Social media platforms profit from our engagement, but they don’t always protect our well-being or our communities. That’s why the Know Peace Online campaign includes a crucial call to “Know Your Responsibility.” We all have a role to play in shaping a safer, more honest online environment. Whether reporting harmful content on a social media platform or amplifying trusted voices, our actions matter.
In his 1963 book The Responsible Self, H. Richard Niebuhr considered three ways of understanding ethical decision making when considering words and actions.
Purposiveness, he wrote, asked the question, “What is my goal, ideal, or telos?” Deontology asked, “What is the law and what is the first law of my life?” Responsibility (Niebuhr’s word) asked, “What is going on?”
What is good? What is right? What is fitting?
For Niebuhr, decisions based on law and decisions based on ideals both lacked a fundamental dimension: decisions based on conditions. In the Church today, we often look closely at the impact of our work. Who does better from it? Does anyone do worse, and if so, how?
All too often, actions that seem neutral, even beneficial, affect some group of people in negative, sometimes unexpected, ways. How often have I overwatered a plant in the belief I was meeting its needs? How often have I tried to “correct” my child when it was time for comfort, not coaching?
Niebuhr viewed the context of responsibility as ever-expanding circles. It’s absolutely vital that a person consider a decision’s impact on themselves. Further, though, they need to look at the potential to affect others.
The ultimate context, he wrote, was God’s entire Creation. It’s hard to imagine how we might change it, but we must ask the question – not just the physical but the spiritual environment depends on it.
Is it too heavy a burden to consider the impact on the Realm of God when posting to social media? It feels heavy. Isn’t social media the place to be honest, to be free, to share from the depths of the heart?
Yes, social media is a place to be honest (but cautious; remember that confidences shared on the Internet cannot be guaranteed private). Social media is also a place to consider our responsibilities to ourselves (don’t overshare, people), to one another (will this lift up or cast down?) and to Creation itself (what will happen to the environment because of what I say?).
I am no predictor of the future. Tomorrow is a book I will open tomorrow. Assessing the consequences of my actions can be a challenge I fail to meet. The difficulty does not change the obligation. I’m still responsible for verifying my assertions of fact. I’m still responsible for considering the likely impact on other people. I’m still responsible for considering the welfare of the planet’s natural system. I’m still responsible for fostering a spiritual environment consistent with God’s grace and peace.
May my fingers hesitate before I write this next blog piece. May we all take a moment to pause before sharing our thoughts, videos, and photos online. May my soul intervene with wisdom and insight. May my heart beat more freely as I choose responsibility before God.
The Rev. Eric S. Anderson is a member of the board at UCC Media Justice and pastor of Church of the Holy Cross UCC in Hilo, Hawai’i. He blogs at ordainedgeek.com. Join Eric in taking the Know Peace Online pledge today.