Does the Bible teach anything about using Facebook?

Does the Bible teach anything about using Facebook? How should we use social media sites?

The Bible says nothing directly on Facebook. The scriptures were finalized over 1.900 years before this social media site came to life on the Internet. What we can do, however, is to examine how the principles found in the scriptures can be applied to social media websites.

Computers allow people to create gossip faster than ever. Once created, sites like Facebook make it easy for gossip (and for those who use it for more noble purposes) to reach a large audience. The audience can be not only your friends or even those who live near you, but the whole world! People can say almost anything online and get away with it, especially when they do it anonymously. Romans 1 lists "backbiters" as a category of sinners to avoid becoming (Romans 1:29 - 30).

Gossip can be real information that attacks other people. It doesn't have to be false or half true. We need to be cautious about telling lies, rumors or half-truths out of context about others when we publish online. God is clear on what he thinks of gossip and lies. He warns us that he is not a talebearer for others, which is obviously a temptation on Facebook and other social media platforms (Leviticus 19:16, Psalm 50:20, Proverbs 11:13 and 20:19)

Another problem with social media like Facebook is that it can get addicting and encourage you to spend too much time on the site itself. Such sites can be a waste of time when one's life should be spent on other activities, such as prayer, studying the word of God, and so on.

After all, if someone says "I don't have time to pray or study the Bible," but finds an hour each day to visit Twitter, Facebook and so on, that person's priorities are distorted. Using social sites can sometimes be beneficial or even positive, but spending a lot of time on them can be wrong.

There is a third, albeit subtle, problem that social sites can feed. They can encourage interaction with others mainly or exclusively through electronic means rather than through direct contact. Our relationships can become superficial if we mainly interact with people online and not in person.

There is a biblical text that could directly concern the Internet and perhaps also Twitter, Facebook and others: “But you, Daniel, close the words and seal the book until the end; many will run back and forth and knowledge will increase ”(Daniel 12: 4).

The verse above in Daniel can have a double meaning. It could refer to the knowledge of the holy word of God which increases and becomes clearer over the years. However, it could also refer to rapidly increasing human knowledge in general, a pace made possible by the information revolution. Furthermore, since we now have relatively inexpensive means of transportation such as cars and planes, people literally run back and forth across the world.

Many technological innovations become good or bad depending on how they are used, not because they exist on their own. Even a gun can do good, like when it is used for hunting, but it is bad when it is used to kill someone.

Although the Bible does not specifically address how to use Facebook (or many of the things we use or encounter today), its principles can still be applied to guide us on how we should view and use such modern inventions.