Social Networking

In class this week, we explored what social networks meant - especially in today's society where everything is being increasingly digitalized. With sites like Facebook and Twitter, the effect of social media is definitely undeniable. Some might even say that social networking through these sites have become increasingly intrusive.

For example, for online social networks, where do you draw the line when someone requests to be on your contact list? would you approve the friend request if you know who the person is (seen him/her around school or in classes) but never had a proper conversation before? or would you only accept friend requests from people in your inner circle? would rejecting an acquaintance's friend request offend him/her? it's like a whole new social ball game, with new rules and lots of gray boundaries.

Almost everyone has a facebook account these days, so I don't think I will have to go into explaining what facebook is about. I will be however, introducing a new social platform. "Gracehope.com"

This new social network was an initiative from a group of self-professesd idealists who have no affiliation to any church or ministry. The site was created to connect Christian believers all over the world. It aims to cut through the distractions and noise on other social platforms and focus on 3 areas, namely:

1. Sharing thoughts and words of inspiration.
2. Sharing prayer requests.
3. Sharing praise reports (testimonies of how God had worked in his/her life).

The aims of the site are highly centred around Christian beliefs. Basically, it aims to pull the connection between Christian believers closer, such that the reach of each individual Christian to other Christians can be more powerful and have a clearer effect than if their words were to be mixed up with people from other religions. The site in non-discriminatory against other religions, but is so centred around Christian beliefs that non-Christian individuals would probably have no interest to join in anyway.

The site is similar to facebook, but unlike facebook where the wall is able to share just about anything, Gracehope.com focuses on only the 3 areas previously mentioned: "Words of Inspiration", "Prayer request" or "Praise report". An example of this is below:



As the picture shows, someone can share a prayer request and more often than not, receives encouragement and concern from those around. This is perhaps, how Gracehope.com is most significantly different from Facebook. More than just social networking, the site aims to create some form of social support through the online community. Due to the beliefs that the site carries, it also has an exceptionally low rate of verbal abuse, internet trolls and foul language.

What do you think of Gracehope.com? (: