Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
—Isaiah 6:8
If you like talking about the Internet, sister, you have come to the right place. I’m a big fan of the World Wide Web.
You’ve Got Mail is still my favorite movie. Maybe it’s because the main character owns a tiny beautiful bookstore, or maybe it’s the overuse of twinkly lights, daffodils, tissues, and knee-length skirts, but if that movie comes on the television, I can hardly walk away.
Back when it first came out, the idea that you would MEET A PERSON ON THE INTERNET was so foreign and creepy that it really forged new territory. Back then, chat rooms were only for perverts, and connecting with a stranger on the other side of the computer was guaranteeing that you were IMing with a fifty-year-old dude who still lived in his mom’s basement.
Ew.
Today? My seventeen-year-old friend Anne tells me how she has a new best friend in London who sent her a Christmas present, and how did they meet? Thanks to the Steam Powered Giraffe fandom tumblr.
I know. Those five words don’t make any sense to most of us because you actually cannot steam power a giraffe, and a fandom is not a real thing, and you forgot the “e” in tumblr. Trust me, if you said “Steam Powered Giraffe fandom tumblr” to my grandmother, she would think you had fallen down at the zoo in July.
But it is. It is a real thing. And the band doesn’t do much except make music and, though I don’t exactly understand why, they dress like metallic robots from 1922.
What the fans do is the amazing part. They become friends with each other. They click here and there, and within minutes they are connected with other fans who love Steam Powered Giraffe. The band doesn’t do anything to cultivate friendships within their fan base. They just create music and the fans connect with each other.
Last week, Anne’s mom and I were texting about a French dip recipe (Want it? It’s in the appendix) when suddenly her text tone changed (know what I mean?). She told me Anne had just gotten a phone call from another online friend, this one across the US from her. That friend’s dad had just been killed in a car wreck and who did she call? Anne.
No, they didn’t grow up together. No, they can’t drive to each other’s houses. But their friendship and connection, while building it around this weird band that makes music my thirty-three-year-old ears do not prefer, was much deeper and more profound than I would have guessed online friendships could become.
That’s where things are going, isn’t it?
A few months ago I drove to Birmingham for a speaking engagement. When I had a break in the afternoon, I pointed my car through the backwoods of some part of Alabama I did not know and drove to LoraLynn’s house. She and her husband have seven children under seven (it involved adoption and twins in case the math was getting you down), and when I arrived we sat on the couch and talked about life, and I cried about heartache while the kids wove in and out of the room. I told her the real stuff, and she told me the same.
LoraLynn and I met on the Internet.
I recently wrote a blog post about one of my college roommates, Eve. We had a great house of six girls who lived together for a few years. We left our Christmas tree up far into the spring season and ate too much ranch-flavored Suddenly Salad pasta salad. Three of us went to Dairy Queen one day in the summer, and between us we had $2.50 in quarters and three flipflops. THREE. I hope you are picturing the classy display that we were. I really loved that house of girls. But here we are, a bunch of years later, and I don’t even have all of their phone numbers or mailing addresses anymore. But we’re all friends on Facebook, and when I wrote the post about Eve, I posted it to her wall so she would see it. Within a few hours, we had a whole conversation going on about that one post about the year we put on turtlenecks and went to the Walmart photo studio to make Christmas cards. (We were awesome roommates.)
The Internet keeps us together, and I’m grateful. On its best-behaved days, I’ve seen the Internet make friends, grow friendships, and be the string that ties together old friendships that might otherwise break apart.
But the Internet doesn’t always behave.
Today I googled “cyberbullying” because I wanted to read a story or two about the ugly side of the Internet. We all know it is out there—rampant pornography, tutorials on violence and hate, celebrated racism. I know that bullying happens online as much as, if not more than, it happens at school or church or wherever. But I wanted some stats and some facts.
