides a means of numerically providing that validation.

In contrast to this, the Apostle Paul writes in Galatians 1:10, “If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ.” Paul makes a distinction between pleasing men and serving God. The servant must find his validation in his master and not his peers. Christians should find validation in relationship with Jesus Christ and obedience to his commands.

Part of living in community is to refrain from giving offense to your neighbors. There is something appropriate about taking feedback from the people around so that we can know how we are perceived by the community. Those who do not accept this feedback are considered antisocial or worse.

Paul is not saying that he does not care how he is perceived. What Paul is saying is that he cannot let public opinion keep him from following the path laid out for him by his Master, Jesus Christ.

While the desire to be liked may not be inappropriate, if that desire keeps me from doing what is right, it then becomes an improper desire. As a recovering man-pleaser this can be a struggle for me.

There are times when I should speak up and say something appropriate to the situation but remain silent for fear of causing someone to dislike me. There are other times when I have joined in conversation in an inappropriate way so that I better fit in with the group. I can cave in on something that I think is important so that I do not make any waves. I have found that peer pressure does not stop with the end of formal education. I can be side-tracked by emotional bullies.

Perhaps I might make a case that my compromises are small ones, yet they are still compromises and some of them are sin. Paul sets the example by stating that the only thing that matters for the believer is whether or not he pleases God. While we cannot earn our salvation, by being obedient, we can one day hear that coveted blessing, “Well done, good and faithful slave” (Matthew 25:21).

While the drive to be liked, followed or otherwise connected on social media is morally neutral, if it keeps me from being obedient to God, then it is an idol that requires smashing. The same is true of setting up other measures of “man-pleasing” such as church attendance, sermon downloads, etc.

We are called to emulate Jesus in being full of grace and truth. If we compromise on the truth for the sake of popularity or acceptance, we are not being faithful to our call to live as salt and light in a world that desperately needs it.

Discussion question: How do you determine when you are becoming a “man-pleaser?” Please add your thoughts in the comment section below.

Why I switched from Bufferapp to Timely for Tweet buffering

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Update – 2/21/2013

With the demise of Timely, I am now using Hootsuite for my update scheduling. Hootsuite now has an “auto scheduling” function which is very handy. There are two downsides to Hootsuite. First, using the auto feature, there is no way to control the time of the tweets or the number of tweets scheduled per day. The second downside is that there is no option to using bit.ly as the URL shortener. The only choice is to use the owl.ly functionality built into Hootsuite. Neither of these two issues are deal breakers for me.

Original Post

Timely Tweet Buffering

I had been using Bufferapp for Tweet buffering for a long while. Recently I discovered a similar service called Timely. Both of these apps provide a buffer for spacing out Tweets. When I am looking at RSS feeds or catching up on email I often find links that I’d like to share. The beauty of Buffer or Timely is that instead of bombarding my followers with a bunch of tweets all in a row, I can put them into a buffer that sends them out at a specified interval.

Both of these services have a premium edition where additional features are available for a monthly fee. My comparison is for the free services only. If you are willing to pay for the premium services, you can make your own comparison. If you do, feel free to post your conclusions or observations in a comment below.

Here are the four reasons why I made the switch:

  • Timely allows unlimited Tweets in the buffer whereas Bufferapp limits the buffer to 10 Tweets.
  • Timely allows for multiple accounts and interfaces with Facebook well.
  • Timely gives you the option of posting to any or all of the accounts at the same time.
  • Timely sends me a concise weekly email summary of my activity and the performance of the tweets.

Both of these services have widgets that make it easy to use the service from within the browser of your choice. I use Chrome as my primary browser and the widgets for both services work equally well with Chrome.

To be fair, I should point out the one advantage of Bufferapp. That is that the service allows you to schedule the times of the Tweets whereas Timely only allows me to specify the number of Tweets per day.

Also with Bufferapp, if you refer friends to the service you can earn additional capacity in the Tweet buffer. But this is nullified by the fact that Timely does not have a limit.

Both services work well but because of the three items mentioned above I have a slight preference at this time for Timely.

What do you think? Are there any other buffering services I should try?

 

A Real Sense of Community

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CommunityA few days ago I read a story about a man with 100,000 Twitter followers who took his own life. I know nothing about his history or the reasons behind the suicide. But I am struck by sadness that none of the 100,000 “friends” was close enough to prevent this tragedy.

I often hear that social media is intended to build a sense of community. I suppose it does to a limited extent. I read certain blogs and have some knowledge of the writers. We can comment on each other’s blogs. In a very limited fashion, we could call that community.

Yet isn’t a real community supposed to prevent tragedies like suicide? Shouldn’t a following of 100,000 people have at least a few that would be close enough to know when something is terribly wrong?

Because of my interest in blogging and the church, I find articles which present social media as a platform for church growth. But as this tragedy illustrates, social media connection may not equate to real growth.

The church is a community and fellowship of the redeemed. We are a bunch of imperfect people who are brought into relationship with each other because of our individual relationships with Jesus Christ. We bring dysfunction and ignorance and God uses the community to work these problems out of us.

Social media can be a tool to build community, but let’s not think that a large on-line following is a real community. We still need to worship together, break bread together, study together, perhaps even argue with each other if we want to be a real community. Real community can be a messy business because there are times when each of us is a mess.

The church should be a place where flawed people feel accepted and air their struggles. Each member should feel valued and have a sense that the community suffers when one member is suffering. We should know each other well enough to know when something is wrong.

This type of community may not prevent tragedies like the suicide mentioned above, but it should minimize their occurrence. Real community provides real help to those who seek it.

Let’s focus on being a real community and not be satisfied with a sham based on follower counts.

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