Some perspective on current issues with social media, "Big Tech", corporate media, etc.

[Krissa Lox]

Not meant to trivialize some of the serious issues and potential consequences of some bad things happening in these areas, but I thought it would be good to vocalize a reminder that:

Free and de-centralized communication infrastructures outside of the commercial internet, like UseNet, ListServ, BBS's, still exist and remain in active usage, even if not as widely advertised and popular as commercial options.

Cheap but effective non-profit Linux-based computing is available from places like Raspberry Pi, with dedicated support communities to help people learn, customize, and innovate with it.

A lot of good software alternatives can be found at places like Free Software Foundation and SourceForge, also with dedicated support communities to help people out.

"Big Tech" does not now, never has, and never will own the internet as a whole, but it's older and more dominating brother in commerce "Big Advertising" has a lot of means and incentive to try to create that illusion, because it likes to exploit Big Tech's userbase for its own gain, regardless of the consequences to others.

Maybe one day Big Tech will grow up enough to stand on its own and push away from its older brother's manipulations, but that day is probably not today.

However, Big Tech is not really as big and powerful as it thinks it is, and society isn't going to collapse if advertising-dependent media services suffer a reduction in commercial viability. Society may even end up being improved by such an event, though there would likely be some chaos and pain to endure in the process.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

It's certainly true big tech doesn't own everything, the Conservative and free speech backlash against big tech is becoming significant, but major platforms for getting dissenting voices heard are few. The internet was supposed to free people but it seems like it does the opposite. People going to their safe space and demanding other places become them lest they be triggered by someone disagreeing. Christians fearing too much to have meaningful conversations on their own Discord about their own beliefs. YouTube posting Left leaning links for Covid, abortion, and voting. Then you find out you've been shadow banned on Youtube (the only social media site I use) after pouring hours of work on purely polite, and mostly non-political fluff, posts for nothing. Not to mention Google requires a phone now for a new account so if you can't afford one tough luck. The Conservative Reedit requiring karma to get in though the Leftist one didn't (so I am thinking one gets more trolls than the other). Seems like it was so much easier when you could just walk up and talk to a stranger at a well.

I guess I could try Twitter now that you are allowed to say a man is a man and woman is a woman but I'm only talking in places that I actually use. I watch videos on YouTube so I make comments there, I play the games with Christians so I make comments there. That's called a normal relationship where you know, talk. I don't actually like talking, at all, about anything, but Bible says I should so I do. I'm not starting a ministry I just make normal, polite, comments in the places I go (the internet being the only place I can go) and the internet tells me to shut up.

 

[Krissa Lox]

It's certainly true big tech doesn't own everything, the Conservative and free speech backlash against big tech is becoming significant, but major platforms for getting dissenting voices heard are few. The internet was supposed to free people but it seems like it does the opposite. People going to their safe space and demanding other places become them lest they be triggered by someone disagreeing. Christians fearing too much to have meaningful conversations on their own Discord about their own beliefs. YouTube posting Left leaning links for Covid, abortion, and voting. Then you find out you've been shadow banned on Youtube (the only social media site I use) after pouring hours of work on purely polite, and mostly non-political fluff, posts for nothing. Not to mention Google requires a phone now for a new account so if you can't afford one tough luck. The Conservative Reedit requiring karma to get in though the Leftist one didn't (so I am thinking one gets more trolls than the other). Seems like it was so much easier when you could just walk up and talk to a stranger at a well.

I guess I could try Twitter now that you are allowed to say a man is a man and woman is a woman but I'm only talking in places that I actually use. I watch videos on YouTube so I make comments there, I play the games with Christians so I make comments there. That's called a normal relationship where you know, talk. I don't actually like talking, at all, about anything, but Bible says I should so I do. I'm not starting a ministry I just make normal, polite, comments in the places I go (the internet being the only place I can go) and the internet tells me to shut up.

