thoughts on social media and God

Lately I have been thinking a lot about social media.

I so often find myself aimlessly scrolling through Instagram. The scrolling has become an automatic procedure. I reach for my phone without reflection- when I first wake up, during an awkward silence or after a bare second without some type of stimulation. 

And I confess- as I browse the endless flow of curated pictures, I have recurrent thoughts. They're embarrassing, perhaps juvenile and certainly naive. 

"She looks so good,"

"Their relationship is so perfect,"

 "I wish I was vacationing there,"

 or 

"She has such a beautiful life." 

My generation certainly normalizes such thoughts, coining terms like "goalz" to describe our awe toward an individual, to communicate to someone they are achieving the goals to which everyone should aspire. 

One may argue these thoughts are innocent enough. Yet, over the past few weeks, I have felt God convicting me about them. They may be human and natural, but they certainly are not holy. They do not glorify the author of Life. Instead, they express a deep and lethal dissatisfaction with this life He has so graciously orchestrated for me. They completely ignore the fact my God overflows my cup, every day, so faithfully. 

She is so goalz, we comment on staged pictures without thinking, not taking a minute to pore over what the pictures aren't revealing. The fears, anxiety, depression, conflict, self image issues of the girl who is seemingly perfect. 

Instagram feeds are an illusion. 

The pictures of beautiful homes, nifty accoutrements, endless smiles, sandy hair and tan lines, never-ceasing travels all feed into this spectacle, this illusion of a perfect life. We forget the missing pieces. There always are some. 

I scroll, and it seems as though no one shows their brokenness. Just a highlight reel. The missing pieces, they simply aren't Instagram worthy, are they? 

In Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle, author Chris Hedges does not refer specifically to social media, but writes brilliantly about our culture of illusions, the way by which individuals stare at these illusions of media and entertainment and mistake them for shadows of reality: 

"Reality, in fact, is dismissed and shunned as an impediment to success, a form of negativity." 

"Our fantasies of belonging, of fame, of success, and of fulfillment, are projected onto celebrities [...] The juxtaposition of the impossible illusions inspired by celebrity culture and our 'insignificant' individual achievements, however, eventually leads to frustration, anger, insecurity, and invalidation. It results, ironically, in a self-pepetuating cycle that drives the frustrated, alienated individual with even greater desperation and hunger away from reality, back toward the empty promises of those who seduce us, who tell us what we want to hear. We beg for more." 

"We escape the chaos of real life through fantasy." 

It's like vulnerability is equated to defectiveness.  

I fear what this is doing to my generation, to myself. Are we losing our ability to humanly connect with people, because we are wired to give others the illusion we are happy through our social media accounts? 

Jesus' message was not about illusions but about coming to Him, completely broken and utterly vulnerable, for grace and redemption and restoration. 

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are- yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 4:15-16). 

No illusions. Just coming to the throne of grace with confidence, with all the baggage we hide in our posts, with all the jealousy fostered by the relentless comparison game on social media. 

...So what is the answer? Where does that leave us? 

Can God be glorified in this media culture? Or do I just delete my Instagram account? 

I don't think that's the answer. 

Hear me out- I see the good in social media. I love capturing and celebrating beautiful moments. I want to get updates on peoples' lives.

But I don't want to forget the missing pieces. 

I don't want to assume that a person is, in sum, the pictures he or she posts. There is so much more complexity to an image bearer of God than the photos they choose to share. 

What if social media became a place where we sought connectivity instead of attention and affirmation? 

What if social media was a place of transparency and vulnerability? 

As I think more about how I can use my social media accounts in a more meaningful way, I want to be more careful about scrolling through a person's years and years of Instagram photos and Facebook posts to get an idea of their what their life is like. 

There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but... why not also do that with the person over a coffee?