Is Social Media Really Making us Crazy?
This year was the first time, at my annual physical, that my doctor asked about my mental health. After 2020, I can understand why. I told him I had to make some adjustments because it was a stressful year. His next question was even more telling: “Did you put your phone down?”
Yes, actually. More specifically, I had deleted all my social media apps from my phone, which meant I had fewer reasons to pick it up. I expected it would help. I did not expect my doctor to conform it.
It’s hard to find someone who thinks the time they spent on their phone in 2020 was good for them. But now the research is confirming what many of us were feeling: social media really is bad for people and for society. So much that doctors are mentioning it to their patients.
The harder question is, “What should we do about it?” In these words, I want to lay out some of what researchers have learned about social media use, give my thoughts on what may be happening, and then give some advice to Christians pondering how to use it well. This is all with the goal of helping God’s people use technology wisely.
What We Know
About a decade ago, researchers began noticing that people who used their smartphones heavily tended to be more depressed, more anxious, lonelier, and less happy. As trends became clear, they saw the rising generation’s mental health tailspin as soon as smartphones became available to them. When they researched further, they found that “more screen time causes more anxiety, depression, loneliness, and less emotional connection.” And it appears that social media is the main culprit [1].
Former employees and contractors of social media companies have come forward claiming that many features on the platforms and apps are designed to create compulsive behavior and addiction [2]. More recently, the Wall Street Journal ran a series revealing that Facebook was aware of this and of its effect on people but kept doing it. The series also points to the demonstrated threats social media has posed to democracy and society, and to Facebook’s knowledge of it [3]. The story is unfolding with the haunting familiarity of the big tobacco trials.
To put it all together, it appears that these heavily used platforms are engineered to be addictive, and that the compulsion they create has trickled down into society and individuals. Social media isn’t the only thing making us crazy and causing a mental health crisis, but it is definitely one thing making us crazy and causing a mental health crisis.
How Should a Christian Think About That?
Because Christians believe that people have souls, we recognize that “mental health” is actually something even more important: spiritual health. If we are commanded not to be anxious about anything, taught that God is near the brokenhearted, and commanded to love one another, we must care about anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
But it would be easy to overreact. I can’t help but think of the lady in my childhood church who believed that being near a powered-on television rotted your brain, or my friend’s mom who, in the 1990’s, tried to convince me that the Devil invented the Internet. New things are not bad simply because they are new.
A knee-jerk rejection wouldn’t work because these networks have potential to benefit human society and enrich people’s lives. Of course it’s good to have an easy way to see your college friends’ baby pictures. And the spread of helpful information is good. Social media could be very good.
When imperfect people get ahold of any media–books, videos, music, anything–we can use it for good or evil. But what is happening now is unique. The companies running social media platforms have an unprecedented power to rig the game, and right now they are rigging it to favor the bad and bury the good. They could design the algorithm to put “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is lovely” (Phil 4:8) in front of you. But they put whatever hooks you.
So it seems best to think of social media as a good technology that is being stewarded poorly, so much that Christians who love truth and love their neighbors need to rethink how we are using it. It also seems wise to consider what is good and evil about it so that we can enjoy the good and protect ourselves from the evil.
So What Do We Do?
I’ve been contemplating for a while how to lead the church through all of this, knowing that several of us use social media and are noticing the same trends. With social media in the state it is in today, our main posture toward it should be caution. So here’s my cautious advice for anyone wrestling with when and how to use it in a way that honors Jesus.
Take It Off Your Phone. So much of the negative effect of social media comes from that sense that it’s always there and the way the instant gratification brings out your compulsion. Both of those go away if it isn’t on your phone. On the other hand, I can’t think of any benefit to having the content of social media networks in your pocket.
Is it Tempting You to Sin? Some features in the networks are designed to make us angry, covetous, or too quick to speak. One simple question to ask yourself: is it working? Do you get angry when a certain someone’s posts are at the top of your feed again? Does seeing someone else’s happiness make you compare yourself to them? Do you ever fire back?
