1 Corinthians 11:1 KJV – Be ye followers of me, even as I also [am] of Christ.
Recently, I joined another social media site. Back in December, when one of my coworkers first mentioned the site, I thought to myself, “Hey Missy! You have neither the time nor the mental real estate to dedicate to embarking upon a new social media frontier. Ya got that?! You barely understand what a ‘tweet’ is and your head spins atop your shoulders each time Facebook comes up with yet another change or page re-design.”
The argument held strong for a few months. Eventually, I caved and joined the site since having an account was the only way I could view some items my precious niece wanted me to see on her page. Or is it on her board? Maybe it’s her profile. As you can see my expertise literally stops at the doorway to the site. So far, the only thing I’ve mastered is signing up; logging in is sometimes questionable. Seriously, one day I went to the site and couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out how to get in. Ridiculous…
Since joining the site, I’ve noticed what I consider to be quite a strange phenomenon. Occasionally, I’ll receive an email notification that someone new has started “following me” on this site. This site! The one I still have no idea how to use. So you can imagine how baffled I am when I receive an email informing me that another poor soul has chosen to “follow me,” especially since I don’t even know where in the world I’m going.
So here’s what I thought about. There will always be leaders, and there will always be followers. That’s a pretty simple fact of life, right? We may walk in either role at any given time, depending on circumstances, platforms, and even social media sites. With all of the social media sites popping up and all of the following going on, I couldn’t help but wonder where in the world are we leading folks?
Watching people voluntarily join me on this site taught me a couple of things, so I thought I’d share them with you.
- It taught me that someone will always be watching, and someone will always be willing to follow me – whether or not I ask them and regardless of where I’m going. There will always be an audience for what I’m doing or what I’m saying.
- With that in mind, it also taught me (or probably, more accurately, reminded me) to evaluate where I’m going and where I will lead the audience that follows. Be it an audience of 1, 100, 1000, or 1, 000,000, I need to always be mindful of where what I do and say will lead them.
The simple fact that someone is watching and listening means that we have influence. How we use that influence makes all the difference in the world. So that’s all I want to say today. I was just reminded that I’m being followed. So I wanted to remind you that you’re being followed, too. To where are you leading? Now that’s the question.
GREAT thoughts! I can apply this is so many ways – parenting, writing/blogging, serving in the church, interacting with my friends. We need to be mindful of our influence and direction. I laughed at your descriptions of social media ignorance – yet another thing we have in common! Twitter scares me. 🙂
I’m glad you enjoyed the post, Becky. Personally, I know I’m guilty of not always considering who may be watching me. As writers, especially, we can get so focused on the audience we hope to have one day and forget about the audience we have today. All equally important. As for social media….let’s just say I’m on Twitter and STILL don’t know what I’m doing. 🙂
Monica, I have been toying with the idea of twitter but I haven’t a clue about it and honestly there are times I do not feel all that socialable. Reading this reminded me of the super bowl lesson I done with Sunday school classes. You are right. Someone is always watching us regardless of whether we feel like leaders or not. I hope to always be pointing people to Christ but it does me well to reexamine this. Blessings to you my friend.
Wanda you are not alone. As I told Becky, I’m on Twitter but still don’t know what I’m doing. 🙂 I am with you. I love Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians. As social media grows, they just seem to speak to me even more. It’s so important for us to always be mindful of where we’re leading people. I’m thankful for accountability partners like you right here on this site.