Mister Nifty

This week I posted my resignation from Twitter and Facebook on a personal level. I plan on keeping a Twitter feed for Mister Nifty for those who want to continue following my posts. I’ve had quite a few people ask my why I made this decision to abandon social media, so here is my open explanation in case you were wondering.

Before you read, please understand that it is not my intention to offend anyone who sees value in social media for their worldview and set of circumstances.  This is simply my opinion of my life, and not a judgment of anyone else.

Social Media Has Become Noise

Although there are facets of social media that are valuable, I have found the ever-increasing population of Twitter and Facebook has added unnecessary noise to my life. At its inception, Twitter was a great way for me to find resources, meet people of like interests and learn about Internet technologies. My media stream was just that, a stream.

Facebook was merely a way to connect with old friends and find people I hadn’t heard from in ages. It is has morphed into a social engine that is literally trying to take over the Internet. With over 500 Million users (over 6% of the global population), Facebook is a monstrous application whose media stream is more like a raging river than a stream.

I’ve tried to pare down who I friend on Facebook, but the friend requests become relentless if not accepted in a reasonable amount of time. I had one person email me every day asking me to like their personal page. I finally had to un-friend them so they would quit. Then, they started requesting friend status every day. I was very thankful that Facebook allowed me to block all applications and websites with one checkbox in the privacy settings. However, prior to this silver bullet setting, Farmville and FB polls had irritated me so much I just quit posting. The damage was already done.

With the amount of data flowing through these social pipes, it’s so hard to keep up. It’s almost too hard to dip your ladle in the stream and get a sip without getting sucked into the undertow of hour-long distractions. What used to be a simple bulletin board of useful information has turned into a contest of the loudest voice, the wittiest sayings, the most exquisite dining experiences, the greatest personal achievements/conquests and finally (on Saturday nights) the most profound theological statements.

I did a quick survey of my Twitter feed and analyzed what tweets added value to areas of knowledge and relationships, and sadly, the lion share of postings were self-centered, useless (photos of nasty looking food), or simply noise. Twitter has become a motivational speaker within itself and there is not a lack of inspirational tweets anywhere. I’m not an elitist by any means, and I don’t want to come across that way. I have tried for months to find real-life value in Twitter, but the fact remains that most of Twitter has become distracting noise.

I equate Twitter and Facebook to a crowded room where everyone is telling what’s on their mind. Some have their wallets out showing photos of their kids, others are talking to inanimate objects or concepts such as “Dear Friday, you are my best friend.” Others are having a YouTube fest over in the corner on their iPad. In order to be heard above the crowd, you must yell. As more people yell, the noise morphs into a solitary static hum: a hum deafening to focus, yet silent of value.

Sad Real-life Implications of Social Media

When social media hit the scene, I was excited at the prospects of bringing people closer together. I have tried to find ways to strengthen friendships, or learn more about people through Twitter or Facebook. After years of ingesting and participating in social media, I have found that social media has brought us closer in acquaintance, but not in friendship. In fact, I have seen social media become an excuse to some not to interact in real life, but yet know what’s going on in a person’s life.

I have 1,300 friends on Facebook and almost 500 followers on Twitter. That means at any given time, 1,800 people can look into my personal life, opinions, photos, etc…  There are people who follow me and never interact with me, but yet when they see me at a conference they can regurgitate everything I posted for the last six months. The fact that we watch other people’s personal thoughts and their life unfold in our time line without interaction is a form of digital voyeurism.

We are wired to have relationships. Those relationships need sensory interactions to be strengthened and maintained. Body language, touch, vocal inflections, etc… are all a vital part of how God created us to form strong bonds with others. Social media lacks that capacity. Every tweet, and every post is left without the context of physical expression (a smile, a harsh tone, a saddened demeanor, a lonely stare). Information and data without context tends to fuel prejudice and judgment. In a sense, social media has defrauded many a user in that they feel the satisfaction and guarantee of friendship without ever having to do the things that make friendships work.

There have been a few times that I have stopped following others only to receive an angry or inquiring email demanding a reason why. I’ve discussed this with friends and many have experienced the same scenario. The impact of that one “Stop Following This Person” or “Remove From Friends” has caused turmoil in many real-life friendships.

