Christians shouldn’t be afraid of Instagram and TikTok

Who is afraid of social media? Most of us, is the likely answer, based on my extensive research. When Facebook first began wrapping its omnivorous tentacles around British society, I had three little children and was already convinced I was doing nearly everything wrong. Many of my fellow mums took to the new platform with glee, posting about their days which were full of wins (“Did two washes first thing! Pancakes for breakfast! Nature walk on way to school! Now off to work!”) This did nothing for my self-esteem. I joined in, posting stuff about family life, the countryside around me and using it mostly to advertise my toddler group and church outreach work.

In the spring of 2020, locked down in a dusty house, roots showing through and absolutely no desire to bake banana bread

In the spring of 2020, locked down in a dusty house, roots showing through and absolutely no desire to bake banana bread, I wrote a funny blog for the Association of Christian Writers in the voice of an internet siren. She was called Isabella M Smugge (as in Bruges) and the joke was that her name spelt out I Am Smug. She was everything I wasn’t, rich, posh and skinny with a stellar career and perfect children. It was picked up by an agent who got me a book deal with Instant Apostle and so my fiction writing career began.

It immediately became apparent to me that Isabella would have to be a starry social media influencer and that I had therefore better up my game. Queasily, I began posting snaps of our kitten, sunsets, hanging baskets and my laptop on the ‘gram and consulted my children on the finer points. Shaking their heads, they would say things like, “How can you not understand this? See that big blue button that says ‘story?’ What do you think that does?”

I looked at what other writers were doing and began to learn the lingo, how to take better photos and what hashtags to use. The irony was that I, a middle aged, menopausal woman who had never heard of doorscaping or #OOTD2, was now writing books with a character who posted immensely successfully across all the platforms and made a great living from it.

The irony was that I, a middle aged, menopausal woman who had never heard of doorscaping or #OOTD2, was now writing books with a character who posted immensely successfully across all the platforms and made a great living from it.

I’ve just published my fourth novel in the Issy Smugge series and I can honestly say, I am no longer afraid of Instagram or TikTok. Someone wise once said that social media is a good servant, but a bad master. I think that’s great advice. I don’t let it take over my life. I use it for work and while that means I do quite a lot of posting, I look on it as part of the investment I’m making in my career. It allows me to reach people all over the world (Australia, New Caledonia, USA, Spain, Canada, France and Norway at the last count) and it has allowed me to build some wonderful friendships.

I network all the time and I am on the events circuit, so I get to meet a lot of people, Christian and non-Christian. A lot of the other writers make a face when social media is mentioned and say things like, “Oh Ruth, I could never do that! How do you find the time?” Some of them add, “Are Christians even meant to use it when you think of all the bad stuff on there?”

I’ve thought about this a lot.

I think it’s fine to use social media.

Every time I go to an event, I ask God to go ahead of me and to send the people who need Isabella in their lives to me. He always does and I’ve heard back from a number who are coming back to faith because of the gentle Christian content he’s inspired me to write.

Bad stuff there is, aplenty, but that’s easy to deal with. I immediately unfollow anyone posting it and concentrate on the good and wholesome things. We all have freedom of choice and my belief is that used wisely, social media is a wonderful thing that helps us to reach out and share the good news.