Chris Martin - Terms of Service: The Real Cost of Social Media

Chris Martin has established himself as one of the foremost Christian thinkers when it comes to digital technologies in general, and the social internet in particular. In this book, he demonstrates why it is so important for Christians to think well about these world-changing, heart-shaping, soul-forming technologies. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to better understand how we can take back what theyve so eagerly taken from us.

Tim Challies , author and blogger

With great insight, Chris shows us how the social internet we carry around in our pockets has shaped the world and is shaping us. If you hold angst for the alarming and adverse impacts of social media, this book will give language to your concerns and provide hopeful and helpful solutions. Chriss wise counsel to admire beauty, walk in humility, and value silence and accountability is an important challenge for all of us, including parents, ministry leaders, teachers, and anyone who in a role to influence others.

Eric Geiger , senior pastor, Mariners Church

The internet may be financially free, but it has other costs. In Terms of Service , Chris Martin skillfully unpacks the trade-offs of life in the digital agehelping us become more attentive to the hidden costs of the social internet. This is a valuable read for any Christian who spends significant amounts of time onlinewhich is pretty much all of us these days. Were aware of the ways the social internet is remaking the world. But are we alert to the ways it is remaking us? This book helps us carefully consider this question, and gives us tools for moving forward in health.

Brett McCracken , senior editor at The Gospel Coalition, author of The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth World

Terms of Service is a terrifying bookwhich is exactly why you must read it. With charity and clear-headedness, Chris Martin guides us through the world that we all inhabit but few of us understand. His personal knowledge and extended study of how the internet is shaping us will benefit pastors, parents, and anyone who cares of about the discipleship of souls. So put down your phone and pick up this book.

Hannah Anderson , author of All Thats Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment

Terms of Service will annoy you. If you are already reaping the neurochemical rewards of the social media echo chambers of your own choosing, I recommend that you do not read this book. Who reads books anymore anyways? I mean, if it is longer than 280 characters, why would any...

Read Mercer Schuchardt , associate professor of communication, Wheaton College, PhD, New York University under Neil Postman, bestselling author of Amusing Ourselves to Death

If anyone should write the book on how social media (or the social internet, as Chris so wisely calls it) has affected us all, its Chris Martin. He has been in the trenches of social media for over a decade and observed whats going on from that vantage point, not an ivory tower. Terms of Service will help anyone looking to understand how and why our online behaviors have shaped us and what it means to move forward in a digital world with a kingdom mindset.

Julie Masson , director of External Engagement, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission

Its not hard to offer negative critiques of the social internet. What is hard is giving sustained attention to those problems and following it with sound guidance on how to live faithfully in the real world. Chriss years of experience in digital ministry and careful personal practices make him a worthy guide.

John Dyer , professor and VP of Educational Technology, Dallas Theological Seminary, author of From the Garden to the City: The Place of Technology in the Story of God

Copyright 2022 by Chris Martin

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

978-1-0877-3837-6

Published by B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

Dewey Decimal Classification: 616.86

Subject Heading: SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION / CHRISTIAN LIFE / INTERNET ADDICTION

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible. Copyright 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible and CSB are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. All rights reserved.

Cover design and illustration by B&H Publishing Group.

It is the Publishers goal to minimize disruption caused by technical errors or invalid websites. While all links are active at the time of publication, because of the dynamic nature of the internet, some web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed and may no longer be valid. B&H Publishing Group bears no responsibility for the continuity or content of the external site, nor for that of subsequent links. Contact the external site for answers to questions regarding its content.

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For Magnolia Grace.

This is why.

Acknowledgments

F irst and foremost, I need to thank my friend and colleague Trillia Newbell. Her friendly prodding led me to dust off an old notebook with a social media book outline sketched in the back. This book wouldnt exist if it werent for her keen eye and dear friendship. Of course, I also need to thank Taylor Combs and the team at B&H for believing in this project and doing all the hard work to bring it to life.

Thank you, Susie, for your support and patience as I worked on this project. Given that most of it was written during the pandemic, its not like we had a lot going on except for, well, parenting a newborn.

Thank you to Tracey and Josie Bowler, Jesse and Sara Poarch, Brandon and Christa Smith, Elizabeth and Zach Edwards, Bayleigh Harvey, David Drobny, Trevor Atwood, Jeremy Young, Dustin Walker, and Elisha Lawrence for not only your friendship but also your willingness to review the earliest version of this book. Your feedback was helpful.

Now, a note of thanks to a wide assortment of people without whom this book would not exist. Thank you to my amazing parents, Joe and Catherine Martin. Thank you to John Houser, Russ Isaacs, Pamela OReilly, Donna Roof, Jason Birkenbeul, Greg MaGee, Bill Heth, and so many other treasured teachers whose investment long ago led to this project. Finally, a posthumous thank you to Neil Postman, whose work in Amusing Ourselves to Death inspired not only this book but has formed my mind more than any book short of Scripture itself.

Introduction

T his is a book about fish.

Not literally but metaphorically.

David Foster Wallace, American author and novelist, once wrote: There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, Morning, boys. Hows the water? And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, Whats water?

The moral of this parable, if you will, is that most people are not aware of certain features of the world around them, despite how intertwined those features are in their lives. This is my attempt to be the older fish, except I am not asking you how the water is. Im here to tell you that the water is poisoned.

My fear is that most people who use social media are like the two young fish in David Foster Wallaces parable. Social media has become so woven into all of our lives that, like a fish in water, we dont even notice it anymore. We just consume content on social media constantly without ever stopping to consider the puppet strings that are being pulled behind all the content on our screens. We consume content and content consumes us. This is my plea for you to stop scrolling for a moment and consider the state of the pixelated water in which you swim.