S05E036, #WhatsTrending? Andy B 2 Minute Video
As a slight caveat, this is the first video edited with some new video editing software we’re now switching across to. I think it’s improved various elements of both the editing and the videos you can watch that we make.
But we’d truly love to know what you think. Perhaps you can’t see a difference – we’d be grateful if you could let us know! We’re hoping that both the audio and the video have taken a turn for the better! Anyway, on to today’s Andy B!
We all know that we can influence others, and that others can influence us too. The question is always whether or not that influence is healthy: are others leading us towards Jesus, or away from Him? And, likewise, are we helping turn people towards Jesus, or not?
If you’re going around shouting at people about how evil they are you’ve missed the point of scripture – for starters – and are likely pushing them further from Jesus. If you go around, peacefully, letting the light of Jesus within you, draw others to Jesus, you’re helping build God’s kingdom here on earth.
Trending is a term made far more popular due to social media, such as Twitter or Instagram. If you can get people using ‘your word’ then you can, in theory, push up your brand. Business uses this all the time, because they can tie that trend to themselves. So, when anybody used that trend it helps lift awareness of that brand.
Hence the term, What’s Trending? Although it’s worth noting that nobody can own a hashtag. So #whatstrending may become popular. You have been the first one to use it, but they’re just words, so ownership can never be assigned to one person.
Recently, we had a #WhatsTrending moment when Steven had some toast cut up into triangles. Jo saw it and thought she’d have the same. I saw what Steven and Jo were eating, and copied them. Steven’s tiny choice over how to eat his breakfast affected the breakfast choices of two others.
Ok, this is a fairly minor thing. But these sorts of influences happen every day, because we all influence the people around us, as they influence us.
The only question we should be routinely asking of ourselves is are people seeing good trends from us or bad ones?
Just a thought...
Andy B
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Andy B: So another Andy B 2 Minute Video. Now, have you ever heard of the phrase #WhatsTrending?
[00:00:12] In a film that we watched, Alexandra on a terrible, horrible something or other bad day, which is a great film by the way, there's this moment where they're sharing over breakfast about their wins and their losses, and the older brother in the family says, #Blessed. And that hashtag starts something that is trending that we see on particularly Twitter, but also even YouTube now, and Facebook, Instagram, lots of social media. You see this hashtag and it's basically people use that hashtag to gain influence. And I've seen it for a brand new brand. Could all our friends please use this hashtag? Because then, maybe, it'll get higher up and we'll get seen and maybe we'll do more business.
[00:00:48] And there's nothing wrong with that. It's a very logical way of looking at it.
[00:00:51] But I was thinking about toast, trending toast, because the other day, Steven, our oldest son, had some toast and then [00:01:00] Jo said, Oh, that's a good idea. I think I'll have some toast as well. And I walked in, saw Steven and Jo having toast and thought, Oh, I'm gonna have some toast as well.
[00:01:07] So there's three of us munching on toast, because one person fancied a bit toast. It's the simplest thing in the world. It's bread shoved in a toaster and you stick some't on it. It's not exactly a big deal. And yet Steven having toast influenced the rest of his family that were there at that moment.
[00:01:24] You look at that one example of some as basic and as simple, as mundane, as normal as host, what about your attitude? Do you start a trend in traffic because you let people in? I've watched it happen. I've let somebody in who's been waiting, you know that junction is really bad, and you let a car in and you see them let somebody else in further down the road. And I've seen another car, sometimes they're recognizable, and you can see someone hasn't let them in and they're very selfish and you can see that replicated for good or for wrong.
[00:01:56] What we do influences other [00:02:00] people.
[00:02:00] How we respond makes a difference.
[00:02:03] What you do in your job is important, but how you do, what you do in your job, is even more important because you can affect the people around you. And, as Christians, our attitude, our heart, how we do what we do, and how we respond to things is important.
[00:02:17] So what's trending in your life? What's trending in the, in the lives around you because of what you've done?
[00:02:24] Have you influenced people in the right way? Or have you influenced people in an unhelpful way. What's trending in your life? What's trending in the lives around you, because of you?
[00:02:35] Just a thought.