Ten Commandments for Social Media

For the original, see Deuteronomy 5:7-21

1. You shall have no other gods.

You shall not like or follow astrology on Facebook or twitter, you shall not read, like or share pagan, New Age or fortune telling links. You shall unfriend - or at least unfollow, Facebook and Instagram or twitter friends who share such sites. 

2. You shall not use the name of God in vain

You shall not use His name unless in prayer or explaining the Faith or honouring Him. You shall not use the acronym "OMG" unless in prayer; you shall not like or share any article, song or meme where anyone used the name of Our Lord in a flippant way. 

3. Honour the sabbath day

Make Mass your priority on holy days.  Make sure you give yourself time to rest, pray and worship.  Do not spend more time on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram than in worship or with your family. You shall not check social media when at Mass. You shall prepare for Mass in prayer on your knees adoring God and not updating your status online. You shall turn off your phone when you enter a Church or when setting time aside for prayer. 

4. Honour your father and mother

Do not vent about your parents on social media; do not speak disrespectfully about your mother, The Church on any social media; use social media to increase glory for your mother the Church and your brothers and sisters, your fellow believers in how you behave online. 

5. You shall not murder

You shall not undermine the sanctity of life by supporting pro-abortion politicians, charities or political parties either directly or indirectly; you shall not use anti-life expressions such as "pro-choice" or "potential human life". You shall not murder another's reputation by slander, gossip or calumny. You shall not detract from them by sharing another's sins or failings. You shall not read or share blog posts that attack other people rather than ideas. You shall remember that each person you interact with online is a person loved by God for whom Christ died. You should use your writings to encourage rather than destroy. 

6. You shall not commit adultery

You shall not flirt with another person online to whom you're not married; you shall not initiate conversations with another person that you wouldn't want your spouse to read.  You shall block on social media any person with whom you are tempted to sin with or with whom you have had an impure relationship with. It is better for you to get to heaven with less Facebook friends than to suffer in Hell for all eternity. 

7. You shall not give false testimony. 

You shall defend the Faith in its entirety when under attack or when others undermine its Truth.  You shall not like or share posts, memes or links that aren't true. You shall not read blogs that make you angry without reason about The Pope, clergy or any other person based on hearsay. You shall not share articles if they're full of hatred or anger towards another person rather than dealing with issues. 

8. You shall not steal. 

You shall not copy and paste other people's writings and pass them off as your own. 

9. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife

You should be happy when people share statuses and updates about how much they love their spouse. You should not be jealous of their relationship but pray for and support them. 

10. You shall not covet 

You shall not covet your neighbour's house that he regularly shares photos of in Instagram, nor their Oxbridge education nor their new Aston Martin or anything that is your Facebook friend's.