Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation.

Dr Bex LewisSenior Lecturer in Digital Marketing Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Image purchased: Stockfreshhttp://bit.ly/peer-surv

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Image purchased: Stockfresh

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Assumes an observed gaze

Social Media

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Barker, C. & Jane, E.A. (2016) Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, p.103

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Self-Regulation via Foucault“Within a Foucauldian frame, as discourses are historically specific, so also are their subjects, displaying certain attributes consistent with the construction of knowledge at that time. Discursive formulations mediate the construction of identities, disciplining their subjects into a particular way of thinking and acting, promoting a specialist language, defining what knowledge and practices are, and are not, appropriate for ‘subjects’. Foucault believed that subjects would regulate themselves, encouraged by society to fit in the discursively defined concepts of what is ‘normal’. For example, within wartime society, ideals of citizenship defined what was ‘normal’: it would be unusual not to want to be fit, healthy and prepared to die for your country. Technologies of normalisation create, classify and control irregularities in the social body. They isolate and correct anomalies ‘through corrective or therapeutic procedures’, that look like they are ‘impartial techniques for dealing with dangerous social deviations’. For example, VD is presented as a ‘dangerous disease’, as different from other diseases, but this can largely be seen as a result of religious discourse. Behavioural changes need to be made by subjects in order not to put themselves ‘at risk’. Subjects become ‘masters of their own slavery’ as they exercise ‘self-surveillance’, requiring them to act upon themselves, ‘to monitor, test, improve, and transform’ themselves.”

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Extract from Lewis, R.M. (2004), Unpublished PhD thesis.

“Institution” is used here to indicate any source of mediating activity between human beings. In this sense, all private and public organisations and establishments are institutions because they regulate aspects of human behaviour as third parties, i.e. without being subject to cultural negotiation (Lianos, 2001a: 16ff.; 2001b; 2000). A supermarket, a bank, a ministry and a web portal are all important sources of institutional sociality and normativity, and they should be understood, because of their combined effects on their users, as parts of the same regulating universe. These combined effects generate a new stage in the development of social regulation.

Lianos: Social Control after Foucault Surveillance & Society 1(3) 414

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017http://www.surveillance-and-society.org/articles1(3)/AfterFoucault.pdf

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

“The Ordinary Internet”

Google has become so naturalised “it no longer seems to have an origin. It’s as if it always was – and therefore always will be – a part of us.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Hillis, K. Petit, M. & Jarrett, K. (2012) Google and the Culture of Search Routledge p3

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“We have brought many ‘habits, inclinations and prejudices… endemic to society as a whole’, and it’s no longer its novelty, uniqueness or it potential to transform life, but its very pervasive ordinariness that gives the internet its significance.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Miller, V. (2011) Understanding Digital Culture, London: SAGE

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Digital Citizenship

Digital etiquette: Displaying appropriate and responsible behaviour while onlineDigital literacy: The proficiency to access, understand, participate in or create online content.Digital security: Securing one’s own personal information.

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/newsroom/articles/the-adaptive-moment-a-fresh-approach-to-convergent-media-in-aust-jmrc-report/

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Shaping Public Discourse Online“… most shared lists have a powerful ability to shape public discourse. If an article about financial reform happens to make the list, while one about environmental reform barely forms short, that initially small difference in interest can quickly become magnified. As more people see and share the article about financial reform, citizens may become convinced that financial reform deserves more governmental attention than environmental reform, even if the financial issue is mile and the environmental issue severe.”

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Berger, J. (2014) Contagious, p.97

Moral Panics“If modern people worry over whether digital electronics threaten to corrupt religious experience, their grandparents worried about the intrusion of electrical light into sacred spaces, and their great-grandparents debated the permissability of musical instruments for worship.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Adam, A.K.M. (2012) ‘The Question Concerning Technology and Religion;, Journal of Lutheran Ethics, p.5

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.ted.com/talks/sherry_turkle_alone_together

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I share, therefore I amSherry Turkle, psychologist and MIT professor of Social

Studies of Science and Technology

Self Identity?“Social media can be used more as an address book, with privacy settings allowing access to different levels of information, while the public parade of connections offers social identity and status.”

