Be Picky About Who You Follow On Twitter & Facebook
What a great time to live in, we can fellowship, pray for one another, share burdens or blessings, get laughs and valuable information in a few key strokes with Twitter or Facebook.
I prefer Twitter but the information is is applicable to Facebook too.
Twitter is incredibly useful for Christians and homeschooler networking. But to get the most out of Twitter it’s important that you follow those that are have similar interests.
It is not a number game. Months after joining Twitter I am still unfollowing people I should have not followed to begin with
Choose Quality not Quantity.
Why would a full quiver Christian homeschool mom want to follow a pro-choice liberal or a porn star? That’s what happens when you follow everyone that follows you. Don’t get me wrong. We can be a light to non-Christians but be careful.
Nothing wrong with putting a boat in the water
but you don’t want water in the boat.
How I Decide Who Do Follow
Before I follow someone I usually:
Search Twellow for those following me. Its quick to read profiles and click follow.- Reviewed their profile.
- Browsed their most recent 20 tweets.
- Clicked through to the website in the profile and browsed a few pages (I like this part a lot).
If the information makes me believe we have some thing in common I’ll follow them back.
I Don’t Follow Back If I see
- unChristian behavior trend in Tweets (updates)
- Buddah, Law of Attraction, New Age, channeling, etc. type quotes
- any anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, or Replacement theology (I am a Zionist)
- anyone without personal information in their profile.
- scantly clad avatar
- anyone posting foul language
- anyone with no updates
- anyone whose updates are all promotion
- anyone consistently arguing
- anyone that has not been active on Twitter for 30 days or more
Who I Block
- Porn in your avatar
- Porn in your Twitter background
- Sexual pervert type profile (gay, etc)
- Rude Pro-choice Advocates
- Anyone pushing a cult
Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Ephesians 4:29
Choosing Like-Minded Friends
I despise Tweets that say “Get 500 followers a day” WHY? To me that would be like opening the phone book and randomly calling someone to talk.
Why have a lot of people following you who really aren’t interested in what you are doing or what you have to say?
If you are busy reading information from someone you have nothing in common with you may be missing great Tweets.
Tools for Friend Finding on Twitter
There are many tools to help you find what Anne of Green Gables called “kindred spirits.”
TweeterTags can help you find people with the same interest. Once you’ve added your tags, you can click them to see who else uses them. Sample tags: Christian, homeschool, theology, Bible, etc.
Use Search.twitter.com to search for keywords to find people with similar interest. You can search profiles or Tweets.
Mr. Tweet is an automated system that recommends interesting people for you to follow, based on your own Twitter usage.
Twellow listed above is another good option to find kindred friends.
Twubble can help expand your Twitter bubble – it searches your friend graph and picks out people who you may like to follow.”
If you feel overwhelmed unfollow of some Twitters. Only follow those you feel you can interact with and learn from.
Christians Have a Responsibility to Choose Friends Wisely
God’s people are expected to be holy, different and separated from other peoples in order to belong to God as His very own. We are also expected to be witnesses to a lost world.
Don’t feel like you have to follow everyone who follows you and don’t follow everyone. Be a good steward of your time.
Many non-Christians follow me (I’m not sure why) and I am thrilled they see my Tweets encouraging verses and links to Bible studies. If I feel lead I will follow back. But I don’t follow back, for example, someone bent on arguing about evolution theories–I don’t have time for it. Maybe you are called to argue evolution theories. That’s not my calling.
God commands separation of the believer from the corrupt world system and from unholy compromise. (Mat 7:15; 1Co 5:9-11; 2 Th 3:6-15) and from false teachers, churches or cults that teach theological error and deny Biblical truths (Mat 7:15; Rom 16:17). But Jesus ate with sinners becasue He is THE Light.
We can be a light and not compromise.
It comes down to praying about who you follow. The Lord will lead.
Are You Waiting for Me to Follow You?
If you are following me and are waiting for me to follow you back just pop me a Direct Tweet or Tweet and I’ll checkout your profile and probably follow you right back (as long as you don’t fall into the ugly list above).
