Life As A Christian Teen: Social Media

So as much as I like writing about our social values and standards as a society, I can not leave out the lens through which I view all these different parts of life: my faith. Which is why I'm starting this part of the blog. It's not only for my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ but also for those who want to see or understand what it means to be Christian in our liberal world. It's not just church and bible, it's not just religion, it's a relationship and a lifestyle.

I can't talk about every single topic or issue that I or most believers encounter right now but we will get there.

images from 123RF and Fever PR

So, where to start. Well, since we're in the middle of isolation and we are all on social media everytime, we can start there. Personally, I'm not that enthusiastic about social media apps. But then, I love what they can do. It's a sort of love-hate relationship. I like their progressiveness and intent but it all goes downhill very quickly. I know some of us are like "Social media? Is that a thing we should be worried about?" The thing is that even though we know what to avoid on social media like pornography, spreading hate, bullying etc, it still has some subtle effects on us. Things that take time to grow and sometimes we can't even pin point what caused them. One example is depression and low-self esteem. Until recently, I used to think depression was mental sickness that required trauma or a drastic accident, maybe death. When I was in elementary school, the only time I heard of depression was either when a parent was thinking of school fees, someone lost a loved one or some other drastic event. But now, we are seeing more cases of depression in the younger generation. Now, is this to say that young people have not suffered from depression before social media? No. But I am saying that the cases of depression in youth have increased a lot . We have more people committing suicides, doing drastic or silly things to get attention on social media because of the likes. We might also have heard of dopamine and it's effects of us. The instant gratification cocaine of our day. With the increasing knowledge and fear of this natural hormone, millenials are trying cut back on the technology they expose their children to because they can see the effect that it has on our and even their generation.

Now, all this seems like what everyone is saying about social media. It causes depression, desperation, mental stress, distractions. How does this affect the Christian walk? Well, one surprising thing I realized is that as we get used to this instant gratification culture, we get frustrated with the "slow-pacedness" of our faith. Technology helps us get things when we want it, if we feel down, we post a picture and in the next 2 hours, we have tens of likes. In contrast to our faith, that requires us to spend time in the secret place, taking with God and reading the bible, that's just too much work. "Why should I exhaust all that energy when I can just post to lift my spirits? Even if I pray, I may not even feel better until tomorrow. It does not make sense." Well, one verse that comes to mind when I think of this is John 14:4. In the bible, when Jesus offered the Samaritan woman water, she asked him how he could offer better water than what was present? And he replied, Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life. Those who seek social media likes will be thirsty for more soon. They will come back day after day, and the day they don't get that thirst quenched, they become cranky and miserable. Naturally, anyone presented with this opportunity of living water would sell their socks to have it. We are given this opportunity yet we overlook it every time. Why? It's because social media is attractive, it's easy, it's addictive. The enemy has packaged it so well that we would want to go there everyday and drink from the well of validation given by others than to actually sit and realize that the validation of God is ever-lasting. God is not the world that we have to do something to get his attention and love, he is already obsessed with his children.

Another thing is that it just plain distracts us. There's just no nice way to put it. Social media does distract. Have you ever found yourself on phone in church? What about when we wake up? It's the first thing we go to. Oh yes, and emails count too. Even though we don't want to, we feel caught up in that routine. We have to know what's going on. Just 5 mins, then I'll pray but then we end up spending 45 minutes. We reply to yesterday's texts then just when we're about to leave, we get a notification from Instagram, and if you have TikTok or Snapchat, bless your heart. You might just spend the next 2 hours there. And by then you finally have enough time for God. Sometimes, we wake up in the middle of the night with this urge to pray but we get distracted and forget the reason why we woke up. I don't even know how we conduct vigils anymore nowadays, the one time I went there were very few teens there, most of them were adults. We are getting pulled away from the things that do matter like preaching the gospel, showing God's love, spending time with Him and waging spiritual battles because "there's no time", "it feels weird" or "it's stressful."

The enemy is always planning and we have to be on guard at all times. Every attack is more cunning than the last, most times the victor is not the stronger one but the smarter one, even culture says so. Now is the time to get stronger not weaker, focused not distracted, firm not weak or blown around by every new trend.

Even with all the seeming negatives, I still have to use social media to reach out to us because that's the only way we can interact now. The good thing is that even if it is a weapon against us, we can make it work for us instead. Learning to focus is hard especially when it's really rough or really distracting but that should not push us outwards, instead, it should pull us into the secret place, into our church communities, and into the arms of our Father.

Psalms 91:1&3 Those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease.

Note: Reading the entire Psalm 91 is just the best, it's enlightening every time.

Thank you for reading everyone.

Stay free and stay blessed.