Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
History and Religion
The Risk of Social Media Engagement for Historians

The Risk of Social Media Engagement for Historians

Last updated on: November 16, 2024 at 2:00 am by Joey Cochran

0 Comments

The Risk of Social Media Engagement for Historians 2024-11-14T18:33:46-04:00 Joey Cochran

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Social Media

This column is adapted from my introductory remarks on “The Risk of Social Media Engagement for Historians”, which I gave for a roundtable discussion at the recent Biennial Professional Conference for the Conference on Faith and History. This panel was sponsored by the Anxious Bench, chaired by our previous editor Chris Gehrz, and it included expert contributions from fellow panelists and colleagues, Andrea Turpin and David Swartz.

I joined Facebook in 2006, Twitter in 2009, and Instagram in 2012. Each served their purposes, but it has been Twitter where deep social connections took place for me; I’ve always been a person interested in texts. This is perhaps why I’ve been disinclined to deactivate my Twitter account following the recent election.

As an associate pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, I gravitated to Twitter to find out about current news in my reformed evangelical circles. I followed other pastors, publishing houses, digital ministries, and I churned out content as a blogger. I developed a personal website, blogged daily, and published a daily curation of posts from around the web.

I unintentionally built a “platform” in an effort to get free books from, at the time, preferred publishers like Crossway, Banner of Truth, RHB, P&R, B&H, Zondervan, Baker, and Eerdmans. This led to invitations for guest contributions at 9Marks, CBMW, TGC, Lifeway’s Pastors Today, Christianity.com, Christ and Pop Culture, as well as appearances on other blogger’s websites within my network, such as Tim Challies, Trevin Wax, and Aaron Armstrong.

Twitter became a hub for pushing out that content, but it also became a location to have real-time conversations with others in my reformed social network about distinguished happenings of the time. Annually, we would pilgrimage to national and regional conferences like the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference, TGC, or T4G (Band of Bloggers). These conferences were highlights of my year because I would get to meet other people in my network, in real life, sit in conference sessions, and listen to preaching heroes, get meals, and talk theology, ministry, and personal life. I still think fondly about those meals and conversations.

For me, the reward of social media during this era involved converting digital connections into real life connections and maintaining those friendships over time, despite the barriers distance poses for fellowship. This is my nostalgic memory and experience with social media from 2010–14.

Then I had to make a tough decision. I spent much of 2014 comparing doctoral opportunities. I simultaneously accepted an invitation to study a Ph.D. in Church History with Doug Sweeney at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and I joined the pastoral team at Calvary Memorial Church in Oak Park. However, these new commitments meant that I would have to give up something else. I couldn’t continue to maintain a blog and social media presence, pastor, and study a Ph.D. at TEDS. With the help of a loving spouse, I recognized that I had become inordinately dependent upon social media as a source of my identity. The frequent doses of dopamine surges from social engagement had caused me to seek belongingness and worthiness in the wrong place, a sensation common for those who have an inordinate dependence upon technology for social reinforcement, attachment, and sense of meaning.

I decided to shut down my blog, detach from social, and focus on studies. For the next three years, I was virtually absent from social media, and I turned down all guest contribution opportunities. Serendipitously, my course work and independent study reformed my theological and social commitments. While the syllabi I had been given during most of my academic evangelical graduate career read like everything Herbert Butterfield warned against concerning Whiggish history, I had, through my own historical curiosity, introduced myself to a broad field of indigene and women’s histories, as well as social and cultural histories that complimented all the intellectual history I received in the nursery of evangelical education. I had also become thoroughly convinced about historic, systemic injustices in U. S. history, and the need to actively support and give space for the leadership and voices of the most vulnerable, marginalized, and historically oppressed.

As I slowly returned to social media and re-engaged evangelical spaces as a public intellectual and “activist historian”, many people had no idea about my past as a reformed, gospel-centered evangelical and how much I had radically altered. Anecdotally, we could say this. 2012 Joey went toe to toe with Rachel Held Evans on Twitter while 2018 Joey was not just heartbroken about her sudden death but revered her as a protestant saint, after seeing her through Kate Bowler’s eyes in The Preacher’s Wife.

