EMQ » October–December 2019 » Volume 55 Issue 4
By Angela Williams Gorrell
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2019.
219 pages
USD $22.99
Reviewed by Jonathan P. Case, Professor of Theology, Houghton College.
Angela Williams Gorrell has written a gentle and practical book that explores the “glorious possibilities” (p.4) of living out our faith while submerged in new social media. She begins with the theological proposition that God is online, yet we also have to contend with profound brokenness found on the new media landscape. Christians must get past one-dimensional approaches to this media and risk what she calls “interested” conversation (34), that is, conversation interested in the questions that motivate our faithful living in our new media landscape and in the Spirit’s leading in this changed context. As we traverse this new terrain, thinking in terms of a digital dualism marking a boundary between real life and life online is no longer tenable. Our reality is one of living “hybrid” lives and participating in “hybrid” communities, in which our online and offline lives have become integrated (47).
This new terrain is filled with peril. The dominant cultural narrative and its malformed vision of the good life (e.g., narcissistic self-expression, consumption, etc.) have guided the development of the new media and the way it hooks us, so we must counter with a more compelling vision. Not surprisingly, Gorrell finds clues to this vision in Jesus’ ministry, in the way he saw and related to God (as a God of unconditional love), to his own self (in his identity established in relationship to God), and to others (the marginalized embraced by the kingdom). In the “moral space” (p.97) constituted by social media, Jesus would offer grace to broken people and advocate for others (actions consonant with his proclamation of the kingdom).
In view of the harmful ways social media can be employed, we need to practice discernment in detecting how malformed visions of the good life infect our own use of such media. Difficult questions and tasks abound here, ranging from holding tech companies accountable for their design to helping churches make difficult decisions about their use of media to asking people to tell their stories about their lives online. But this discernment process is necessary if we are to approximate the “glorious possibilities” offered to us by hybrid faithful living: that of sharing in and manifesting Christlikeness (offering mercy, advocacy, compassion, etc.). Our lives are so inextricably linked with social media that faithful living calls for nothing less than the development of a “New Media Rule for Life” (p.152), rules and routines for living in the new media landscape. St. Benedict would be impressed.
There is much to commend about this book. It could be easily used in Sunday School classes and discussion groups. Still, it’s hard to avoid the nagging suspicion that the author has painted perhaps a too-rosy picture of social media and its “glorious possibilities.” For years now, numerous theorists have warned us of personal and cultural consequences of the new media and its effect upon us. It’s not just that new media has been developed in light of the malformed story told by the dominant cultural narrative; we have to attend to the unintended consequences of a new textuality, i.e., a new way of thinking about communication, the consequences of which are as momentous as those of the invention of the printing press. The reformulation of traditional textual roles (e.g., “author” vs “reader”), a decrease in the ability to concentrate and to read, and the democratization of expertise cannot be addressed by simply telling a new story while using the same tools. Those questions perhaps fall outside the purview of this book, but I wish they had at least been raised.
For Further Reading
Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. W.W. Norton & Co., 2011.
Turkle, Sherry. Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age. Penguin, 2015.
