Mediaboss Marketing

Last week marked the 10th anniversary of Facebook, the social networking site founded more or less (see the 2010 film "The Social Network") by Mark Zuckerberg in his dorm room at Harvard University. OK, Wikipedia says he co-founded Facebook with four other guys, but we really don't remember them, do we? And there were three others who claimed Zuckerberg stole their idea, a legal battle that was settled out of court. In an interview Feb. 4 with Zuckerberg on the "Today" show, there was no mention of anyone but him.

Be that as it may, Facebook has changed the world. Click here to see what some are calling the "staggering" statistics about the social media site. They are impressive indeed. Remember when Marshall McLuhan wrote that the media are "the extensions of man" in his 1964 book Understanding Media? How prophetic. It's not only the hard technology at our fingertips; it's the software that has opened up dimensions of being that are the norm for children starting school in the last few years. And Facebook is not only about the extensions of "man" but of women, too. Lots of women.

I first got wired in 1995. In 2004, I launched my first blog that became "Sister Rose at the Movies" when the website for all things religion, Patheos, invited me to migrate there in 2012.

Then I joined Facebook in 2007, and on Feb. 4, I got a video from Mark and the Facebook team. Actually, it's quite nice: Facebook.com/LookBack.

I love Facebook, and I check it first thing every morning and during the day.

I love it because we have a lot of fun on it as a family through messages. Other family conversations are sad, especially when someone has been hurt or when someone dies. But what I like most of all is "Baby TV." I check the pages of my nieces and nephews every evening to see if they have posted a video or photo of their kids.

Facebook has brought together many of my friends from my early childhood and youth, and I love this. I have a photo album of these friends because they have posted old pictures. One friend right now is in hospice but so filled with faith and hope that he inspires everyone who reads his posts.

Then there's my community of sisters, the Daughters of St. Paul. I think hundreds of us from around the world are connected. We have many opportunities to share our life, our spirituality, our love for Jesus and his Gospel and the church. Our presence on Facebook lets people know they are not alone, that in this cyber universe, there are people who pray for their intentions.

Flannery O'Connor said in 1960 that while the American South "is hardly Christ centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted." When I see the pious postings in capital letters of Catholic Christians "screaming" on Facebook, it is apparent that this social networking site has integrated the geography of the United States and borders have disappeared.

O'Connor also says the Southerner "is very much afraid that he may have been formed in the image and likeness of God." This is true of so many of the 5,000 friends I have on Facebook, men and women (some of whom I actually know), no matter their religion or lack thereof. I think some of their theologically charged political sharings, which range from calm discourse to rants, are engraved on Facebook out of a misinformed fear of God masking as loyalty rather than fidelity -- never mind trust in God's providence, mercy, and a sense of love of neighbor.

Continued here:
Facebook at 10: a Christ-haunted political forum, family reunion, prayer group