That's not an area I can speak with a lot of confidence and usefulness about, because I am an adamant avoider of social media myself. I only use Twitter because I don't have to create an account or share my data or be subjected to any algorithms to read posts there. It works to just bookmark individual people or organizations I want to follow to read their pages directly, but I don't try to engage in conversations there.

In my experience, social media tends to be a place where the majority of people are trying to gain benefits of social networking without taking on the work and responsibilities involved in actually maintaining relationships, so even if much greater numbers of people happen to be there, I don't usually find them as worth my time as less populated places where participants are more thoughtful and meaningfully engaged.

Of course, the Lord will call people to work in all kinds of places, so I don't want to come across as trying to dissuade you from being there if you feel a specific calling to it. However, concerning your statement:

I don't actually like talking, at all, about anything, but Bible says I should so I do.

there are three specific Bible verses that come to mind if you would find them helpful (but no offense will be taken if God has strongly convicted you in another direction):

1 Corinthians 9:7-10: "Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope."

The Lord doesn't expect you to go places on your own and fend for yourself to accomplish things for Him without giving you everything you need in guidance, grace, and sufficiency to see it through. While meeting some resistance in serving the Lord is inevitable because the world as a whole rejects Him and we as disciples are not above our Master so we can't expect to be more welcomed by the world than He is (Matthew 10), if you're not being adequately provisioned for the kind of resistance you're seeing, then maybe the Lord has somewhere else He would rather you be. And if that's the case, that's not an issue of personal failure in what you were trying to do, but just that God has different strategic goals in mind that He'd like to use your efforts for.

Luke 10:2: "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest."

There are more than enough people earnestly seeking what Christ has to offer than there are workers willing and able to reach them. Those are the people we need to be seeking and reaching out to, and we don't need to be wasting time with others who are either tares among the wheat or not yet mature enough
for harvest.

1 Corinthians 9:20-23: "And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you."

If you are called to speak to others, part of the process of that calling is learning how to be adaptable in your speaking to effectively communicate in varying cultural contexts. If the Lord hasn't gifted you with talents or disposition for that, then maybe you're being too hard on yourself and pushing yourself into frustration by going to places the Lord didn't intend, and maybe should consider and pray about the talents you do have to find a role that fits you better in His service.

Lastly, if the internet is the only place you are able to meet other people, that would indicate more of a problem with local churches in your area than the internet itself, and chances are there won't be any fully satisfying internet solution to meet your very real and valid fellowship needs. I think that everyone here cares about you and would be willing to be here for you in what ways we can, but I know it's not the same as real-world connection. A lot of my cynicism towards social media stems from a belief that it intentionally exploits disconnected people and preys upon their loneliness while allowing able-bodied to feel off the hook from more substantial inclusion of those who are not so able, but telling you I think something's bad doesn't help you find something good to replace it with. Being disabled myself, I can understand and empathize with your pain and frustration, but I know empathy alone doesn't offer much help, so I'll keep you in my prayers for God to comfort and guide you through this.

I think the church as a whole is going to have to undergo a lot of transformation to be more effective in this digital age, and I think a lot of good people are getting neglected and left behind while it keeps foot-dragging on this and dissipating its energies on more worldly pursuits instead. I think things will eventually get better because the Lord loves us and is still in control and surely has a plan that the world doesn't have the capability to defeat. But I think those of us who are currently living as outcasts will still continue to face difficulties for a while as things get sorted out. But this, too, is also service to the Lord, that honors and brings us closer to Him and shows our love and faith and obedience, even if it doesn't feel like we're accomplishing much else. It means something to God even if no one else appreciates it.

 

[The Mighty Gerbil]

When I first joined CGA/Toj, around 2006, I thought I had little to offer. I knew a little about God and a little about gaming and knowing I was ill suited to heady and esoteric doctrine discussion thought I wouldn't be completely lost in the environment of Christian gaming. Still I thought these are people who know the Bible better than I, go to church regularly, college, and even seminary. People who have life experience, families, drive, and generally go places and do things. As time wore on I've come to realize knowledge and experience has little to do with the will or wisdom to use it and often only create more complex excuses for things that should be simple. That too many shirk what they do know to prioritize idle pastimes and "peace" Matthew 10:34 over pursuing the will of God. I certainly expect game discussion and playing in a gaming clan but I expected discussion of the merits and detriments of those games too. I thought Christians would go "I like X gameplay but that game promotes X sin too" or Christians would differ on some issue and then quote the Bible and/or make logical arguments for and against. That Christians above all else would earnestly seek to discern and serve God's will. To be Christians who happen to game not gamers who happen to Christian.

