The Danger of Facebook

Social networking on the internet is one of the most popular and growing areas online. Millions of people log onto Facebook and other social networking websites everyday to see...well...who they can see. It's a way to get connected to old friends and colleagues, to catch up with classmates, to see old friends from high school or college. Sounds good right? Facebook and other social networking websites in and of themselves are not bad. We must admit that there is capacity for both good and evil in these engines. And what happens on Facebook doesn't always stay on Facebook, and the devil is using the "social network" sites to lure some people into places they shouldn't be relationally. Sin is crouching at the door (or bookmark)!

There's a good Christian counselor I know who has worked and counseled many Christians through tough times for decades. He recently made the comment that Facebook is keeping his calendar full. Over the past year almost every Christian that he had seen who had an affair or some type of inappropriate relationship with a person other than their spouse told him that it had all started on Facebook.

Here's how it works. You decide to look up an old classmate, maybe from high school or college. You find them and before you know it you are communicating. In that communication you find yourself sharing your woes...how life hadn't quite turned out exactly as you had imagined. Let's stop here and be honest. Nothing good is going to comes from that!

One of my good friends in this church had this happen about two years ago. He got reconnected online with his first girlfriend. She wasn't really happy in her marriage and life. Before he knew it, he had an email with an invitation for a meeting and rendezvous. Needless to say, that's exactly where it stopped praise God, but don't think that he didn't at least consider it.

It boggles the mind that an electronic social networking site that specializes in brief bursts of "updates" and information can have so much destructive power. However, we must remember that it's not Facebook's fault. The problem is not in the broadband. It is in the people communicating over it.

There's something wonderful with social networking sites. They make communicating quick and easy. That's the point, isn't it? The screen and the keyboard seem so safe and harmless. "I'm just making contact with an old classmate, that's all!" Yeah...right. Maybe at first, but that's probably not where it's headed.

Technology changes and usually is helpful to us in many ways. But in so many others ways it's helpful to the devil as well. Be careful out there. Don't allow yourself to get sucked in. If you will avoid the source of the temptation, you will find it much easier to resist the evil one. Technology may change, but the human heart stays the same. Guard it well. Don't become another broken marriage. Don't bear your soul to your old high school flame. The price of it may be dear.