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Scrolling through social media is something like walking through a carnival:
There are crowds everywhere, people of all ages, all types. Some beautiful, some that make you cringe, some violent and dangerous. There are artists and writers and thinkers and experts and there are clowns and buffoons and scumbags and scalawags.
And the booths! Everywhere someone is hawking their wares, selling something: three tries for a dollar, win your lady a giant teddy bear! And they sell so much more than carnival games: in fact, they sell everything you want, with smart ads that seem to cover everything you have ever talked about.
Lately my internet feed has been bad-tasting but impossible not to consume, an ill-prepared stew of ingredients ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous:
Encouraging words from Bible teachers followed by people fist-fighting on subway platforms; multi-fatality accidents recorded on dashcams followed by feel-good clips of pop-music talent shows; children and dogs doing amazing things then a comedian making jokes about something he shouldn’t; ads for yoga, holistic medicines, and yet one more children’s book from a celebrity trying to build his brand. There are posts about local politics, national politics, riots at home and wars abroad. And conspiracy theories from both sides of the aisle—so many conspiracy theories! It is too much. Sometimes it is all just too much. But then that next short clip is the most perfect golf shot ever and now I’m scrolling again. And Oh look, another captivating story from Mr. Ballen. And so it goes.
When you finally turn it off, do you hear your ears ring? No. I’m serious. If you listen closely, I swear you can hear the noise ringing in your ears. You have put the phone down. The screen is dark and all is silent. But, like trying to sleep after a rock concert, you can still hear the ringing voices of ten thousand maniacs on social media. If you listen closely, you will hear them. They are still there in your head.
And after scrolling for an hour or two, you can’t possibly sort the voices out. Oh, you might remember a face here and there or an especially violent car crash, or an outrageous prank, or something funny that you had not already seen a hundred times before. But most of the noise is just noise, just a ringing, pounding noise of voices, drowning out your peace of mind.[1]
The cacophony of voices will also drown out the voice of God.
Is God bigger, stronger, and infinitely louder than the internet? Of course. But he will not compete with our culture’s non-stop entertainment. If you fill your head with the world’s whirlwind of noise, you will not be able to hear the still, small voice of God, 1 Kings 19:11-13. And because that noise draws your eyes, your ears, and your attention away from him, it will leave you feeling alone and small and vulnerable. How do most people deal with those feelings? They pick the phone back up as soon as possible. Social media entertains us while it hollows out our minds like beaters whipping cake batter in a mixing bowl. Social media entertains us, we fill up on it, and it leaves us feeling empty. So we consume more, and it leaves us emptier still.
One answer is to put down social media. Really put it down. Take a few hours off. Take a day off. Take more than a day. My friend Scott regularly takes an internet fast. It does wonders for his peace of mind.
Nevertheless, few of us are going to give up social media entirely. We must learn to use it in moderation.
Turn it off, read books, talk to people, and do active things (fishing, hiking, surfing) that make it impossible to surf the web at the same time.
And when you do use social media, put it down with finality. (I leave the phone in the house while doing yard work, for example.)[2] Then as you walk away, listen to the quiet. Do you hear the voices in your head? Do you see the violence, the commotion, the all-out battle for your attention? There is no peace in that moment.
You can settle your mind and re-gain your peace by spending some time praising God for his greatness. You can use your own words, simply by talking to God about his great attributes, and you can also use words from the Bible. Here are examples of both.
Read these words aloud to God. Afterwards, notice the way it settles your mind:
(Praise in My Own Words.)
Dear God, I praise you for your power. You are the Omnipotent Creator of Man’s first breath*. You made us. You love us. You save us. You are in control of all things. You are seated on your throne. Nothing that happens to me today is beyond your control.
You are the sovereign lord of the universe. Before you, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that “Jesus Christ is Lord.” I praise you because you are all knowing. You are the God of truth. You possess all power. And you deserve all praise.
(Praise Using Scripture.)
“But God is in the heavens. He has done whatever he pleased” Psalm 115:3. “Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man that fears the Lord, that greatly delights in his commands … he shall not be afraid of evil tidings. His heart is fixed, trusting the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid” Psalm 112:1,7-8.
“Tremble, Oh earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. Who turned the rock into standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters” Psalm 114:7-8. “I love the Lord because he has heard my voice and my supplications … for Thou hast delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling” Psalm 116:1,8.
“Praise the Lord, all ye nations. Praise him, all ye people. For his merciful kindness is great toward us, and the truth of the Lord endures forever” Psalm 117:1-2. “I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and set me in a large place. The Lord is on my side. I will not fear. What can man do to me?” Psalm 118:5-6.
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[1] Not only does social media chip away at your peace of mind. There is also a junk food quality to social media (in fact, to all of the internet—even the things that seem “good for you.”). Even at its best, the internet is generally restricted to the surface of things. Some articles are deeper than others. But to truly reach the depths, you need a different medium. You need a book. Because it takes several hundred pages to journey to the bottom of the sea. You can’t get there in five minutes. Thus, the internet itself is a limited medium. It is easily accessible, it has its lauded “democratizing” effect on culture. But it cannot deliver true depths of thought and analysis. Only books can do that. There are millions of deep books in thousands of fields. The Bible is the best of them.
[2] When you walk away from surfing the web, think about what you consumed. Was it valuable? Worthy? Was it made with quality and was the message true? For example, videos of road rage that lead to fighting never encourage anyone to be a peacemaker. Jesus said “Blessed are the peacemakers” Matthew 5:9. But social media is more like the Roman coliseum. It is a blood sport and no one wants to make peace. The ones trying to break up the fight are getting in the way of the fun. Read the comments: the audience signals a collective thumbs down. Kill him! We are only watching violence on our phones in the hope of seeing more and more violence. The videos are empty of meaning or value or purpose. They are, by definition, vanity. Pray the words of Psalm 119: “turn away my eyes from looking at vanity” Psalm 119:37.
* The phrase “omnipotent creator of man’s first breath” comes from the song “The Champion,” by Carman.
Household Words: 