“We love talking to leaders who are using social media for the common good,” says Heather, “but that doesn’t mean social media doesn’t have a dark side.”

In this episode, Heather invites you to learn about some of the existential dangers of social media from a leading scholar of digital technology. How do we use social media without allowing ourselves to be consumed by it? How does it impact our ability to be present with the people around us? Felicia Wu Song is the perfect person to guide us around the pitfalls and red flags, while also encouraging us to hang onto our humanity in this digital age.

Felicia Wu Song is a cultural sociologist of media and digital technologies who serves as a professor of sociology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara. With degrees in history, communication, and sociology from Yale, Northwestern, and the University of Virginia, her research is oriented around the rapidly evolving world of digital technology and how the adoption of social media and digital devices fundamentally alters the landscapes of family, community, and organizational life. She is the author of Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age.

 Reach out to Heather at heatherthompsonday.com, on Twitter @HeatherTDay, and on Instagram @heatherthompsonday. 

Viral Jesus is a production of Christianity Today

Host and creator: Heather Thompson Day

Producer: Loren Joseph

Executive Producer: Ed Gilbreath

Director of CT Podcasts: Mike Cosper