For many, Facebook has become an indispensable tool for managing their social lives, but all the friending, messaging and poking on the online social network has created a hazard: using it too much. (Users) have been kicked off the popular site for adding too many friends at once; sending too many messages; joining too many groups; or “poking” too many friends, a casual greeting on the site. Shunned Facebookers said the punishment contradicts the site’s core mission–to help people connect and communicate. “Facebook is shutting down accounts of users who are exhibiting any behavior it finds remotely suspicious,” Thor Muller wrote in a post called “13 Reasons Your Facebook Account Will Be Disabled” on GetSatisfaction.com, which offers customer-service advice. “As paradoxical as it sounds, ‘suspicious’ often means just using the site too much!”
Discussion Starters
1.) A primary goal of Web site administrators is to increase traffic on their site(s). According to the story, Facebook seems to be doing itself a disservice. Have your students received warnings or been booted from their online social networks for these or other reasons?
2.) Do you think it’s possible to be “too” social online? In person? Or is this a misnomer, and therefore, an invalid argument?
3.) What does God’s Word teach about socializing? Do any passages address “wearing out your welcome,” and if so, what do they teach specifically? What other biblical lessons come to mind about social decorum and self-restraint?