More than once have I heard gossip about someone changing their relationship status with another person. I accidentally deleted my ‘married’ status with my wife while updating my profile last year. Shortly thereafter came several emails asking if my wife and I were OK. We were just fine. It amazed me to see how many people feed off a simple relationship status.

The thing I’ve learned from social media is that what was supposed to bring us closer together has actually driven us farther apart relationally.

For The Haters and Skeptics

First of all, I love you in Christ.

Secondly:

• I am not throwing the baby out with the bath water. I just can’t seem to find the baby.
• If Twitter is a simple bulletin board for information purposes, I have a good RSS reader which works just dandy.
• As for networking in ministry, God directs ministry. Twitter and FB are not the glue that keeps me connected to the Body of Christ, nor are they the source for open doors of ministry. God has opened doors of ministry through the leading of His Spirit for thousands of years before digital social media. I see my resignation as a way to hear the voice of God more clearly in my life.
• I’m not being extreme, rash or unbalanced. I feel this is the most moderate decision I’ve made about social media for my specific set of circumstances. This is something I’ve pondering and analyzed for over six months now. I’ve tried everything from filtering lists and skinnying up my following list. At the end of the day, I still don’t find enough value on a personal level to maintain my accounts. I’m keeping my blogging and business ventures on social media, just not my personal feed.
• For those who think I’m giving up on my friends, I’m not. I’ve provided a couple of ways to contact me and stay in touch. I want to interact with you, but on a more meaningful level than just a tweet here, a tweet there and everywhere a tweet tweet.
• Me: “But Mom, everyone else is doing it!” My Mom: “If everyone else jumped of a bridge would you do it too?” The point: Peer pressure is not a good decision making guide. I love this quote from Mitch Rose – “Trying to please everyone is suicide on an installment plan.”
• I plan on focusing my connection with others via writing snail mail notes, making phone calls, and taking the time I spent on social media to pray for my friends.
• For those who still don’t understand, I ask you not to judge me.

Finally, if you would like to contact me, please email me from my contact page and I will gladly reply with my personal email.

******* Update September 14th ************

Looks like I beat out one of the most popular Tweets in deleting my Twitter account.  John Mayer has quit Twitter today and is focusing on his blog. (Disclaimer: I am not supporting John Mayer’s lifestyle or vocabulary as referenced in this article. This link is simply to show a man who had almost 4 million followers has pulled the plug.)

Resource: A friend of mine recommended this book “Amusing Ourselves To Death” which offers some insight into the impact of our entertainment consumption.

This is just a curious observation from over the past few months. I see a lot of theological tweets and central sermon idea tweets pop up at certain times throughout the week (mostly on Saturday nights) from preachers that I follow on Twitter. It’s interesting to see the general study habits of a large group of people by their preach tweets.

I find myself “preach tweeting” when I’m studying for a sermon as well. I just can’t help it! And if you’re Pentecostal like I am, you have to sprinkle some exclamation marks in there somewhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I think we should tag these sometimes awkward, sometimes context-lacking, sometimes off-the-wall and sometimes powerful 140 character sermons #preachtweets.

I’ve created a fun little chart to illustrate my observation. Disclaimer: By no means is this reliable empirical data.

Facebook has 400 million users. That’s almost 6% of the entire global population. Facebook’s founder has made it clear at the latest developer conference, that Facebook aims to take over the entire Internet. They want to be the central hub where websites come to get users/traffic.  Facebook is bigger than the United States population. I can’t think of any other online business that has this much power over the personal information of 6% of the global population.

There has been a lot of concern in recent days with Facebook’s privacy practices. Recently the Wall Street Journal exposed how Facebook and Twitter send your user information when you click on any external link. This violates Facebook’s own privacy agreement.

Basically, information called a referrer is sent to the site you visit after clicking on a link or ad from Facebook or Twitter. Within that referrer is a reference to your profile screen name or number. This information is collected by analytics trackers such as Google Analytics.

