Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok in the midst of all that is going on, it is very difficult to know what we should be doing, so we are giving you two options for Sunday night. The first is to meet on zoom at 7.30… The link will be set up and sent out on Sunday, so watch out for that.
The other way is to meet in person at the Club as normal, although we will meet at 7.20 for our advent reflection and then on to the pub. If you wish to come to the Club on Sunday could we ask you to do a lateral flow test, please also try to socially distance and of course wear a mask when moving about the building. This is just to help keep everyone as safe as possible. Thanks for your help.
This week as we have a guest reflection From Fiona Fidgin (Fidge for short) Fidge works for the Methodist Church and has just started a new role working in all things digital for the church.
In the past 18 months, I’ve been looking at myself pretty much daily. No – I haven’t been spending time in front of a mirror (a process I would normally avoid to be honest!) but I have spent a lot of time seeing my own image on Zoom. Most of us hadn’t heard of Zoom pre-pandemic but if you’re anything like me, Zoom has become part of my daily life. Zoom is an online video meeting platform and used for meetings, family gatherings, worship, conversations, drinks, quizzes – pretty much anything that involves people getting together!
I’m starting a new job, helping to resource the church digitally, and I was recently asked to choose an image that spoke to me about digital. Surprisingly (I didn’t have long to think about it!) I chose this image: Jesus washing the feet of his disciple Peter, a painting by the German artist, Sieger Koder. I say surprisingly, as you might have assumed that I’d choose an image of a global network. However, this picture spoke to me about image – you can’t see the actual face of Jesus, but you can see his image as a reflection in the water. This spoke to me deeply about how the digital portrays an image – what do people see of us online? Do people see the ‘real’ us online or do we portray an image of ourselves?
It took me quite a while to realise that what I see of myself on a zoom screen is not the same image that others see of me. Rob and I were at a retreat a month ago and I had been out early filming myself in the gardens making a Tik Tok video trying to encourage people to notice their surroundings. “I look awful!” I laughed as Rob asked me what I was doing. I didn’t try and make my image into something else – more makeup, less wrinkles. It was just me. “I quite like the authentic look,” I joked as we talked.
There is a lot of evidence to suggest that the rise in mental health issues, especially amongst young women, has a lot to do with trying to keep up a certain online image. I know of one woman who won’t post pictures of herself online unless she has filtered them. A young neighbour posted ‘happy’ pictures of herself for the world to see on Instagram while I knew that in her offline life, she was not so happy – separating from her partner and having to leave her home. When we post online – what do people to see of us? Authentic us? What image do we want people to see?
Questions:
What has been your funniest moment while on an online call?
How aware are you of an online image?
Do you filter your own pictures?
What image do you portray on social media?
What ‘images of Christ’ do you notice online?
This post is written by one of our many friends. At BeachcomberFX we love to hear what others have to say and are always on the lookout for people who want to share their thoughts or stories with us.
