John Piper Tweets.

I always appreciate John Piper's take on social issues, and his respectful manner of viewing these issues from a strong Biblical foundation. In our uber-tolerant society, I'm grateful for Piper's firm stance on specific topics. I'm grateful he is vocal about his commitment to truth, and his desire to see Christ exalted in all things.

It struck me as especially interesting, then, when I read his recent article about social Internet media. I'm not always sure how to approach outlets like Facebook and Twitter and blogging. I often wonder if these kinds of media are beneficial. Will my friends and I still have Facebook when we're grandparents? If so, is that a good thing or a bad thing, or is it just a neutral thing?

I'm still not sure what my interactions should be with the different forms of media at our fingertips, but I think Piper's view is a great place to start. Here's an excerpt from the article (oh the irony of blogging about this!):

I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.

One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.

The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.