Warning: In this post I will briefly transform into a modern-day Scrooge. Regular readers of this blog know that I can be a downright grumpy old man when considering modern technology and its effects on modern man. So if you would like to remain blissfully accepting of the unmitigated good of all “new media” tools, please move on.

Recently, a few videos have come out retelling the Nativity story in a modern, social networking setting. They are cute and respectfully done, and obviously are trying to present the truths of the Incarnation and Nativity of our Savior to a modern generation. Here is one example:

Like I said, cute and respectfully done. However, I must admit that this particular video struck me negatively. The problem is that it uncritically accepts that posting every detail of your life on Facebook is a morally neutral action – or even morally good. However, studies ^[1] (and common sense) have shown that such actions can be the result of a deeply narcissistic view of the world. Do we really want to suggest that Joseph and Mary have such a view? Do we think that if the parents of Jesus lived today that they would be updating their Facebook pages at every moment of their lives? I simply can’t see that; after all, Joseph doesn’t even have one word of his recorded in Scripture – is he really the type to go about blathering about his every activity on a social networking site? Probably not.

I am on Facebook, so it should be obvious that I don’t condemn the technology outright. However, I do think it can pose a danger to our view of the world, making a person completely self-centered. We always need to be careful that we control our use of technology, and not let it control us. Suggesting that Joseph and Mary are addicted to Facebook is not exactly a good model to follow. In other words: Bah humbug!