These two posts should be required reading for any Christian on Twitter:
- John Mayer cautions us to be careful in seeking out “joy in little, tiny statements — little, tiny applause hits.”
- And John Piper responds to John Mayer with some wise words on using Twitter for the glory of God.
Though I don’t personally care for John Mayer’s music (yes, I understand he’s a gifted musician — just not my style), I have tremendous respect for his thoughtful approach to social media. It takes tremendous conviction to delete a Twitter account with 4 million followers.
John Mayer shares, “I realized about a year ago that I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore. I was a tweetaholic. I had four million twitter followers, and I was always writing on it.”
So, to avoid the temptation of publishing himself and to increase his mental capacity for creativity, Mayer deleted his twitter and stopped blogging.
His discipline and insight are remarkable. There’s a lot we can learn from him as we pursue a greater cause than music.
So should we all stop Tweeting? I’d say no.
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John Piper has a very wise response:
Mayer said, “I couldn’t have a complete thought anymore.” To me this is almost the opposite of what happens. But that may depend on what we aim to do with Twitter.
Tweets do not diminish my ability to have a complete thought, they demand it. That’s what a Tweet is–a thought that is complete enough to press some God-focused truth into someone’s consciousness.
This kind of tweeting does not distract from thinking. It demands thinking. A peculiar kind of thinking–thinking that is capacious, concise, and compelling. [yes he defines capacious in his post!]
If I did not know a great God and a great Savior and a great Life and a great Plan, I would not bother writing Tweets–or books. But if God can be spoken of meaningfully in a 300 page book, he can also be spoken of in a 30-minute sermon, and a three line Tweet. All efforts to speak of the Infinite make our little differences between long and short irrelevant.
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John Piper’s original post on why he started Tweeting in the first place is well-worth reading:
He responds to those who negatively/accurately say:
“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.”
With,
“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.”
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Piper’s final thoughts on Twitter are profound:
“All things were created through Christ and for Christ” (Colossians 1:16). The world does not know it, but that is why Twitter exists and that’s why I Tweet.”
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How have you fought against seeking “joy in tiny applause from tiny statements”?
What is your goal for using Twitter or other social media?
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images courtesy of P Keigan and Micah_68