I remember reading a thread in Pure Fun which ended with (paraphrasing it) "I don't think people are taking God's name in vain they are just saying it". Which of course is literarily the definition of using in vain as in without respect or meaning. So of course I think "Is anyone going to get that?" but no one did. So ok maybe people don't have time for endless internet debates I get it, but, time worn on. An atheist running roughshod on the forums, the reluctance to critic games that support LGBT, the inability to critic D&D (and I like tabletop roleplaying), the complete aversion to anything political even though it's really about morality. Everything sugar all the time and little thought of how to serve God first in the things we do. I never expected agreement or asked it, no two people ever agree completely, I expected a race earnestly run.

It's taken decades but my inferiority complex has changed. I no longer look to other "educated" Christians as my betters but it is a sad state of Christianity if a fool and coward like me now thinks others are worse. So I am occasionally proactive in posting here, or more likely wherever I wander, but more often I'm reactive against blatant foolishness. I have few talents but I refuse to bury them or walk on by when I see a man in a ditch. I no longer care what other Christians think of me and if no one else is going to say something needing to be said I guess I have to. Even if the internet isn't ideal it's all I have so it's what I'll use.

 

[Krissa Lox]

When I first joined CGA/Toj, around 2006, I thought I had little to offer. I knew a little about God and a little about gaming and knowing I was ill suited to heady and esoteric doctrine discussion thought I wouldn't be completely lost in the environment of Christian gaming. Still I thought these are people who know the Bible better than I, go to church regularly, college, and even seminary. People who have life experience, families, drive, and generally go places and do things. As time wore on I've come to realize knowledge and experience has little to do with the will or wisdom to use it and often only create more complex excuses for things that should be simple. That too many shirk what they do know to prioritize idle pastimes and "peace" Matthew 10:34 over pursuing the will of God. I certainly expect game discussion and playing in a gaming clan but I expected discussion of the merits and detriments of those games too. I thought Christians would go "I like X gameplay but that game promotes X sin too" or Christians would differ on some issue and then quote the Bible and/or make logical arguments for and against. That Christians above all else would earnestly seek to discern and serve God's will. To be Christians who happen to game not gamers who happen to Christian.

I remember reading a thread in Pure Fun which ended with (paraphrasing it) "I don't think people are taking God's name in vain they are just saying it". Which of course is literarily the definition of using in vain as in without respect or meaning. So of course I think "Is anyone going to get that?" but no one did. So ok maybe people don't have time for endless internet debates I get it, but, time worn on. An atheist running roughshod on the forums, the reluctance to critic games that support LGBT, the inability to critic D&D (and I like tabletop roleplaying), the complete aversion to anything political even though it's really about morality. Everything sugar all the time and little thought of how to serve God first in the things we do. I never expected agreement or asked it, no two people ever agree completely, I expected a race earnestly run.

It's taken decades but my inferiority complex has changed. I no longer look to other "educated" Christians as my betters but it is a sad state of Christianity if a fool and coward like me now thinks others are worse. So I am occasionally proactive in posting here, or more likely wherever I wander, but more often I'm reactive against blatant foolishness. I have few talents but I refuse to bury them or walk on by when I see a man in a ditch. I no longer care what other Christians think of me and if no one else is going to say something needing to be said I guess I have to. Even if the internet isn't ideal it's all I have so it's what I'll use.

Well, I can't speak to CGA-specific issues because that's Tek's domain, but if you're looking for more fundamentalist Christian discussion, I can recommend https://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=hopetoledo