Last month, I was approached by a publishing company’s acquisitions editor to write a book for them. This requires a marketing campaign; which in turn requires a social media presence. However, this is very tricky because you have to be extremely careful about what you share and really focus on being a good steward on social media. So what do I mean when I say, “Be a Good Steward on Social Media?”
This morning a friend, who happens to be a priest, responded to an email from me where I asked him for some advice. I was asking him about a conundrum I found myself in regarding the publishing company (more on that later). In his response, he told me I should delete a recent post I shared. The post has a really good message purportedly from the father of these two girls that were pictured. Below is a picture of the post without a picture of the horribly immodest girls.
It really is a great message. One that helps me share with my own daughter about why she should cover her body. I’m struggling with how to help my young daughter want to be modest. Sure, I could MAKE her be modest…and we do because we can at this age, but I also want her to WANT to be modest. I too used to dress somewhat immodestly and I had a parent tell me not to show cleavage or too much skin but I hated it. I was only told that to dress that way was to show men I was “loose.” In more current terms…a slut or a whore. I certainly wasn’t one of those girls but I DID like the attention I got when I wore tight fitting jeans (aka “Rockies”) and a low cut shirt.
The publishing company wants me to rebuild my social media presence for their benefit (to market their book) but I dread having a social media presence. Years ago I had a large social media presence with many followers, but the amount of work it was took away from my duties as a wife and mother. It was and is a detriment to my soul (see below). A few days ago I started to log back into some social media accounts only to find hate and discontent on the platforms. Why do I want to go back again? The only one that isn’t bad is my Facebook…because I created a new account and only have 60 IRL friends.
A detriment to my soul
When we expose ourselves to social media, we participate in many sins. What’s worse is, we don’t even realize it. I’ll explain using the post above.
I don’t know who the immodest girls were in the picture. Are they part of a sex trafficking ring? I shared the post from a friend who probably shared it from his friend and that friend shared it from another friend…you get the idea. These girls are unknown to me and probably to the majority of people who shared it.
Do these girls even know they are the subject of this post? Did they give permission? Even my young children have stated sometimes (don’t share that mommy). I don’t believe children can make big decisions, especially when it comes to their health but these little decisions I respect. Who are the girls? How will this affect them considering AI is rampant and can identify them easily. Will they lose a job over this? Or worse, be subject to criminal activity?
The final thought I have is that I participated in spreading immodesty. This was EXACTLY the opposite of what I intended. I may have led men to sin through looking at the picture. How many shares does the post get? Probably none to only a few with the message alone. Give it a picture of some immodest girls, and the post is shared more. The message gets lost and the girls are now objects.
Being a good steward requires work
I participated in this and didn’t even realize it. It took a friend to share privately with me (that’s the first step to admonish a sinner by the way…privately), that I should remove the post. He said, “men look at your profile too.” Yes, they do! And they saw immodest girls over the message I was hoping they would see.
I feel ashamed that it took someone else pointing this out to me. I helped spread it. Shortly after he told me, I deleted the post. He is right! The message was good but I wasn’t being a good steward on social media. I couldn’t see the problem, even though my family shares stuff like that with the purpose of getting me to see “hot men.” Those posts annoy me too. Souls are at stake and this friend and priest has my soul, as well as his soul, and the souls of anyone who saw that post with the pictures in mind. His job is to save souls. Be a good steward!