We Americans celebrate, relish, elevate, & award ourselves relative to our penchant for creating and consuming entertainment. It is a mainstay of who we are as a people. And almost all of it is exported around the globe to other western (& even some eastern) cultures. Hence, it is a massive component of our economy and therefore our identity as Americans.
With the advent of the Internet, social media eventually came on the scene, and it was there that our obsession with entertainment truly went into overdrive.
Interestingly, social media eschewed the stigma associated with other forms of interactive electronic media (video games). Instead, it vaulted into the mainstream as the next must-have gee whiz experience, and of course what helped in that regard was its "pro bono" availability. Therefore, per my research, there are billions of people engaging therein (mostly via their pocket computers).
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Do yourself a favor this year. Delete your social media accounts and remove their apps from your pocket computers.
If you'll do this, I promise you your quality of life will improve, and this will primarily occur within the category of your walk with God.
Three fantastic benefits of dumping social media in 2022:
- You'll no longer be influenced by the endless barrage of stupidity that's thrown at you via these networks.
- If you're a parent, you can set a great example for your children of how best to use their time online (& offline).
- You'll no longer be hooked on the notion that others actually care about your posts (via their responses).
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Let's break these down further:
1. Everything you watch, read, listen to is making an impact - Christ affirming or not - on your brain. If you're a Christian, and as such, consider the Bible of utmost importance, it's clear in this regard. Therefore, being extremely cautious as to what you allow yourself to be exposed to is a no-brainer for God's people.
Social media is designed to keep you engaged. Similar to broadcast television, viewership is of primo importance because the more viewers, the more the corporations behind these entertainment venues can charge for advertisements. It's important to understand this, I believe, in order to best remain focused on their true intent.
2. Entertainment's hierarchical place within we westerners is typically seeded when we're children. And it's our parents / guardians who demonstrate / educate us in this regard.
I would argue that if you truly care about your children, you'll swallow hard / make your priorities what you want their priorities to be (as grown ass adults).
3. Gloating is what social media is built on. Whether you're gloating about yourself, your family, your work, your hobbies, your pets, your vacations, and on and on. But the hook is in the response(s). You know, those little thumbs up symbols or some flippant comment someone makes about your posts.
If you're into gloating, you likely have a penchant for envy. Envy is sin. Social media is a wide-open playing field for envy. 24/7/365. Envy is such the toxin that it catalogs. Monitoring / tracking others' lives over time. It's a horribly pagan activity that's inexcusable amongst God's people.
Human beings care exclusively about one thing: themselves. We may pretend that we give a damn about others, but in comparison to our self-centeredness, it's a miniscule amount. Hence, the notion that we engage in social media in order to "keep in touch with our out-of-state family / friends" is bullshit. What our wretched hearts long for is attention, comfort, exclusivity, and entitlement. Social media feeds into that wretchedness. It was invented for it. And that's ultimately why it should be avoided by Christians.
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2022 is going to be a great year. Think of how God will honor / bless your decision to decouple from social media. For good.
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