Hiding our unflattering features is very natural and easy online, but excruciatingly hard and unnatural offline, in healthy local churches and honest friendships. Self-editing is less possible in genuine face-to-face relationships. There is no Valencia filter for the real-life you. Without honestly acknowledging these online tendencies, we will continue to think local-church awkwardness is a strange feeling to be resisted rather than a precious means to reshape us.
