Why bring this up? Every society has wrestled with peer pressure and addiction. One of the biggest wrestling matches we witness today is between social media and the average Joe. I argue the social media companies have tactics that are almost identical to the tobacco companies of a couple generations ago. They hook you with peer pressure. All your friends are on social media (Facebook, Instagram, X, Reddit, Snapchat…). You feel left out if you don’t join in; you feel like you’re missing out. But once you’re in, you’re hooked. You can’t put it down. You begin the process of emptying your life online.

I don’t know if the world has ever experienced the sheer visibility into an individual’s life that social media provides today. We’re learning how to live on Facebook. For some reason, it’s acceptable to post details of our lives: what we eat, what we have in our closets, what we thought about in the shower, or what we’re mad about. When social media was new(er), posts revolved around soapbox issues, cultural happenings, and big events. We heard stories about babies being born, couples getting married, funny things that were said…casual conversation. We read posts about world events, political goings-on and people in crisis…newsworthy writing. This was a natural evolution from the long distance connectivity of the letter, to the instant conversation of the telephone, to brief Facebook posts. But today…can you imagine if you transcribed our average social media posts into the mail or translated them into telephone conversations? A whole book of letters a day couldn’t contain all the material! If on the phone, we’d be talking 24 hours a day! The point I’m making is we share too much of our lives on social media. Why do we do this? 

I believe the pressure of popularity is driving our culture to live more and more of our lives online and open for the world to see. We are chasing the next “Like” or “Thumbs Up.” We are looking for the next positive comment. We read what the world responds positively to on all our friend’s pages and do our best to compete. Not only is this nonsense a regular part of the adult world, we’ve invited children into this conversation. What do they do? They don’t have the maturity to interact with 1000 people daily, so their posts revolve around pictures. They feel the need to announce something they are anticipating before it even happens. Post: “Charlie is coming over this afternoon to ride bikes!” 30 minutes later pictures and videos appear of Charlie riding a bike. Following this are comments about how good Charlie’s bike looks and how well he rides it. It’s just me talking, but unless this is Charlie’s first time to ride a bike or he’s just come out of a coma, I don’t really care to watch, read or see pictures of him riding. 

You think I’m being negative and exaggerating the addictive nature of social media. You ask, “Why don’t you just opt out.” I have. I briefly cruise through Facebook once a day just to see what my friends are up to. Then I turn it off. It’s not that I don’t care. I just have things to do. I have a life to live and I don’t necessarily want the rest of the world knowing that I ate a banana for breakfast and what I dressed my daughter in for school. 

Maturity demands privacy. A public life is healthy and prudent, only in the sense that it promotes friendships and growth when we have healthy relationships. No privacy leaves a person feeling gutted. Thoughts should be mulled over before they are shared. Overstimulation is a real thing. Quit letting your teenager think they need to be connected to the world 14 hours a day. Let them rest. Give them space. Encourage imaginative play alone or with friends in the yard. Let them live without feeling like they are being watched by paparazzi, constantly waiting to shoot their next move. Your daughter needs you to clap when she rides her bike and to hug her when she falls off. She does not need a photo bank of either event. 

The world is constantly changing and has been doing so since Adam and Eve at the fruit. Let’s be a part of positive change and actively reject the effects of negative change when they appear. Spend some time alone, preferably with the Lord and don’t post about it. I promise you will be healthier for it.