Social media platform, Facebook, has added another button to its features. Apart from the ‘’like,’’ ‘’love,’’ ‘’shock,’’ ‘’sad,’’ angry’’ and other buttons, the platform has added the ‘’I prayed’’ button. This is good news for people of faith. The ‘’I pray’’ button will be used for spiritual discussions.
Presently, this button can only be found in Facebook Groups that utilize it. However, it is already being used by churches and other faith-based organizations. This additional feature has drawn reactions from various individuals.
Pastor Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas, supported the initiative. He told the Associated Press that, "Facebook and other social media platforms continue to be tremendous tools to spread the Gospel of Christ and connect believers with one another – especially during this pandemic.’’
"While any tool can be misused, I support any effort like this that encourages people to turn to the one true God in our time of need. As long as these companies initiate proper precautions and protocols to ensure the safety of religiously marginalized communities, people of faith should jump on board supporting this vital initiative," he added.
Pastor Bob Stec of St. Ambrose Catholic Parish in Brunswick, Ohio, also commented on the new feature. He said that although the social media platform is not the "deeply authentic community that we need," the feature can equally be positive.
"We need to join our voices and hands in prayer. We need to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other and walk through great moments and challenges together," Stec informed Associated Press.
Besides, Stec admonished the faith community to utilize the new button wisely.
"Is it wise to post everything about everyone for the whole world to see?" he asked. "On a good day, we would all be reflective and make wise choices. When we are under stress or distress or in a difficult moment, it's almost too easy to reach out on Facebook to everyone,’’ he said.
In December last year, Facebook started trying the feature. According to a Facebook spokesperson, the ‘’I pray’’ button was created because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this period, the spokesperson said "many faith and spirituality communities" were connecting using Facebook services. Hence, it made the platform to think about exploring new tools to support people of faith.
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