Lewis, B. (2014) Raising Children in a Digital Age, p.106

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Image source: Stockfresh

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Peer Surveillance

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017http://drbexl.co.uk/2017/02/11/symposium-online-anonymity-right-threat-crcc2017/

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

1. (God)2. Parents3. ‘Kids’4. Newspaper5. Enemy

Who sees this?

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Anonymity? In the early years of the Internet, most online communities demonstrated a deep respect for anonymity and pseudonymity, particularly within MUDs (multi-user dungeons), where many sought to escape into fantasy worlds. A huge amount of early research concentrated on online identity, which was heavily focused on the loss of face-to-face clues, and on deceit, particularly the concept of “disinhibition”: when technology appears to offer a buffer from traditional consequences. People will say and do things online that they would not otherwise say or do, because they have lost the clues of the feedback cycle. Most interactions online are still regulated by power relations and social thinking that exist offline. Pseudonyms were not intended to disassociate users online/offline personas, but this did affect expectations as the world rolled into the twenty-first century, specifically the dissociation between one's online identity and offline identity.

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Drawing on Leaning, M., The Internet, Power and Society: Rethinking the Power of the Internet to Change Lives, Chandos, 2009, p. 55

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Mary E. Hess (2014)

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.ezproxy.mmu.ac.uk/doi/10.1111/dial.12084/epdf

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Giulia Ranzini: Impression Management“Social media, in particular, have amplified this phenomenon promoting networks construed around individuals, using their personal narratives as a starting point and targeted towards their relevant audiences, actual or imaginary. In their engagement with others, through their social media profiles and interaction with technology, individuals approach and change their self-concepts, question their ideas over who they are and give new spaces to their emotions and bodies. The online and offline realms are growing more and more interdependent…”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/232480/, 2014, p3

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Digital Savviness?“They monitored friends’ pages to ensure that they were being represented fairly, and trusted each other not to expose silly or embarrassing pictures. Those that were on the phone were considered to be private and not for sharing without agreement, although children should still consider what might happen to those photos if the friendship were to fall apart.”

(Raising Children, p.108)

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Image: RGB Stock

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

“There’s no place for faith in our public life” DiscussThe problem with the question is that it presupposes that the 'secular' perspective found in the phrase 'public life' is without 'faith' in the first place. If faith is a combination of worldview (or how we imagine the world to be), praxis (a combination of rituals, liturgies, ethics and financial considerations), and life expectations (what, in light of worldview and praxis you expect life to be like, a kind of telos) then the 'secular' is as much a faith as orthodox Christianity. If this is the case, then it's not so much 'should faith be in the public square' but rather, 'which faith would we prefer to be in the public square?’

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Joshua Penduck, Ordinand, 2013

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.instagram.com/p/BPh7AsBAVob/?taken-by=drbexl

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5maxzDfkTIwdvwbw1Xil_A

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Image Source: Purchased Stockfresh

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Spiritual Formation

What do you understand by spiritual formation?“I guess "spiritual formation" is that journey that we are on to become mature in our faith. Including the things we know and don't know, that we see in ourselves and that we don't. Sudden earthquake like tremors that quickly and fundamentally shape our faith but also the small incremental drip drip that intentionally or not changes who we are and how we express that.”

“- maturing as a Christian- it's a journey which never ends- it's part of who we are rather than something we do- includes prayer and bible study, questioning and exploring yourself and your beliefs, worshipping and listening, intentionally being with God in the every day of life.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Responses from Facebook, March 2017

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Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+12:1&version=MSG

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

The face of God? “[If we are…] means by which God communicates and reveals himself through his Spirit, then our blog posts, status updates, tweets, artistic images, and online comments should be products of a life transformed by Christ and indwelled by his Spirit. As restored image bearers, our online presence and activity should image the Triune God.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Byers, A. Theomedia: The Media of God and the Digital Age, 2013, p196

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Giving Up Social Media for Lent?How can the church be a leading light within our society, if we are seen as irrelevant, refusing to engage with the latest technology? Can we lead by example, and show that we are not afraid to experiment, not afraid to fail? If we’re not in the digital spaces, the latest ‘public square’, then we can’t offer an ‘example’ to influence the wider world. We need to be part of people’s everyday conversations, and not just arriving when we have a message to ‘sell’. Sharing our everyday lives, in which stories of humour and vulnerability are particularly powerful, allows us to connect – including with journalists, who find spaces such as Twitter a useful hunting ground for stories, and to build up trusted relationships with potential contributors to stories.

