The Internet: The Best and Worst of Ourselves

The following is a reprint of the letter-from-the-editor for Volume 2, Issue 22 of Christ and Pop Culture Magazine: “The Internet Issue,” available for free for a limited time. You can subscribe to Christ and Pop Culture Magazine by becoming a member and you’ll receive a host of other benefits as well.

With the all-encompassing nature of the Internet, it’s easy to forget it’s really the new kid on the block. Less than 25 years ago, the general populous struggled to even grasp the concept of the World Wide Web. And thanks to the Internet, we have the 1994 Today show clip of Bryant Gumbel asking, “What is the Internet, anyway?” to remind us how perplexing it was when it moved into our neighborhood.

Few of us today echo Gumbel’s query. We know what the Internet is because it has taken over almost every inch of our lives. We can hardly get away from it. Like any modern advancement, the Internet offers us both the good and the not-so-good. It’s not pure, nor is it purely evil. And so we are left to sort and shift through our use and misuse of it, just as we do with other elements of modernity.

Hannah Anderson addresses one aspect of this battle in her feature titled “Love among the Pixels: Fidelity and Romance in the Digital Age”:

“Consider how easy it is to create and maintain an online persona. Social networking sites, and even texting to a degree, open up direct, personal contact at the same time that they allow us to control how others see us.”

It’s true: One of the most common uses of the Internet is in designing the image you want the world to see, whether that’s for a business or an individual. Is this use or misuse? I know I edit myself way more online than I do when conversing with someone in-person. But that doesn’t mean that apart from the Internet I am free from my desire to put on my best face for the crowd. No, that desire lives in my heart whether I am interacting online or in person. Jesus tells us that “the good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45, ESV). Whatever is in the human heart will come out; the Internet is not to blame.

As Christians called to community, we are to be iron sharpening iron, smoothing off the rough spots of our selves, including our Internet activities. Cray Allred implores us of this in his feature titled “How to Capture People’s Stupidity and Profit from It Online”:

“As more and more young Christians develop while deeply embedded in social media, seeing “comedy” like this proliferate will instill a sense that it is normal, that the Internet operates with less demanding boundaries of respect and kindness toward others. The challenge is for believers to make sure their communities help shape our online behavior as individuals.

I think we would all agree that the Internet gives us plenty of opportunity to exercise both the best and worst aspects of ourselves. Online affairs and cyber-bullying are just two of countless ills perpetuated by our Internet use. But we must remember, the Internet is merely a platform. It is neutral. We can tsk-tsk the activities we see on display, but those are symptoms of a greater need. The root need is for the Gospel to invade this space through the people who use it. That’s our mandate, to show Jesus to the ends of the earth—I’m thinking the ends of the earth might include the Internet. In this way, our engagement in cyberspace culture as Christ followers will introduce Him to this space, helping us to make better use of the tools at our disposal.