No longer are you an anonymous user, but with this information they have your public profile information at their finger tips. This has huge implications if you come across an unscrupulous site. If your Facebook privacy settings are not locked down, an advertiser can find your full name (sometimes your hyphenated maiden name) and even your address on your PUBLIC profile.

Facebook has launched a new program as well that gives certain websites your information so they can customize their site just for you. You may not know it but you are automatically opted into this program with the latest Facebook update. It’s only a pilot program for now, but in the future, your information could potentially be shared with thousands of sites across the net just by visiting.

Here are a few ways I came up with to protect yourself and your information:

(more…)

Facebook wants to become the central hub of the Internet. In more definitive terms, it wants to become the river, and all websites will become its tributaries. This potentially can expose users to privacy issues in the future. There are a lot of proponents and skeptics out there. This may be a huge turning point for the web to globalize the socialize. This is extremely innovative on Facebook’s part.

Here’s a great little podcast explaining what Facebooks Open Graph means to you: Future Tense Podcast.

Currently, you are relatively anonymous when viewing websites. It takes a court order to link your name to your IP. Your IP follows you wherever you go and a website owner can track you down to your region where your ISP is located. That’s why you get ads that target the city or county you live in. However, they do not know your name or your behavioral preferences. Facebook Open Graph could possibly place advertisers one step closer to your privacy bubble.

Your “Like This” choices will follow you across the net and be used in an algorithm to control what content you are served as well as what content your friends see at initial visit. This is reality today. As of now, the only way you can be tracked on the net is if you leave a comment on a site, and that is if you use your real name. Facebook wants you to use your “identity” when surfing the interwebs. This word “identity” scares me a bit because of the implications of privacy.

A lot of publishers are diving full force into Open Graph because Facebook has a 400 million user audience. This means if you are concerned about your privacy, you should be mindful about the implications of viewing a site integrated into Facebook. Do your research, and find out if you’re OK with the new changes at Facebook. I encourage everyone to drill down and check every privacy option on Facebook. After all, it is your “identity” you’re putting out there.

There is some confusion about the difference between Facebook pages and groups among a lot of youth pastors. If you’re looking to put your church or youth group on Facebook, you might want to consider the following points.

Pages

• Intended for organizations, companies, bands, brands, celebrities etc.
• A place to post updates, not good for interaction.
• Fans can view updates in their feed.
• Updates can be pushed to a Twitter account.
• Multiple admins, but updates are always from the page profile avatar, not personal avatars.
• Unlimited number of fans.
• Cannot mass email fans.
• No privacy settings.

Groups

• Created for interaction among members.
• Limit of 5,000 members.
• Can assign other admins, list officers, and block members.
• Mass email group members (under 5,000).
• Updates show personal avatars rather than the group avatar.
• Privacy settings – invite only, public, etc.
• Updates cannot be pushed to Twitter.
• Updates cannot be viewed in member’s feeds.

It is my opinion that churches who want to throw their social networking eggs into the Facebook basket should have both a page and a group. The group can be used to collect photos and have discussions about events and the page can be used for announcements and your Twitter account. Typically, discussions are very rare within a Facebook groups, however you can use discussions during youth events by creating a poll or something similar and driving members to use it. Groups are important if you want to get news out quickly via email to all of your members. With pages, a member might miss your update if they don’t check their account very often. I hope this helps you figure out your Facebook strategy!

For more in depth reading check out Mashable’s post on Pages vs. Groups.

Mister Nifty has been a great resource for thousands over the past year.  Instead of simply being a static resource guide, I want to create a church tech community where we can share our experiences and help others.  If you are involved in any way with your church tech operations, come sign up and start sharing.  You can upload photos and videos that will help others.  You can also create discussions and tutorials to share the knowledge you have gained.

As you might know, I am a diehard open source guy.  I love free stuff.  With that being said, open source is a culture that embraces the knowledge of everyone, not just one person.  I am not the expert at all things by any means.  I need your knowledge just as much as others need mine.   I want to implement some of those principles into this site.  Mister Nifty is more than a resource guide now, it’s a community.  I am still going to post as usual, but now there is a place for your voice to be heard.  This is brand new, so sign up and start posting what you know.  We want to hear!