I understand that this post is going to be a little meta (not “Meta” the technology enterprise, but “meta” meaning self-referential) – a blog post about social media. But then I guess it really is “Meta” because it’s also partially about Facebook.

Anyhow, I have been thinking about social media and Facebook in particular because, other than this WordPress site Facebook is my primary platform (I have Instagram and Bluesky and X and Pinterest and LinkedIn but I don’t do much more than post links to this blog).

I remember back in the early 80’s our young adult Sunday school class had a lot of conversation around John Naisbitt’s book “Megatrends”. I haven’t read it since then but I remember a lot of emphasis on, interest in and wondering about the coming “Information Age.”

Most of us grew up – if we were lucky – with a set of Encyclopedias (Britannica) on the shelves and a library card in our wallet. In Rebekah’s house, family conversations, debates and arguments were often settled with the words “look it up!”

Rebekah and I purchased our first family computer (Apple lle) when Andrew and Naomi were five and three but even then, and adding our first CD-ROM encyclopedia around 1990, we could not begin to imagine just how much information would be at our fingertips 30-40 years down the road.

What we also could not imagine is how much of this newfound information would be useless (at best), patently false and dangerously deceptive. I believe people would be better off with just a boxed set of reliable up-to-date encyclopedias than unlimited access to all the reliable material in the world if it is diluted and lost in a sea of misinformation.

Too many people lack the tools (or – more importantly – the will) necessary to research and discern, and I see this demonstrated clearly on platforms such as Facebook and X and every day.

I find it hugely ironic and even more disturbing that the most significant megatrend I can identify today moves quickly beyond information and into ignorance.

Information surplus – knowledge deficit:

We all understand the problem with “food deserts” (communities where it is next to impossible for people – especially low-income – to access food that offers balanced nutritional value). Available food in these places is over-processed, proven to compromise long-term health, high in sugar content and intentionally addictive.

In the same way I believe here in the United States we are in danger of becoming a knowledge desert, where too much of the available information is over-processed, deceptively packaged and intentionally addictive to the extent that it is intellectual junk-food.

I believe here in the United States we are in danger of becoming a knowledge desert, where too much of the available information is over-processed, deceptively packaged and intentionally addictive to the extent that it is intellectual junk-food.

As a content-provider with a fairly large audience, I want to encourage all of us to be more intentionally discerning when it comes to what we expose ourselves to – and what we swallow….

Remember that old public service commercial with the egg and the frying pan? “This is your brain… this is your brain on drugs…” I believe the image is apropos to this conversation – only this time the brain gets scrambled before it is cooked!

“Food” for thought. How are we loading up our grocery cart of ideas?

Personally, I recommend the context of prayer and then making good use of the brains God issued us with – it is an egregious sin not to use them – DEREK