As I re-engaged social media in new ways, I leveraged my intuition and professional skills to speak about history, evangelicals, and current events in different ways than previously. I lent this skillset for service with the Conference on Faith and History (CFH), an organization I had appreciated for years. To my surprise, I was asked to provide fresh leadership to this website, The Anxious Bench, a blog I had been reading since its inception. These opportunities, alongside a knack for teaching and administration, opened doors to teach at Wheaton College. So seemingly some professional reward accompanied efforts of attending to a well curated social media profile.

Nonetheless, I had noticed that a decisive social media turn had taken place leading up to 2016. People had changed how they engaged with social media. Some of this was due to new features on social media and innovative developments in data science. Controversy, hot/bad takes, and dumpster fire content was rewarded as much, if not more, than when evangelicals produced edifying content, which fostered an antipodal reward function in Christians that toppled centuries of practices in Christian virtue ethics. It became a badge of honor for content creators to be blocked by certain online personalities. Quote posting became a method to not just dunk on a person’s content but to redirect the conversation to your own platform and social channel/feed, reinforcing narcissistic proclivities. These became tactics to cultivate an audience and build a platform. And people were being rewarded by others and institutions for this behavior.

Worse yet, passively silent neglect by “civil” and respectable evangelical institutions and individuals of influence led to a permissive culture towards this behavior. Elite establishment evangelicals have yet to figure out how to react to this shift in social media engagement. This has been a significant cause to their loss of cultural and political power in an era that lauds the “spectacle” of social media.

Frankly, circumstances have become such that if you’re skilled at reading the room and committed to cultivate your social content until the algorithm privileges your content over others, you will inevitably craft that perfectly timed post that gets ratioed so much that you reach audiences with your ideas that you never imagined reaching. This can be good or bad.

From 2010 to the present, I have endured delicate conversations with colleagues, inside and outside my various institutional affiliations, related to my tactics and experience in social media engagement. It became all too common to hear comments like: “So I saw that post” or “It looks like you had a big day on Twitter” or “We need to sit down and talk about that post” or “Our leadership watched that post go viral on social.” Undoubtedly, some of these interactions were not intended to be sleights, but they did niggle at my conscience, nonetheless.

Public intellectual engagement on social media is double-edged. Undoubtedly, it has gotten some people hired and others let go from institutions. Guild service or public intellectual work like this creates a burden of invisible labor that is rarely rewarded by institutions. Yet, some institutions see it as an intangible asset while not considering the plausible liability it becomes for the content creator or the institution when things go upside down on them because of bullying or organized mob attacks on the content creator.

There is a reward with public intellectual work but there is also quite a bit of risk. It’s a blessing and a curse, so count the costs, and listen to your body when it tells you that you’re operating with a social and emotional deficit that is leading to burnout. Feel free to take extensive breaks from social media. If you feel its best to deactivate an account or shift to a different platform, listen to that soft nudge in your spirit.

History and Religion

Previous Post

November 15, 2024

An Election of Silences: A Reflection

Next Post

November 19, 2024 Mothers of the Church: Egeria

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"The TV sitcom BEWITCHED was an old favorite of mine"

philipjenkins

How Scotland Gave Us Our Modern ..."

"From now on whenever I see a clipper ship, see a certain brand of Scottish ..."

Terry

How Scotland Gave Us Our Modern ..."

"There are no such things as witches. They were just unmarried or elderly women with ..."

Dot Newkirk

How Scotland Gave Us Our Modern ..."

"The book of THE KEEP is wonderful, but I was not such a fan of ..."

philipjenkins

Fairies, Witches, Folk Horror, and the ..."

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe Guest Post guest post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What happened when Jesus touched the coffin of the widow's son at Nain?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The son came back to life The crowd dispersed The coffin broke Rain fell