Terms of Service: The Real Cost of Social Media

Do we use social media, or are we being used by it? Social media is brilliant and obscene. It sharpens the mind and dulls it. It brings nations together and tears them apart. It perpetuates, reveals, and repairs injustice. It is an untamed beast upon which we can only hope to ride, but never quite corral. What is it doing to us? In Terms of Service, Chris Martin brings readers his years of expertise and experience from building online brands, coaching authors and speakers about social media use, and thinking theologically about the effects of social media. As you read this book, you will:  Learn how social media has come to dominate the role the internet plays in your lifeLearn how the “social internet” affects you in ways you may not realizeBe equipped to push back against the hold the internet has on your mind and your heart Review Chris Martin has established himself as one of the foremost Christian thinkers when it comes to digital technologies in general, and the social Internet in particular. In this book, he demonstrates why it is so important for Christians to think well about these world-changing, heart-shaping, soul-forming technologies. I highly recommend his book to anyone who wants to better understand how we can take back what they've so eagerly taken from us.Tim Challies, author and blogger With great insight, Chris shows us how the social Internet we carry around in our pockets has shaped the world and is shaping us. If you hold angst for the alarming and adverse impacts of social media, this book will give language to your concerns and provide hopeful and helpful solutions. Chris’s wise counsel to admire beauty, walk in humility, and value silence and accountability is an important challenge for all of us, including parents, ministry leaders, teachers, and anyone who in a role to influence others.Eric Geiger, senior pastor, Mariners Church The internet may be financially free, but it has other costs. In Terms of Service, Chris Martin skillfully unpacks the trade-offs of life in the digital age-helping us become more attentive to the hidden costs of the social Internet. This is a valuable read for any Christian who spends significant amounts of time online-which is pretty much all of us these days. We’re aware of the ways the social Internet is remaking the world. But are we alert to the ways it is remaking us? This book helps us carefully consider this question, and gives us tools for moving forward in health.  Brett McCracken, senior editor at The Gospel Coalition, author of The Wisdom Pyramid: Feeding Your Soul in a Post-Truth WorldTerms of Service will annoy you. If you are already reaping the neurochemical rewards of the social media echo chambers of your own choosing, I recommend that you do not read this book. Who reads books anymore anyways? I mean, if it is longer than 280 characters, why would any...Read Mercer Schuchardt, associate professor of communication, Wheaton College, PhD, New York University under Neil Postman, bestselling author of Amusing Ourselves to Death If anyone should write the book on how social media (or the “social Internet,” as Chris so wisely calls it) has affected us all, it’s Chris Martin. He has been in the trenches of social media for over a decade and observed what’s going on from that vantage point, not an ivory tower. Terms of Service will help anyone looking to understand how and why our online behaviors have shaped us and what it means to move forward in a digital world with a kingdom mindset.Julie Masson, Director of External Engagement, Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission It’s not hard to offer negative critiques of the social Internet. What is hard is giving sustained attention to those problems and following it with sound guidance on how to live faithfully in the real world. Chris’s years of experience in digital ministry and careful personal practices make him a worthy guide.John Dyer, Professor and VP of Educational Technology,