"When 'Social' Gets Too 'Social'"

Social media is often taken for granted today as just another means of communication similar, but far superior to the telephone or e-mail. But just like telephone and e-mail when they were originated, social media can be used to both good and bad ends. There is need for an ethics of social media in general, personal usage. For example, is it alright to share any personal information about your spouse or immediate family members with friends on Facebook? Are pictures of family members from vacation alright to share with other family members who were not able to go on that vacation? Should anyone tweet inside details about a family illness/difficulty/death as it is happening?

Beyond these individual, personal ethical concerns there are often concerns for social media in corporate ethics. The same questions currently being discussed concerning the appopriateness of e-mail use in government service being filtered through a home server could come up regarding social media. In fact the continued usage of either e-mail or social media, as well as ongoing contact, is an ethical question for the church following the departure of rostered leaders. I've seen it addressed a few times, once in an article entitled "Pastoral Transitions in the Age of Social Media" (Alban, 2013) and several weeks ago in a blog on "Facebook Guide for Pastors in Transition" in "Hacking Christianity." Both sources are focused on using lists of friends and discretionary wisdom concerning friends to establish boundaries with former parishioners. In summary you should keep track of friends from previous congregations and make sure that either they don't see your posts and/or you don't see theirs. Then with certain friends who will have the most difficulty in cutting off from you, you should unfriend them.

I think that this falls short of the need to establish boundaries with former parishioners in churches. Ethically speaking, as well, are you giving ample opportunity for a new pastor/person in position in leadership to form relationships with their constituents without a former pastor/person in position being a part of it? I understand how manipulating privacy settings and using your wisdom helps you maintain some friendships outside of the previous relationship, but I wonder if they need to be maintained outside of the framework of social media?

There is a tendency for social media to be considered part of everyone's relationships. There are some inherent problems in doing this, including how to get rid of deceased family member accounts. It sems to me that socail relationships need to be evaluated by "non-communication media" standards first. When thinking of how boundaries can best be set up between people in organizations one should not think democratically first, but in terms of who should be privileged to what information. In a congregational setting, though we are equals before God, we are unequal in power by virtue of the position of the pastor/rostered person. It would seem to me that this means that we should follow the general principle that former meembers should be taken off of our social media.

Ethically speaking. social media breaks down walls between people and leads to some good communication that wouldn't be there otherwise. It builds relationships within a constituency. However, a professional leader needs to be judicious not only in what they share on social media, but in how they continue to communicate in areas where someone else needs to communicate in order to build their own relationships in their new constituency.