In a world that is increasingly connected via social media, members of society seem to be drifting further apart. That’s a problem, according to the Rev. Kyle Henderson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Athens.
Henderson was the featured speaker during Tuesday evening’s Read Through The Valley kickoff at Trinity Valley Community College. His topic was, “Do I have ethical thumbs? Social media ethics for today.” An overflow crowd of around 70 students and community members packed a classroom inside the Learning Resource Center on the Athens campus to watch the presentation.
Henderson – who writes a blog and uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Flickr – said statistics show social mediums often improve our relationships with friends but hurt our relationships with family. One in seven people in the world use social media, he said, adding that nearly 2.5 million pieces of content are posted on Facebook and 277,000 Tweets are posted on Twitter per minute.
“It’s still a whole new thing for our world,” Henderson said. “We’re still trying to figure out how to operate it.”
In light of that, many are not exercising best practices when it comes to using social media. Henderson presented several supporting examples, including a major car company employee using the corporate Twitter account to complain about bad driving in Detroit; a fast food chain employee posting pictures of food served after it had been contaminated; and maybe most shockingly of all, a student posting her lack of concern for a classmate who had committed suicide after being bullied on social media.
“This is a real problem and it’s an ethical problem,” Henderson said, recommending a cooling-off period before posting what could turn out to be angry, rude or inappropriate content on the Internet. “Most of us need to learn that time is our friend and it gives us time to reflect about what we’re doing.”
Henderson encouraged his audience to enjoy social media but work harder to be present in the moments when they are supposed to be interacting with friends, family and others in traditional, social situations.
“Show up, be attentive,” he said. “We’re supposed to be integrated people. … (Many) people are not having relationships with the people around them. I don’t think that’s going to help the world and I don’t think it’s going to help you, either.”
Henderson is the first of several speakers planned this year for Read Through The Valley – a campus enrichment program that last year served as a book club that met to discuss aspects and topics related to the selected book. The format of this year’s RTTV will be a speaker series.