Don’t Log in Alone. Sometimes there are updates on Facebook that I don’t want to miss. So I check it once a week on Friday or Saturday, when Emily is home, and make a point to tell her about what I saw. Then I walk downstairs to say, “Hey, the so-and-so’s had their baby!”
This has the advantage of keeping the good stories at the top, if you don’t log in often. If you know you’re about to tell someone about them, you’ll pay attention and your brain won’t shut off. And the other person gives the accountability and in-person connection you need.
If You’re Anxious, Depressed, or Lonely, Turn it off Altogether. This is probably the boldest advice I have, but it isn’t without merit. Causation is very hard to demonstrate in scientific research. Yet researchers have been able to show that using social media causes anxiety, depression, and loneliness. If you’re suffering from any of those, and you use social media, it only makes sense to turn it off.
Find Quality Content to Replace It. Some of us love to read articles we find through social media. It’s an easy way to find something to read quickly. But there’s a rule in publication that the more quickly and more often something is produced, the lower the quality generally is. That means a Sunday newspaper is better than the evening news, and the evening news is better than cable news.
It also means that you’re better off reaching for a book than looking for something to read on your phone. This has been a hurdle for me. With the social media apps off my phone, now I just look for something else on it to read when I have a spare moment, when I should really be grabbing a book.
If you enjoy reading on social media, put a good book in the place where you sit with your phone. Our discipleship library is full of them. If you like watching videos on YouTube, find some good documentaries on Netflix or at the library. If you want some recommendations, ask Paul or me.
Call People. For others, social media is about people–not content. If that’s you, make a short list of the people you would miss if you used social media less often and call them. You can even use the same phone to do it!
This is helpful because social media relationships are too distant to give us a meaningful sense of satisfaction. Hanging up after a phone call with a friend feels better than locking your phone after an hour on Instagram. Zoom calls and FaceTime can be helpful if you have people you really want to see, like grandkids who won’t stop growing. But there is something very satisfying about a voice-only phone call. Young men, this is a good time to remind you to call your mother.
But talking isn’t the only option. You can write notes to people you miss. You could start a text thread with your old friend group (even if you have to use Facebook to find them all). You could remember the people who tend to like your Instagram photos and text them a picture now and then.
If you’re aching for more meaningful time with people, one of the most God-honoring things you could do is visit a few of our shut-ins or long-term care patients. Almost every time I see one of them, I leave struck by how much it blessed me.
Consider Your Effect on Others. There are hard ethical questions to ask. How sure are we that these companies are using our posts to hook other people to their platform? Does that mean we’re joining them in sin? How can we engage in a way that loves our neighbor? If we live as a bright spot on a dark platform, does that help?
God gives us the overarching command (love your neighbor), but we have to look to him for the wisdom to discern how. The situation is too murky for me to give any clear pastoral advice on that, but I know I have stopped posting on my personal accounts until we get more clarity on how those posts are effecting others.
A Call to Caution, For Now
There are plenty of other useful ways to spend the time. You could work on Bible memory, learn a new skill, or just spend more time outside. But one thing is becoming more and more clear: those of us who use social media heavily need to cut back.
At the same time, we should pray for a day when the technology is used for its full benefit. The Gospel was recovered and eventually flourished in the West largely because the elites around the printing press used it to spread the Bible. If God were to place our social media networks into the hands of similar people, we could reach every nation very quickly. If word-based networks like Twitter were to promote wise speech rather than mob mentality, we would see a decades long benefit to public discourse and democracy. Let’s pray together that those who control the networks would love wisdom and love the Gospel. We may yet see beauty rise.
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[1] Jean Twenge, iGen, 112. Emphasis in the quote is mine. Other insights in the paragraph are taken from Chapter 4 of the book.
[2] Hilary Andersson, Social media apps are 'deliberately' addictive to users, BBC, July 4, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-44640959
[3] The Facebook Files: a Wall Street Journal Investigation. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039