Social Media | A Short Story & Talking Points for Youth

Coco Lawrence and Courtney Sims have been best friends since they were nine years old. They are almost thirteen now and hang out all the time. They are constantly experiencing various circumstances as they hold each other accountable and work through each situation, trusting the Lord that they handle them as He would. This short story finds them struggling through social media and how to handle it the way Jesus would.

Coco was sitting on her bed and asked herself a question out-loud.

“Seriously? Why do people feel they need to do this?”

Courtney, her best friend, was sitting on a bean bag in Coco’s bedroom playing with an old Rubik’s cube and eating M&Ms.

“What are you mumbling about over there?” Courtney asked. “You know, psychiatrists say it’s a sign that a person is beginning to go crazy when they start talking to themselves.”

“Well, at least I’m going crazy! You’ve been living in Crazyville for quite a while.”

They both laughed at each other’s comments.

Courtney asked, “What were you talking about?”

“People on Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram. There are so many mean-spirited, negative statements toward individuals and groups. I just read one post that Stephanie Rogers wrote.”

“What did she say and about who?” Courtney questioned.

“She said that some guy named Mike was a terrible trumpet player and should not be in the school band. She went on to say that he makes the whole band sound horrible. That they should kick him out. That is so mean!”

Courtney thought for a moment, put down the Rubik’s cube and said, “Mike. Mike who? I don’t think I know a Mike who is in the band. Marching band or stage band?”

Coco looked at Courtney and just stared at her with an annoying look.

“What?” Courtney questioned as she popped another M&M into her mouth, totally oblivious to Coco’s irritation.

“It’s not the point of whether you know Mike or anyone else. I’m talking about Stephanie and how she and others seem to always use social media platforms to put people down.”

“Oh. I get it now. Stephanie Rogers! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, if I were honest, I wouldn’t give her a medal for being the most positive person I know. She rarely hands out compliments to anyone, if you know what I mean.

“Why do you think she’s negative and so nasty to people?” Coco queried.

“I don’t know. Maybe it makes her feel better about herself. Maybe it makes her feel superior to others. Maybe she believes it will win her approval from others.” Courtney thoughtfully answered.

Coco nodded in agreement then said, “Yeah, maybe, but it just kills me that Stephanie does this. The other day she wrote that Brynn was super flirty to all the boys.”

Courtney immediately responded, “Brynn Johnson? She’s not flirty. She’s so nice to everyone. She jokes a lot with everybody, but she’s not flirty! I guess I can see how someone might think a person is being flirtatious if she’s joking around with a boy but that’s not Brynn. She just loves to have fun with everybody.”

“Ooh. Flirtatious. Using big words now, are we?” Coco joked.

Courtney responded with, “I am so sorry, Coco. I forget that your vocabulary is extremely limited. I’ll try to use words that you’ll be more familiar with.”

Coco grabbed the nearby pillow on her bed and chunked it at her. It hit Courtney perfectly in the face and M&Ms went everywhere. Courtney threw the pillow back but it missed Coco by a couple of inches. They laughed at each other.

Coco continued. “Brynn asked me the other day if I thought she was a flirt. I told her no and then she told me Stephanie had written that on Facebook. I told her I had read it but didn’t think that about her at all. She said it really bothered her that Stephanie would post that. She said it’s made her not want to joke around and kid with people anymore. She’s scared people will think she’s being overly friendly and flirting.”

“What did you tell her?” Courtney asked.

“I told her not to let it bother her and I didn’t think she was flirtatious at all, to use your big word.” Coco grinned. “I told her I thought she was fun to be around because she was nice and joked with everyone. She said she appreciated that but it still was hard.”

“Sad.” Courtney responded. “She shouldn’t feel bad just because Stephanie or anyone else would make a hateful statement, but I can sure understand. I wonder what we can do about this. I don’t feel like we know Stephanie well enough to talk to her about it.”

“Yeah, me either.” Coco said with a small level of despondency.

After a few seconds of silence between the two girls, Coco spoke up and shot Courtney an idea.

“Why don’t you and I start individual Facebook posts that ask people to write something positive about someone in their circle of friends?”

Courtney threw away the M&Ms that were on the floor into the trash can and then said, “I think I know where you’re going with this. You’re thinking if we could get more people to write positive shout outs about their friends then maybe we would see fewer hateful and negative comments.”

“Exactly!” Coco shouted. “What do you think, Court?”

“I love it. Let’s start it today. In fact, why don’t we pray and ask the Lord to bless our efforts?"

"Great idea, Court. Let me pray. Father, we’re really concerned about the negativity and hateful statements toward people that we are finding on social media. As we start these posts on our Facebook pages, we ask you to bless them and use it to glorify You. We ask You to bring individuals to make more positive and uplifting statements toward others. We’ll be sure to give You all the praise and are anxious to see what You do with it. In the name of Jesus, amen.”

“Amen.” Courtney agreed.

Well, the two besties did exactly what they said they would do. After they explained on their pages what they were doing and challenging others to do the same thing, they immediately began seeing dozens and dozens of wonderful posts. It was amazing what was happening. People were writing all kinds of delightful comments and compliments about their friends. Their Facebook campaign was still going strong even after two weeks. They made sure that God received all the glory for giving them the idea and for

making it such a success. They even found a couple of posts from Stephanie that were very positive!