I would place today’s blog post in the category of “I had no idea this was happening.” Reading Google news headlines this morning a story caught my attention about Facebook and photos. There were several surprising [shocking] revelations in the article from PC Magazine (*see link below). First, I don’t post enough photos on Facebook to be aware the site has facial recognition software (as a default setting), so when you go to upload a photo it will suggest people for you to tag. If you’ve previously tagged someone, Facebook will suggest you tag them in the new photo of them. (Check out my July 28 blog post for reasons why this could be a bad idea.) There are plenty of people who don’t really like to be photographed, and now Facebook gives friends, and anyone for that matter, the opportunity to post pics of you without your permission and even your knowledge. Second, I know it’s easy to post pictures to Facebook, especially if you have the right kind of cell phone, which I do. The article states on this past New Year’s Eve, 750 million photos were posted on Facebook. If that’s not a big enough number, Facebook expects to be hosting 100 BILLION photos by September 2011. (Just because my brain works this way sometimes, that’s 100 trillion words, if a picture speaks a thousand words) So far courts have said users don’t need to seek permission to tag someone. Thankfully, we have the option to de-tag ourselves, if there’s a particular photo we don’t like.
Besides being surprised or shock at what’s happening on Facebook, this article serves as a strong reminder all of us just have to be really carefully in the way we conduct ourselves in public because there’s an increasing chance someone is pointing a camera our direction and posting the pics to Facebook.
In 1 Thessalonians 4 Paul writes: “God has called us to be holy, not to live impure lives. 8 Anyone who refuses to live by these rules is not disobeying human rules but is rejecting God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you. 9 But I don't need to write to you about the Christian love that should be shown among God's people. For God himself has taught you to love one another. 10 Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christians in all of Macedonia. Even so, dear brothers and sisters, we beg you to love them more and more. 11 This should be your ambition: to live a quiet life, minding your own business and working with your hands, just as we commanded you before. 12 As a result, people who are not Christians will respect the way you live…” (New Living Translation)
Verse 12 in the Complete Jewish Bible reads: “…then your daily life will gain the respect of outsiders.”
I think that’s a great ambition: to live each day in a way we gain the respect of others, and not in a way which brings disrespect upon Christ, our families, our church, and our friends. Instead of thinking about how our actions reflect upon others, it’s more common today for people to have the attitude: “It’s my life and if someone has a problem with what I do, that’s their problem.” Not exactly, because someone just took a picture of you and it’s been posted to Facebook.
*http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2390511,00.asp
No comments:
Post a Comment