[Darris McNeely] We did a recent Beyond Today daily on whether or not you would befriend Jesus Christ, and make Him one of your Facebook friends. It's an interesting concept, at least on our staff it generated a great deal of comment and discussion.

I was looking at another article that was talking about social media, Facebook, Twitter, and all the other different forms of social media that we have, and its impact upon relationships. The headline said, "Social media blamed for 50% of breakups." It was a study in Great Britain of about 2,000 individuals who were surveyed, and over 50% of them attributed a breakup in a relationship whether a friendship, a job situation, and even a marriage. One quarter of those surveyed indicated that their marriages had been broken up because of bad experiences that they had on social media. In fact, those that were surveyed, most of them said that they were the dumper rather than the dumpee.

Interesting. Over 50% of people had some type of a relationship break down or breakup because of social media and the way that it was handled on some of these social sites. Some people saw that what their mate or their friend was doing on Facebook without them, with or without them, or saying about them that contributed to it.

They were comparing themselves on Facebook with other people in marriages, friendships, relationships, finding their own to be lacking. That contributed to their unhappiness and their breakup in that particular relationship.

Social media is very powerful, and it is all a part of our lives today, but what we say and how we even perceive what other people say online can be very dangerous. Some people will go online and say things they would never say to a person to their face, and that can cause problems. We can read what someone else is doing in their life, thinking they're happier than us, and that causes us to be depressed and remorseful. The words, the thoughts, and the emotions that are expressed in any form, but particularly in social media are very important. And we all need to be very careful not only what we put on, what we say, but also how we digest and how we process what we do read while we're on these sites, looking at   information from other people and what they're saying. We don't know how much of it is true, how much is fabricated, or even how much is exaggerated.

It reminded me of a Proverb in chapter 12 verse 18 of Proverbs that I think all of us might want to look at and remember whether we're absorbing, taking in social media, or we're producing social media. It says in Proverbs 12:18, "The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing." Words can pierce like a sword. They can cut emotionally, and they do. They can lead to a breakup in relationships.

Don't let yourselves be the perpetrators of something like that. Be very, very careful how you relate and absorb the media and the content that you take in as well. Resolve to make your tongue like one who is wise that brings healing.

That's BT Daily. Join us next time.