Our young women are being stolen through social media. Like all of us, young women desire to be affirmed, valued, and loved. We need to point them to the only place where that desire can be filled: in Christ. #Stolen offers straight talk for teen girls and young women on the image they project and relatable, practical advice, grounded in Scripture, on how to find their identity in the one voice that really matters, not in the millions of voices online. The book also features creative hashtags and discussion questions throughout. Jessica Fralin is an author, blogger, and full-time college student residing in Lynchburg, Virginia. As a worship leader and aspiring women s ministry leader, she conveys the message of love, acceptance, and worth that can only be found in the gospel. On any given day, you can find her holding a guitar, a book, or a latte and passionately teaching others who they are and why it matters when it comes to social media. #Stolen Is Social Media Stealing Your Identity? By Jessica Fralin Abingdon Press Copyright © 2015 Jessica Fralin All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4267-8906-9 Contents "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?", "1. #Stolen: How Social Media Has Told Us Who We Are", "2. 10 Percent Remaining: Sucking the Life Out of More Than Just Your Battery", "THE COMPARISON GAME", "3. Double Tap: When Likes Define Life", "4. Selfies and Spray Tans: When Our Bodies Become Our Gods", "5. Pin This, Need This: When Materialism Fights for Our Hearts", "WORDS, WORDS, WORDS", "6. "A Little Bird Told Me": How Words Get Tossed Around", "7. Screenshot: Moments Can Be Captured", "8. Misery Loves Company: When We Feed Our Feelings", "9. "Oops, Wrong Person": When Words Cut Through a Screen", "REDEEMING OUR TIME (& OUR TWEETS)", "10. Breaking the Cycle: Learning to Be Instead of Do", "11. Gone Viral: An Identity Revolution", "Acknowledgments", "Appendix 1: When Pain Runs Deep", "Appendix 2: Grace", About the Author, What's the Problem?, CHAPTER 1 #STOLEN How Social Media Has Told Us Who We Are This is probably weird, but I like to walk by open laptops in a coffee shop (which is where I spend at least half of my free time). I always peek to see if Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest is open. Almost every time, at least one of them is. Sometimes all three. And smartphones are everywhere. They've become the Mom-I-really-have-to-have-this gift of the century. It's incredible, isn't it? We get to be connected 24/7, to almost all of the information in the world. (Although my greatest talent when it comes to the iPhone seems to be shattering my screen.) If you're not on Twitter, people question your sanity, because everybody is on Twitter. Even my grandma has a Twitter account, and she's eighty years old! It seems like everywhere I turn these days, social media has entered another part of our world. And I'm loving the way it keeps us all connected. But have you ever been annoyed by it? Has it ever made you feel overwhelmed or frustrated? For all the good we can do with it, there are a few things there I wish we could press the "dislike" button for. LIKE/DISLIKE Social media and I have a love/hate relationship. I have a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head, pretty much all the time. Call it "creative type," call it hyperactivity, call it whatever you want, but I have a lot to say. Funny occurrences, insights I've found, stories that need sharing. Social media provides an outlet for all these thoughts, neatly packaged in 140 characters or less and sent to all my followers with one little click. That's the part I love. But after I click that button, I wait to see how my words will affect my followers. Will they laugh along at the funny things I write? Will my realizations cause them to think deeper too? Sometimes, after I've hit "send," I'm held captive by my notifications. It's a waiting game, not just to see how my words will affect my friends, but if my words will affect them at all. Part of me fears that after I've put my words out there, the notifications won't come. Social media has trained my heart to believe that notifications are what give my words worth, what gives me worth. It might be one of the biggest battles I face when it comes to social media. And that's the part I hate. It's not just the notifications, though. My love/hate relationship with social media continues in so many ways: Love: I can stay connected with my friends who live across the country. Hate: I can look at my friends' posts and feel jealous that their lives are cooler than mine. Love: I can find killer ideas for everything from outfits to room decor to recipes. Hate: I sometimes feel like I'll never measure up to the ideas I find. Love: I can read a Tweet or a blog and immediately feel encouraged and excited. Hate: I can read a Tweet or a blog and immediately feel disappointed and defeated. Love: I can be connected to everyone's thoughts, all the time. Hate: I can't stop waiti