Every culture has its villains and every society has evil. That is true of the modern-day Wild, Wild West that is the World Wide Web. You know, there is NOWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD where this many people can get together without any laws or police. I can’t go to a Georgia Bulldogs game with 92,746 of my closest friends without passing by a ticket taker, walking by K9 cops with their smart-nosed dogs, and pushing past fences. That’s not true of the Internet. As of January 2013, Facebook alone has one billion users, YouTube had 800 million, and there were 150 million tumblr accounts. And not one Internet police officer.
When I got to Google and started snooping around about cyberbullying, to be honest? It ruined my day. The stories of how students treat each other online could make you literally throw up. One article listed the names of students who had committed suicide related to cyberbullying. Each name was hyperlinked, so you could click on it and read their news stories. And while that is just a paragraph of names, each of those names has a mom and a dad. Probably brothers and sisters have walked by an empty bedroom that used to belong to one of those kids. Teenagers have lost their friends.
According to mashable.com, from 1985–2007, Internet and technology grew rapidly (duh), but so did teen suicides. In fact, the Center for Disease Control found that suicide rates in girls fifteen to nineteen rose 32 percent and rose 76 percent in girls ten to fourteen.1
You can say that is a coincidence, but I don’t think it is.
It’s heartbreaking. And it is too much for my brain to understand.
In 2012, CovenantEyes.com released stats related to cyberbullying. According to their research, “41% of older girls (fifteen to seventeen) report being bullied [online], more than any other gender or age group.”2 That means of your small group at church of twelve girls, five of them could be being bullied online right now. RIGHT NOW.
Do you know which five?
Are you one of them?
Are you the bully?
I also discovered on that same site that 88 percent of social media-using teens say they have seen someone be mean or cruel to another person on a social network site, and 12 percent of these say they witness this kind of behavior “frequently.”
Frequently?
We’ve talked a lot about the mean girl and her words in the last chapter, so I won’t linger here. But you know what I know—the Internet can be a heartbreaking place.
So I read tons online about cyberbullying and at the bottom Amen.
We can talk all day long about all the awful corners of the Internet, but instead, I want to talk about how we can become the stronger voice online.
Here’s something true: you are part of the loudest generation that has ever existed. Never before has a group of people been given the voice and access that we all have now.
My social sciences teacher did a really cool experiment with our class in the ninth grade. (I couldn’t exactly remember how this story went, so—thank you, technology—I Facebooked my teacher from twenty years ago and he remembered. Well done, Mr. Lynch!)
Our class made up a word. It was a word that no one had ever seen or used before—PPM. He asked us, for one week, to write those letters everywhere: put it on our lockers, write it in notes, pretty much paper our school in PPM. There were only about fifteen of us in this particular class, but after a week of writing PPM around the school, lots of other kids started using it too. We would get together in class and laugh hysterically—how in the WORLD did these hundreds of high schoolers decide to graffiti our letters all over the place and why? It didn’t make sense, but it worked.
We had created a fad, a buzzword, something that caught on.
I was shocked. Here we were, a freshman social sciences class with fifteen people who had just influenced our entire school of hundreds of students to use some crazy letter pattern we created.
This is true of me and this is true of you; we love being told what is cool. That’s why fashion magazines sell and that’s what buzzfeed.com excels at—showing you what other people think is cool so that you can know what is cool.
Or perceived as cool, at least.
And here you are, with all the tools you could ever need (assuming you are on the Internet in some capacity), to help people decide what is cool and what is worth talking about.3
Those of you on the Internet, you are loud, my friends. You are. If all of you decided on one day to write on Facebook, “Don’t wear red anymore,” our favorite clothing companies would quit making red clothing. Plain and simple. You are able to constantly express your opinions and emotions and people are listening.
Louie Giglio and the Passion Movement have created an anti-slavery organization called The END IT Movement. All they ask of students like you? Awareness. They just want you to talk about it, tweet about it, like them on Facebook—those kinds of things. Because they know what we know: when you talk about something online, it changes things.
It’s time to get loud. It’s time to use your social media presence to share truth with people. When we share who God is and how He loves, we can make a difference in the world.
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
I wonder if Jesus was thinking about the Internet when He said this to the crowds gathered to hear Him speak some two thousand years ago. Sure, they didn’t have a clue what was coming in the future, but He did.
