Antisocial Media and the Sin of Gossip
By Nathan
Hi, I’m Nathan. I’m a news junkie. Social media, too. A total addict. But I’m in recovery.
I started to notice something a couple of months ago. Most of the time I spent reading news sites and social media ended up with me being steaming mad at something or someone. It might be someone close to me sharing an article that I strongly disagree with on Facebook. Or it could be another news site that convinced me that the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
The more time I spent reading, the longer it took to regain my peace. That’s when I had the big “Ahah” moment. Most of this so-called news is nothing but gossip, and I was swallowing it hook, line, and sinker. No wonder it got my stomach all twisted up.
But it’s just a little gossip!
Gossip is harmless, isn’t it? The word conjures images of little old ladies sitting around with their tea and knitting while sharing the juicy stories from the neighborhood. But the reality is not so Norman Rockwell.
St. Paul said, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8) Any “gossip” that falls into one of those categories is fair game.
But how much of what I read in the news or on social media meets St. Paul’s test? Pretty much all the stuff that I actually like. Pictures of friends with their kids. Encouraging notes and inspiring testimonies.
Unfortunately, these days it seems to be a relatively small percentage of the content on news and social media sites.
Follow the downward spiral.
I heard recently (yes, it might be gossip) that the Facebook algorithm loves content that makes people angry. The system looks at the words that people use in responding to content and can tell if the content makes them angry. Anger drives user engagement, engagement drives ad revenue, and so the algorithms drive provocative content. It’s a vicious circle.
It’s almost as if the algorithms have been trained in an anti-gospel. Whatever is evil, whatever is false, whatever is scandalous, whatever is unjust, whatever is hideous, whatever is worthy of condemnation, if there is anything wretched, or gross, or foul, or disgusting, or impure, these will show up at the top of the newsfeed. In the media business, this reality is found in the two very common phrases, “If it bleeds it leads,” and “sex sells.” (It’s the reason you find sexual innuendos in Disney cartoons.) No wonder that I usually end my time on social media or news sites feeling worse than before.
If a story fills me with fear and anxiety, it robs me of the peace of God. If it fills me with anger and hatred for someone who disagrees with me, it drives out the love of God and my fellow man. In other words, negative gossip leads me into sin.
The antidote is simple… stop the gossip.
I brought this up with Mike Firmin, my spiritual director, and he affirmed that the gossip had to go. Since then, I’ve almost completely cut out all social media and all news sites except the Wall Street Journal. I don’t have an actual subscription to the Journal, so I can only read the headlines and track my investment performance.
I say that it’s simple to cut out these sites, but it isn’t easy. The problem with sin is that it gets into the belly. It becomes a hunger for more of the same. If you feed on a steady diet of political news that fills you with rage, you’re going to want a steady diet of wrath. If you delight in the latest scandalous Hollywood relationship disaster, you’ll hunger for more tales out of Follywood.
Even as I write this, I have a niggling thought in the back of my mind about going to one of my old favorite watering holes for a tall glass of political scandal. The hunger is still there, even though I’ve been trying to starve it for several months.
Be like St. Paul.
The other thing that I try to do is to keep my use of social media within the bounds of what St. Paul says. A briefer way to say it is, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” Man, does that saying keep me out of trouble. I don’t get into arguments on social media. I don’t even stew about the arguments I WANT to have on social media. I’m able to hang onto my peace.
On the plus side, I’ve been using the time I’ve freed up very productively. I have been reading about the programming language Python and teaching myself to program. It’s useful, fun, and good.
Getting rid of gossip, both intake and output, clears up more room in my life for what is good, true and beautiful. St. Paul says what he does because thinking about good things leads to happiness, just as surely as thinking about evil things leads to misery.
And who doesn’t want a little more happiness?
To read more about my conversion, check out Demoniac, now available on Amazon.
