Yet More on Facebook

What a treat I have for you this week! I have an excerpt from one of my new, favorite writers, Carl Trueman. I got to meet Dr. Trueman, who is professor of church history and historical theology at Westminster Seminary, Philadelphia, last fall when he spoke at the annual meeting of Reformed Fellowship. He also writes a column on Reformation 21's website. Dr. Trueman is originally from England, and his dry, British wit makes his writing enjoyable as well as insightful. As well as being a scholar in church history, Dr. Trueman has an interesting perspective about current culture, and in this excerpt from his most recent column, Carl shares his thoughts about Facebook, which, interestingly, are quite similar to mine.

Despite the rumours, I am not a technophobe. True, I am no good at technology; but I do not particularly fear it, as I might fear, say, the revival of disco music as a popular cultural phenomenon or a government-enforced William Shatner season on Turner Classic Movies. Thus, I love my computer; I just have no interest in using it for anything beyond writing, emailing, and the occasional internet purchase. . .

All this makes the whole idea of these internet networking things, like personal blogs and Facebook and MySpace, a naturally somewhat alien phenomenon to me. After all, why would I want to parade the details of my life before the world? And why would I want to pretend to be friends with, or connected to, people I either do not like or have never met? Yet these web networking phenomena are exactly that: phenomena, remarkable in their power and their reach. For example, I recently heard from my mother in England that my eldest son has a girlfriend. How did an elderly English lady living in a tiny village in the West Country of England learn this detail of the emotional life of my Philadelphia-based son, something which he had had successfully concealed even from my panoptical wife? Well, my niece had seen it on his Facebook page and she had told my mother who then happened to mention it to me, assuming that I knew already. What an amazing world, where someone half a world away has access to domestic information about my household unknown even to myself.

Yet, while they may be phenomena, I am not sure that the success of things like Facebook, texting etc. is entirely to be welcomed. True, there are advantages: for example, families and friends living at a distance can exchange photos and news with ease; but a touch of skepticism about these wonderful new webservices is perhaps overdue.

For example, take the language of `friend.' The way of connecting with people on Facebook is, apparently, to `friend' somebody. That the noun has become a verb is scarcely cause for concern; but the cheapening of the word surely is. Simply to be linked to someone on the internet is not true friendship; yet the use of the word creates the image that such is the case, or at least blurs the difference between casual internet acquaintance and somebody for whom one might have real affinity, affection, and concern. Our language should make it clear that textual intercourse on Facebook or the like is not to be considered true friendship, any more than viewing internet pornography is to be considered true love making.

If you'd like to read the rest of Dr. Trueman's column, it's here. And if you'd like to hear his lecture from last fall's Reformed Fellowship meeting, you can hear him speak on an entirely different--but no less delightful--topic, Martin Luther, here.