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Lewis, B. (2017), ‘Social Media Fast for Lent? Not for Me!’, The Medianet, http://themedianet.org/social-media-fast-lent-not/

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

What makes people share? • Social Currency: We share things that make us look good• Triggers: Things need to be in our consciousness to want to share them

“Different locations contain different triggers. Churches are filled with religious imagery, which might remind people of church doctrine…. And once these thoughts are triggered, they might change behaviour.”

• Emotion: We want to share the things we care about (exciting is more shared than sad)

• Public: If something is public, and on show, it's visible to others and enters their consciousness

• Practical Value: People like to share useful bits of information that we think will help people

• Stories: Humans tell stories - and useful information can be embedded in what seems like idle chatter!

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Berger, J. (2014) Contagious, p.74

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Being surveyed? “Does social media affect that? Certainly. Depending how we use it. Do we use it to explore how to do love and faith better or do we use it to justify the where we are now (the latter being more stifling to growth and formation I suspect). In terms of being watched, he most interesting aspect I think is the being watched not by the outsiders but by the insiders. So my online identity has in the past been defined by how the church goers at the place I attended viewed how I should be rather than the reality of who I am and who I believe I am meant to be.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Facebook conversation, March 2017

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Bryony Taylor“.. People find it easy and more comfortable to ask questions about faith in a private space online… people on social media are directly contactable in a way that has not previously been so easy; paradoxically there is a distance offered by the online environment akin to the screen in the confessional box”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Taylor, B. Sharing Faith Using Social Media, 2016, p18

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A Place for Conflict? Conflict isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, and instead can, under the right conditions, create an opportunity to work through differences in a constructive way. However, when people engage in negative conflict, they’re less interested in trying to see if they can come to a mutually beneficial resolution than they are in maintaining power over the other side and trying to prove they are “right,” regardless of the methods used or the people hurt.Andrews, M. (2013), ‘In Conversation with Author Andrea Weckerle, Civility in the Digital Age’, A New Domain.

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017http://anewdomain.net/2013/04/07/in-conversation-with-author-andrea-weckerle-civility-in-the-digital-age

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

“The early conversations on my Twitter account are all still visible because I chose not to delete them. I didn’t ever want to whitewash my history or forget where I come from.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017https://www.ted.com/talks/megan_phelps_roper_i_grew_up_in_the_westboro_baptist_church_here_s_why_i_left

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Network Convergence The bit I would comment on is the 'people are watching'. As a curate it didn't trouble me too much, but as a 'responsible for parish' Rector I am much more aware that what I say and do is under scrutiny. I've stopped blogging partly because of lack of time, and partly because the situations I might blog about are easily identified by those involved, their friends, relations and neighbours. We get enough local spats on social media without me inadvertently adding to them.

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Facebook conversation, March 15 2017

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl

Has social media impacted your spiritual formation? “Social media has allowed the world to become smaller. This means I've been able to explore wider, ask further and question more than if I was limited to my church, family, friends and people I meet in every day life. Social media allowed my spiritual formation to take off… social media has made it so much easier than it would otherwise have been. Geography is a limiting factor to spiritual formation, especially in disability (and poverty) and social media has removed that limit. But: God is the leader of my spiritual formation and He will always find a way which works.”

Does the fact that others are 'observing what you are doing' make any difference? “I feel that part of my spiritual formation is to share what I believe and why and how; and I'm sure that God uses my blog and social media engagement to help others now and in the future (it lasts forever once online). ”

Do you regulate your online ‘self’? “I am me and is become abundantly clear over the years that I can't hide that online any more than I can in real life. I don't pretend to be anything other than I am, warts and all, and I've seen that God uses it all for good.”

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017Facebook response, March 15 2017

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Thank YouQuestions?

Social Media, Peer Surveillance, and Spiritual Formation. Dr Bex Lewis, AHRC Religions Consuming Surveillance Workshop, Edinburgh, March 2017http://bit.ly/peer-surv

Dr Bex Lewis@drbexl