My heart has known the song “This Little Light of Mine” for my whole life, but I don’t know that it has ever impacted me, truly, the way it does when I think about our ability to affect the world online.
Before I was a book writer, I was a blogger. (I still am a blogger: annieblogs.com.) When I first started, I knew about five people with a blog. They all went to my church. I didn’t realize that there was a whole other world on the Internet where bloggers existed and knew each other and kept up with each other’s lives.
I just started writing for those five. For my friends. I began to tell stories of my days in the classroom as an elementary teacher, my church experiences, concerts, sports events, and the ridiculous things that seem to happen to me a lot. And before I knew it, there were strangers reading what I wrote. I would have ten readers one day and then fifteen the next. Within a few months there were one hundred people reading about my life Monday through Friday. And then it just kept growing.
My blog audience has watched, firsthand, as God moved me from Marietta, Georgia, to Nashville, Tennessee, to Edinburgh, Scotland, and back to Nashville. They’ve seen me quit teaching school, pursue writing, and then actually become a writer. They have read about my best and my worst days—at least the events that were appropriate and important to share.
My light, while sometimes foggy and often dim and flawed, has shown over the city of people who come to my website every day. And God is glorified, even in my mistakes. They don’t have to really know me, and I don’t have to see them, for them to experience God through my life.
I don’t care the medium. Facebook. Twitter. Blog. Instagram. Tumblr. Pinterest. You have so many chances to share light, to share God, to make Him known to the people who listen to your voice.
My friend Anne, the one who loves Steam Powered Giraffe? She texted me last week and said, “I’m trying to use my tumblr as a way to positively influence my followers through God.”
And that’s shining your light into a dark place.
So how do you do it? Here are some stories from people I know:
Angelica is a seventeen-year-old, red-headed beauty from Scotland. You know the movie Brave? Yeah, that’s what she looks like, but she’s braver and cuter. Almost every day, Angelica uses Facebook to post a different recipe she is making, and they all look delicious. She also talks about Jesus. She shares verses, song lyrics, or just her thoughts on who God is and what He is doing in her life. It’s not obnoxious, and she doesn’t judge people. She just shares about her life and how God is a big part of her life. It’s really beautiful.
My friend Matt uses Instagram to take pictures of Bible verses, then he underlines important parts of the verse, things that stand out to him. His website is called Versify:Life. So cool.
Jennie Allen, one of my favorite authors and a dear friend, uses her blog to tell people about the struggles she and her friends and family are going through and how God has shown up for them every step of the pain.
Kendall, one of the beauties in my small group, has a board on Pinterest she uses to pin Bible verses and other inspirational things that remind her of God.
Carlos is a worship leader who uses Twitter to challenge Christians to live more openly and honestly.
Christy works for Dave Ramsey, and at the bottom of each of her emails is a verse reminding us to trust God with our finances. (Yes and amen.)
These friends? They are loud for God with their Internet. They aren’t necessarily being preachy, but they aren’t hiding their light either.
In the end, your words on the Internet are as important as the words that come out of your mouth.
And while the mouth can speak love, the hands type it.
People can be changed by that. I try to blog three to four times a week, and I can’t tell you how many emails I get from people saying that God spoke to them through something I wrote. But that’s not why I do it—I’m not tooting my own horn here, friend, I’m just saying that I write on my computer, push publish, then walk away and live my life, and God uses the stories to tell other people about Him.
Why? Because God loves to speak love to others THROUGH US. He loves for us to be involved with His redemption plan for this world.
I am reminded of a verse in Isaiah.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
And that is my prayer for my life on the Internet.
As I write today, and think about you, I’m in my favorite coffee shop again, Portland Brew, and tears are just puddling in my eyes as I read these verses and think about the ways that the people in your life, the hurt ones, the sad ones, the broken ones, can hear hope from you.
Climb a high mountain, Zion.
You’re the preacher of good news.
Raise your voice.
Make it good and loud, Jerusalem.
You’re the preacher of good news.
Speak loud and clear. Don’t be timid!
