You Are Who You Are On the Internet

A Letter From the Social Media Manager Reading All Your Comments

Working from MY NEW WALKING PAD (best birthday gift ever!) so I can close stress cycles while reading wild comments on the internet

I manage multiple social media accounts and one of the best parts of my anonymous job is seeing people I know in real life act wild on the internet. There’s a guy I see at the gym every week. He’s a pastor and influencer and he posts incredibly rude comments on some of the pages I manage. Every time I pass him in the gym, it makes me giggle because I think, “You have no idea that I’m the person reading your comments.” For fun, I sometimes read his words when we’re, like, ten feet apart in our gym’s cafe.

The internet gives us an illusion of anonymity. But it’s just that- an illusion. The comments we leave and direct messages we send reach the eyes of actual, real, breathing humans. Probably interns and social media managers— not Biden or Trump or *name famous influencer/pastor/celebrity* themselves. But real people see it. And these words shape us.

Our internet trail mirrors back to us the health of our souls.

The thought occurred to me a few months ago that if I wasn’t a Christian, but I was hired to manage the religious social media accounts I manage, it would only take a few months to realize the very last thing I would want to be is Christian. This is anecdotal evidence (albeit with a pretty large sample size, as I’ve read countless thousands of comments and messages over the past 4 years), but some of the most vile things I’ve seen have come from folks who have a Bible verse in their bio. Some of the most hateful words I’ve read come in the name of God.

It’s a personal mission, now, to see how many of these people I can befriend as a social media manager. I try to find common points. I ask if they had a good weekend. I tell them I’m happy to see them again. I show a bit of personality to remind them they’re speaking to a human, not a machine. Note: If the social media person of a large brand knows you by name, it’s likely for a reason. Often, not a good one.

Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. But I do this for my own soul. Even if they are being shaped by fear and hate, I want to be shaped by love. Which means it is my responsibility to see the guy at my gym with compassion. To see the guy who COMMENTS RANDOM BIBLE VERSES IN ALL CAPS WITH THREATS OF HELL with tenderness. To see the guy who says women shouldn’t teach the Bible on social media with mercy.

Because the internet is a strong data point indicating the integrity of our inner worlds. And how I respond, even as an anonymous social media manager, has real implications for the softness of my own spirit.

I often think, “Would I be excited if future generations read a book of my internet activity? What kind of person would they see? Would they see someone whose life was shaped by Jesus’ self-sacrificial, enemy-embracing love?”

This isn’t meant to add a level of pressure like when I was young and treated my journal like it would be published a la Anne Frank.

Instead, I’m curious what you would see reflected back to you if you looked in the mirror of your internet activity. Who do you see? Are you proud of that person? If not, what needs to change?

Sending my love!

-Savannah

Writing Prompt: Look at your comment history on Instagram for the past few months. What do you see? If you were a stranger, how would you describe the person making those comments? What do you want to change?

Recommended Listening: I released a new song called Bless Your Heart last week! Would love if you listened.