Loneliness Is One Reason People Ask for Prayer on Facebook

Prayer is described as communication to a supreme being or object of worship. Facebook, however is causing many to seek assistance from their social media friends, rather than going directly to the diety they want to intervene. There are many underlying reasons that people do this and one of them is loneliness. No one would ever admit this but when you see the same people posting day after day, patterns emerge from their writings. I am convinced that a lot of people seek Facebook to fill a void in their lives and they may not even realize it.

In Greek mythology, individuals went to the temple of the gods and offered a sacrifice as they sought assistance. In the Old Testament, various biblical characters prayed directly to their God and received answers. In decades gone by sacrifices would be given to appease the wrath of a deity in certain cultures, even to throwing people in volcanoes. In each situation the person desiring intervention into their circumstances went directly to the object of their worship for themselves or took the action they believed would bring answers. No one ever asked someone else to approach their God on their behalf.

Facebook has brought forth a new culture where it is believed that prayer warriors are always on duty and ready to serve. Instead of falling on their knees and seeking their higher power in private and bringing a testimony of answered prayer to social media, here is what I see posted day after day.

“I need my on-duty warriors to pray.”

I have an unspoken prayer request.

Prayers please no questions.

Ya’ll pray for me.

Calling all prayer warriors (etc.)

This type of post brings the following responses:

What’s going on?

Praying

God got this

The devil is a liar

Inbox me

I'll call you later

Seeking prayer on Facebook makes people pay attention. Sometimes the person who asked for prayer will respond back by thanking Facebook for praying. Many times when the request is made known, it is not anything serious such as sickness or death. Sometimes people ask others to pray on their behalf so they will get good night's sleep, have a favorable job interview or that they get over the common cold. Human nature is a curious thing and social media draws out what is inside of people. Everyone who uses this Internet medium realizes that some of their friends obtain more likes and comments than others. Perhaps these individuals desire to see someone pay attention to their posts as well.

When you see that a certain individual usually gets only 3 or 4 likes on their subject matter, but when they ask for prayer they get 40 likes and 30 comments, it's hard not to take note. There are those who desire to get lots of attention on Facebook so they do what they believe works for others. Naturally no one would admit to this but there is a monkey see monkey do mentality that seems to prevail. A few years ago women began posting photo's of themselves, breast to breast with other females. This went on for close to a year and abruptly stopped. New trends are to say your pet who died went over the rainbow bridge, and when people die the current phrase is, "They got their wings." Happy birthday in heaven is another popular saying even though birth dates begin and end in the earth realm.

It is not my intention to offend anyone. I am bringing attention to the fact that social media is having too much influence on the way people operate. This is especially true of older adults who should long ago have stopped following the crowd. Before Facebook, people prayed in church, a mosque a synagogue, or the privacy of their own homes. Now, social media is replacing talking to God in private and provides an outlet where you get someone else to do it for you. Facebook offers a call and response atmosphere where those who seek attention, They can watch what seems to work for others and then follow suit. The bigger question is why do those, who say they believe in a prayer answering God, have so much faith in everyone else's prayers but their own.