The Interweaving of Digital Life with Embodied Life – Politics on Facebook

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 3:31 pm by Mark D. Roberts

The Interweaving of Digital Life with Embodied Life – Politics on Facebook 2015-03-13T15:31:25-05:00 Mark D. Roberts

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.

Once upon a time, it was possible to speak of digital life as something distinct from real life. But that time is no longer, for most of us, at least. Digital life has utterly permeated physical life for multiple millions of people who, because of digital social media and mobile technology, are never disconnected from the Internet or from each other. It becomes increasingly difficult to say that online experience is any less real than embodied experience (even though the word “real” comes from the Latin res, which means “matter or thing. In fact, it makes less and less sense to think of our lives as divided into distinct digital and real domains. That’s why I’m experimenting with the word “embodied,” even though “real” still seems fairly popular.)

Case in point: “Political spats on Facebook spill into real life.” This USA Today story by Laura Petracca documents what makes intuitive sense to me:

Most people know the social dangers of discussing politics at family gatherings, cocktail parties and the workplace. But the rise of Facebook brings about a tempting — and treacherous — territory to engage in such commentary.

It takes just a few posts to inadvertently damage a friendship, put a rift in family relations, alienate a once-friendly neighbor or infuriate a colleague.

Mix together a divided country and hot-button political issues and Facebook commentary can become an online landmine.

According to Petracca, Facebook is playing a much more significant role in this year’s election than in the 2008 election. Among other things, the fact that ten times as many people are on Facebook helps to explain this change. Yet, the peculiar non-physicality of Facebook communications can encourage people to post on someone’s wall what they would not say to that person face-to-face. Fighting on Facebook has led to the loss of friendship, not just in the Facebook sense, but also in the embodied-life sense.

Petracca considers various ways to avoid such unpleasantness. But what I find most interesting about her article is one more piece of evidence that demonstrates the interweaving of digital life with embodied life. Yet, this relatively new situation calls for careful thought about how we live in relationship with others, how we communicate when online, what we share and what we keep private, etc.

Tomorrow, I’ll consider another curious and sometimes disconcerting implication of our interwoven digital and embodied lives.

Technology and Culture

facebook

politics

relationships

Previous Post

October 11, 2012

Is Facebook on the Way to Becoming the Next MySpace?

Next Post

October 17, 2012 The Interweaving of Digital Life with Embodied Life - Social Media vs. Privacy

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Advent Advent Calendar Alissa Wilkinson Archeology Art and Faith Ash Wednesday Bible Books Business Business and Faith Christian Year (Liturgical or Church Year) Christmas Christmas according to Dickens Christmas, Culture, and Christ Christmas: Keeping Christmas Well Church and Culture Church and Ministry Church and Technology Church Life Church: What is a Church? Cities Code of Ethics for Pastors Contentment Creativity Cultural Commentary Culture Daily Reflections Dallas Willard Deliberating on Digital Dignity Easter Education Ephesus and the New Testament Ethics Eugene Peterson Evangelical Existential Questions Faith Faith and Work Family Food Friendship Fun Good Reads Gospel Centered Christianity Grace Handel's Messiah Harvard University Health High Calling History Holidays Holy Spirit Holy Week Hospitality How Does God Guide Us? Hunger Games Insights for Leaders - De Pree Center Inspiration from the High Calling Jesus Jesus: Following Him as a Disciple Jesus: Seven Last Words Jesus: Was Jesus Married? Jesus: What Was His Message? Jesus: Why Did He Have to Die? Laity Lodge Leadership Leadership Conversation Lent Les Miserables Life for Leaders Linda's Advent Doodles Linda's Lenten Doodles Living Well Loving Neighbors Max De Pree Center for Leadership Mental Health Mission of God and Missional Church Money Moral Dilemmas Mormonism Movies Nature New York City Pastors and Churches Pentecost Photos to Share Poetry Police Blotter Politics Prayer Preachers Portal Preaching Presbyterian Church Quotations Reading the Times Recommendations Reflecting on Technology Religion and Culture Ruminations Sabbath Science Seven Last Words Sexual Harassment Social Media Something to Think About Spiritual Warfare Sports Stations of the Cross Stephen Hawking: Heaven and Faith Stories Technology and Culture Technology and Education Technology and Mental Health Technology Bits Texas Thanksgiving The High Calling Thin Places Uncategorized Vocation Women Words Work Worship

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 March 2017 February 2017 December 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 April 2015 March 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 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 November 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, 'Let my people go'?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Aaron Moses Joshua Elijah