What Would Jesus Tweet?

Here at Fuller Northern California, many of our students are being equipped and prepared for youth ministry.  One of the most pressing topics that young people, parents, and youth pastors face is social media. 
 

There is a battle raging today over who should claim the right to frame social media’s influence on contemporary adolescents - a battle that tends to define social media as being either good or bad – and if we stick with this conversation line we miss the point entirely.

The problem is that while researchers and theologians argue whether social media is remapping the adolescent brain, a platform for cyber bullies, or an ideal grooming ground for pedophiles, there is a rather large social media disconnect developing between adults and adolescents.

Here are just a few reasons why this growing disconnection exists.

First, every group develops implicit patterns of interaction in order to effectively communicate with each other. This works great for those in the group, but outsiders are typically naïve to how the group operates.

As we fail to engage online with the youth in our lives, their patterns of group behavior become increasingly foreign to those in the adult world.

Second, we subconsciously filter our interpretation of adolescent online activity through the lens of personal experience; however, when you adopted the Internet is a much stronger indicator of how you perceive its primary use than age is.

That is why we sometimes see grandmothers going over their monthly text limits…lol.

Third, adolescents not only use social media differently then adults, they use it differently from each other.

A concrete thinking 13-year-old boy does not use social media for the same reason or manner as does a 17-year-old, abstract capable girl; a friendship cluster of 15-year-old girls interact differently than a social gaming cluster of 15-year-old guys.

So, given all of that, what would Jesus tweet to traverse the digital divide?

Well, it is doubtful that Jesus would use social media the way many of us do.

Can you imagine Jesus posting a picture of 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish with the caption: “Dinner for 5,000 ;D”

Such a post seems counter-intuitive to our understanding of how Jesus developed community – he first started by inviting people to join him in his everyday life.

Jesus operated with social circles that sort of rippled out from those closest in to those farthest away, each with unique patterns of interaction that was a reflection of their interpersonal relationship.

So, we could imagine Jesus texting Peter to send a boat across the lake…then meeting Peter half way – that type of interaction would reflect their relationship and Jesus’ knowing when it was okay to blow Peter’s mind.

Consequently, we don’t bridge the social media gap by starting with social media. Instead, we intentionally develop intergenerational spiritual community - inviting adolescents to share in our everyday lives, and us in theirs.

Our online interaction with adolescents then moves from bridging the digital divide to a reflection of our relationship, providing us with an important new vantage point for ongoing social media interactions.

Brad Howell is the Associate Director of Fuller Seminary in Northern California and a dad of two high school students. Nearing completion of a Doctor of Ministry Degree in Youth, Family and Culture in the area of adolescent social media use, Brad has spent much of this past year as a consultant for youth pastors and churches in our region as part of his doctoral project. He lives in Sacramento, CA.