Thank you for asking this question. The same has been on my mind especially of late following on the attack by a friend on the Catholic Church. She is a lapsed Catholic gone over to Anglicanism who sees the Church as a “gang of criminals”. In defending the priesthood and my faith I found myself becoming increasingly hurt and frustrated. I wondered whether there was any point to carrying on a discussion with someone who so obviously was more interested in being right (thinking she was anyway) than the truth. The final straw was her sarcastic promise to pray for my “conversion to Christianity”. If during our debate I were offered a single word of encouragement I might feel differently but not one person said they agreed with my points. In fact, anyone who did comment seemed to be completely in agreement with my nemesis. It isn’t that I am unwilling to suffer for Christ’s sake but I really question whether getting into the whole thing was fruitful in any way.
The founder of facebook is not very ethical, he took code illegally from professors and signed up fellow students without asking their permission. The privacy policy is probably changing frequently and there is the issue of privacy settings potentially getting lost. Worse, people tend to put too much personal information on facebook which opens them up to attack. I’ve had relatives use facebook in embarassing ways.
The two times I was on facebook I wanted to find something out about someone I actually knew. One time it blew up in my face. The other time I suppose it revealed to me that my relationship with the person was truly over.
Famous people often use facebook, but the popparazzi can read the postings. Don’t put anything on facebook you wouldn’t say to a total stranger on the street, because you are saying it to a total stranger(s).
I understand that families like to use facebook to communicate and share pictures, but this is a huge mistake in my opinion.
A major gripe I have about facebook having not logged in for a very long time, a year, my account still exists.
I find that religion and politics in most forums on the Net blows up in your face. Sometimes you have to simply say, “I am not going to discuss religion with you, goodbye.” Better to pray for the person than it is to get upset. Choose your battles carefully, and trust that God has a plan for fallen away Catholics. Every person has a right to preserve their own peace of mind where it takes a minimum of two people to have an argument/fight. Sometimes you will be the only person in an argument/fight who can walk away. If the person in question only intends to hurt you and is not open to reason, then by all means distance yourself. Where you are at in life, this fight may not be something you can take on. It is okay to say, “God, I can’t do anything about this, please take care of it.”
If this is someone you have romantic feelings for or could develop romantic feelings for, run! This person isn’t right for you right now and may never be right for you.
There is a depression danger, facebook can warp your views on whether or not you have friends. Do you want potential employers reading transcripts of your “friends” arguing with you about religion? The Internet doesn’t forget, something to consider carefully before using any social media. At a minimum, give her time to cool off. Try a month at least.
