Why Facebook depresses people

Through the tremendous leap in communication that is the Internet, we have the ability to interact with people from all over the world. Here you are, sitting in your room in front of your computer, and you are chatting away with someone from Stockholm, Paris, Tokyo, or Sydney. You get the chance to involve yourself in myriad ways in the thoughts of others you will probably never meet. The Internet community has arrived! The problem is, there is no real Internet community, it is only a virtual community. That means its not really a community, but only a fake one. How so? Because, in the privacy of your own home, you don’t have to be the person you really are but instead can be anyone you want to be. The Internet community is only a virtual one because people only see what you want them to see or what they want to see in you. There was a recent study conducted in which Facebook users reported feeling depressed after reading other people's posts, because it always seems like everyone else is having a great life online, even though we know that in real life, that can't be true all the time.

Mark 8:27-9:1
“Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"  28 They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29 "But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ." 30 Jesus warned them not to tell anyone about him. 31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. "Get behind me, Satan!" he said. "You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men."  34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."  9:1 And he said to them, "I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” 

So it is with Jesus. People have always wanted Jesus to fit their mold of what He should be. In their minds, Jesus is someone who fills their needs, and that is all. Even His own disciples did not understand His true nature, even after hearing Him predict His trial, death, and resurrection. Despite Jesus telling people not to spread the word about who He was or what He did, people basically looked at Him as a wonder-worker, a magician. As long as the bread kept coming and the sick and demon-possessed were being healed, this would be the only perspective people would have of Jesus. But Jesus is so much more than that. True, His compassion compels Him to respond to the pleas of the suffering, but His ultimate goal is redemption of the universe. With Jesus, the Kingdom of God has come, a Kingdom where there is no virtual reality, no misunderstanding, no mistake, only communion and  real connection.