An Online Identity Crisis

This is an excerpt from Following Jesus in a Digital Age Bible Study by Jason Thacker.

It is far too easy online to give in to the political, social, cultural, or religious polarization or the “us vs. them” of the day. Without intending to, we fall back into focusing on what our “tribe” thinks and how others might view what we say or how we interact online. On top of that, it constantly seems that people are angry with one another and treat others as less than human when they disagree with them. While we might have the best intentions of modeling Christlikeness in our online interactions, without thinking, our online behavior can become more about being seen as the “right kind of person” or on the “right team.” We’ve all felt this tension. Let’s press into the tension as we think about how our digital age forms our identity.

Technology is shaping and forming us in very particular ways as we use it each day, including how we view ourselves as people. A phrase that has taken on more and more meaning in our culture recently is the phrase “identity crisis.” While this phrase might take on different meanings depending on the context of its usage, what we mean is that people are questioning who they truly are. We live in a society that is seeking to craft our own identities (online and in person) and then to have those identities validated by those around us. We all desperately want to be seen as the right kind of person in the middle of cultural confusion and tension, as we define our own identities.

Online activism is one of many ways we see people forming their identity around lesser things. When a crisis or tragedy happened in the past, it was often discussed in the public square (city halls, school board meetings, newspapers, magazines, local stores, etc.) where people came to address and discuss the issues and a way forward in their local context. But today, the public square has been exchanged for social media platforms and online forums. People take their activism away from their local context and city square to their devices and apps that have an international reach. If we spend even just a little bit of time on the platforms where conversations like this happen, we can easily see how hostile and uncivilized the conversations are becoming, given our lack of real-life relationships.

The beliefs we hold are important, and they help express who we are, but every person we meet is far more complex than the sum of his or her beliefs. His or her value and worth is not rooted simply in what he or she believes on a particular issue but in whose image he or she has been created. Value, worth, and identity are given to us by God.