Proclaimer Blog
Facebook and all that
Sat down last night and watched a Channel 4 drama on a few weeks ago in a series by Charlie Brooker called Black Mirror: Be right back (available on 4oD here). The one off dramas are set in the near future and pick up and develop some current themes. Last night's viewing was mixed. Warning: some bad language and a couple of scenes of sexual nature (but no nudity). However, the message was very thought provoking. Essentially this is the plot.
A facebook addict dies in a car accident and his widow is able to recreate his personality and voice through signing up to a service that takes all his online information and processes it into a computer generated voice avatar. Doesn't sound so crazy. This guy had posted an enormous amount of stuff online. And ironically, his wife had been fed up with his phone use before his death, but afterwards became addicted herself because she wanted to hear his voice. She was then offered a pilot programme where, using synthetic skin, his actual body could be reproduced.
It was a dark tale touching on death, grief, relationships – but above all, social media. Mrs R and I found it fascinating in the sense we talked a lot about it afterwards and that rarely happens with TV shows. It also got me thinking about Tim Chester's very useful posts about Facebook which are now in a book, Will you be my Facebook friend. Short, punchy and also thought provoking (without the bad language and sex!). We're also running a seminar on the pastoral implications of technology at this year's EMA led by Ed Brooks and Pete Nicholas: really, really important stuff for every pastor. You can book online now.