Not really, do not burn any books, your iPad, laptop, or eReader (at least not
until you finish reading this…).
Although there have been times when I wanted to burn my
laptop (such as when I got the blue screen of death after a month's worth of writing and no backup!), I've never wanted to burn
it because of what it displayed or what I chose to have on it. Where am I going with this? Stick with me for minute…
I was thinking about social media again this week and the
impacts it has and could have on society.
In my meanderings I thought about the printing press. (I’m not a
historian – so don’t dissect my facts here.)
The printing press was invented in the mid 1400’s. One of the key early inventors was Johannes
Gutenberg (Gutenberg Bible). His
techniques revolutionized the printing industry and soon books were being made
in mass quantities and spreading all over Europe. It is considered one of the greatest
inventions in man’s history, and its impact on society was enormous. It allowed knowledge and learning to be mass
produced and made available to the common man.
No longer was it only the rich or well off that had access to
information. No longer were the
commoners at a disadvantage based on what information they had direct access
to. And very importantly, it allowed for
God’s word to be mass produced so that it could reach millions, and not just to
those who had access to people, who had access to people, who had access to people, who had access to people, who knew what the Bible
said.
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| Let's Dance! |
Skip forward several hundred years. Not only were good books still being printed,
but obviously this technology was also being used by those who wanted to do
harm by spreading bad and evil thoughts through the use of books. So people decided to put a stop to all that
by burning the books they felt contradicted their thinking (this is actually called libricide,
no kidding). Most notably in our history
were the Nazi book burning during WWII. Second most notably was outside the library in the movie Footloose when the townsfolk started losing their control over those wild teens (that is a joke, I just wanted a reason to use this picture.)
Now, book burning did not arrive after the printing press,
they burned books long before that. But
I wanted to tie the two together to make a point. Book burning were attempts (both physically
and symbolically) to show unhappiness with the material. However, you never hear anyone state that the
printing press was the root of all this evil!
Even the book burners (who were idiots) knew it was the material and the
ones who thought of the material they didn't like!
But we can’t become book burners – or hate all social media because of the bad seeds. We have to work harder to get the good words out and not be overrun by the bad words. We have to be diligent to let our children and brethren know what the garbage is and where to find good information. We have to ensure that we support what is good (share, like, retweet, etc.). And we have a responsibility to inject good words and inspirations of God into these social networks so that they don’t become completely overrun with trash.
So write something good today and put it out there (and if you don't have anything to say, then re-share one of my blogs!)
God Bless,
Rob
www.starvt.com