Tell the cities of Judah,
“Look! Your God!”
Look at him! God, the Master, comes in power, ready to go into action.
He is going to pay back his enemies and reward those who have loved him.
Does that make you want to stand up on your chair and cheer and yell and tell the world?! Or is that just me?
You are the preacher of good news.
Raise. Your. Voice.
Remember that song I told you about when we talked about worship? “All the Poor and Powerless” by All Sons & Daughters says
Shout it. Go on and scream it from the mountains.
Go on and tell it to the masses.
That He is God.
That was my theme last year. I prayed it, I sang it, I posted it on Instagram, I wrote it on the cover of my journal.
You don’t have to climb a mountain. But you can tell it to the masses—your Facebook friends, the ones who reblog your gifs on tumblr or follow you on Twitter or connect with you on whatever new site you’re using. You can start something—a website, a hashtag, an online community, a blog, a tumblr—to create a place on the Internet where people go to find hope and joy and learn more about God.
And that’s what I pray for you. I pray that you are the kind of girl who, all over the Internet, doesn’t use your words to tear down other people online. Cyberbullying is horrible and wrong and, as you’ve heard me say before, if you are using your words to kill, steal, or destroy someone, you don’t sound like God. You sound like the enemy.
And remember—the only reason that Satan is attacking people online is because HE KNOWS THE POWER that exists there for good. He knows. He is always out to destroy the things that God can use for His glory. There is battle online, and you are involved every day; a battle between good and evil, between hope and hopelessness, between light and dark.
I pray you are the light. I pray that you are inspired to see your Internet life for what it is—a large stage, with all eyes on you, the audience waiting to hear about your life and your God and the hope that they can have.
Remember this truth: you are always speaking life or death. Every time. And what if we all decided to be a tidal wave of words of life that wash over the Internet?
Things would change, my friend. They would change.
You are the preacher of good news.
Raise. Your. VOICE.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
—Isaiah 6:8
• Luke 6:45
• Matthew 5
» Jesus stood in front of a crowd and spoke truth over and over. Read this chapter and underline the verses that stand out to you.
• Isaiah 40
» Wow wow wow. This whole chapter is full of beautiful words about who God is and how He rescues us.
• Write the memory verse in your journal.
• Have you seen online bullying? Have you been bullied online? Write about that. (And listen, sister, if it is really bad, you need to tell someone. Getting off the Internet is one solution, but if that isn’t stopping the bullying, adults need to know. Okay? Okay.)
• If you don’t use the Internet on a regular basis, what are some ways you can pray for other people who are online?
• Write about ways that you feel God pushing you to use your influence online to create something beautiful for Him.
• How do you want to use the Internet to spread the Gospel? To talk about God?
Use Your Words
• Find your favorite Bible verse—maybe one of our memory verses?—and tweet it out. Use the hashtag #SpeakLove so that we can all see the Scriptures that are encouraging you.
• Build a board on Pinterest and label it Speak Love. Collect visual images and words that speak to you and remind you of God and how He feels about you.
• Are we already connected online? If not, find my Facebook page (Facebook.com/annieblogs) and post on my wall about what God is showing you as you read.
• Blog about the first time you remember God answering your prayers.
• Follow the hashtag #SpeakLove and see what other people are saying and how they are encouraging each other.
1. “Dramatic Increase in Teen Suicide,” WebMD Health News, September 6, 2007, www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20070906/ dramatic-increase-in-teen-suicide
2. “Bullying Statistics: Fast Facts About Cyberbullying,” Covenant Eyes Breaking Free Blog, January 17, 2012, www.covenanteyes.com/2012/01/17/bullying-statistics-fast-facts-about-cyberbullying/ of one of the articles, it said, “Internet, cell phone, and social media use will all continue to grow among teens. But if more and more people speak up, bullying doesn’t have to.”
3. And even if your parents won’t let you have a Facebook page yet, or you don’t have a smart phone so you can’t do Twitter and Instagram, no biggie. The Internet isn’t going anywhere, and you’ll have your chance. But right now you can think and pray about what you want your online life to look like.