Evangelicals Now
Christian news worldwide
magnifying glass Search archives
home Home check the archives Archives Subscribe Subscriptions Advertising Information & booking of classifieds Adverts Find a local evangelical Church Find a church for the search engines and extremely curious! About us Contact us Site Map
Printable
Version

Watching the web

If you have not heard of it, you are probably out of it. Social networking tool http://www.myspace.com is the latest phenomenon among the internet generation. In its simplest form a giant online address book, it appeals to the vanity of us all by offering a platform from which we can address the world on our own terms.

In myspace you define who you are by defining your own space — what music you want to play, what graphics you display, what you want to say to the world, what part of you the world should see.

But, as in real life, to define yourself originally and to differentiate yourself from the rest of the human race is not that simple — the real kudos comes through who is willing to define themselves through you, who is linking to your profile, who is reading your blogs, copying your photos and borrowing your broken poetry.

It’s a simple idea, brilliantly executed, which is probably why it took a successful businessman such as Rupert Murdoch to dream it up. It’s appealing because there are few barriers on content and everybody can join in, but it’s instructive to note that in reality there are people making money out of it.

And, of course, there are a lot of lies inherent in it too. We want to define ourselves differently, but you don’t have to click through too many profiles to see that the language and the photos and the whole yearning of the site is for the most base and degrading, animal instincts that are tragically common to us all.

Myspace promises us the opportunity to be ourselves without all those annoying traits that, in our own minds, hold us back in the world — the shyness, slowness of speech, the wrong shape. But we see that the removal of these things is rarely for our benefit, increasing as it does our already great propensity to sin.

How much more wonderful and satisfying then to be able to define ourselves differently and absolutely without recourse to myspace? How much better to recognise ourselves as human beings made in the image of a perfect and matchless Creator God who changes not? And to be a Christian, an heir of God and one of his peculiar people zealous for good works? Now that is something to shout about.

Steve Doggett