Some of you may have participated in the survey we sent out a few weeks ago. If so, thank you! And if not, we’re glad we reached you! Welcome to the family 🙂

The answers to our questions were varied, some incredibly insightful and some pretty goofy. However, one question seemed to unify us, and that question was: “What is our generation’s greatest weakness?” The answer, unsurprisingly: technology. Roughly 80% of responders answered that technology or social media in some form was their biggest struggle, or at least the struggle they felt our generation faced the most. I have thoughts. 

First, technology isn’t a bad thing. We’ve all heard that so many times it sounds stupid, but it really is true. The internet at its finest is pretty crazy, isn’t it? It’s a bigger collection of information than the entire Library of Alexandria five times over, and on top of that, it connects people from thousands of different lifestyles, worldviews, and experiences to each other in a way that before now was impossible. The possibilities are incredible. However, the same things that make it amazing also make it incredibly annoying and incredibly dangerous. 

Some of the problems are obvious: all the people on there can say whatever they want, without showing their face and without facing the consequences of their words. Finding the truth can be an impossible task. The amount of stupidity you have to wade through to find something worth watching is really annoying. The algorithm is hotly debated. TikTok got banned and then unbanned. Point is, there’s a lot of heat around the Internet in general right now. 

If we want to fix the negative effects of technology, we’re going to have to get a bit more specific. Narrowing in— what are the biggest issues caused by social media? I’ve come up with three:

1. Unreliable information
2. Loss of time
3. Loneliness

These problems are uncomfortable to think about, at least for me. They’re just so big. My brain immediately tries to wrap itself around the whole of the problem and figure out how we as a species need to change, or change the Internet, in order to reclaim our freedom. However, that’s not the goal here. We don’t need to change the world, we just need to better ourselves. Why? That’s a topic for another post. I will say it’s our duty as Christians, and for non-Christians, it’s just a more satisfying way to live life in general. 

So, if we’re only trying to better ourselves… first question: how do we deal with the ridiculous amount of false information on the Internet? Except the problem is a little bit more complex than that. Most of us grew up learning how to find reliable sources and all that jazz. We know what we believe and where to find reporters whose values align with ours. We know to get as close to the source as possible. However, the problem is more complex. The information we don’t take at face value still affects us in much subtler ways. Repeated exposure to an idea will quite literally begin to reshape your cognition of that idea, whether you want it to or not. 

The worst part is this: with short-form content, our brains aren’t given enough time to cross-reference the information we’ve received with our preexisting thoughts. We don’t have time to formulate an opinion. It’s almost like blindly accepting everything random strangers tell you. It destroys our ability to critically think about all the messages being sent our way. Now, of course, it’s not a bad thing that we have access to the opinions and ideas of the majority of the planet. It’s something to be aware of, is all. We can’t afford to take anything at face value, especially when (mostly for our American audience here) our media is so ridiculously unreliable. 

The second issue is loss of time. I hate bringing it up, because the whole “screenager” thing makes my skin crawl, but we do need to be careful about doomscrolling. It sucks, doesn’t it? You sit down to be productive and somehow get sucked into a dopamine hole without even being consciously aware of it. Here’s the thing, though. It’s not just us. Obviously. We, for the most part, grew up with this tech. We’re well aware of the dangers. Our parents and grandparents, on the other hand… let’s just say I’ve seen my dad scrolling Facebook shorts (why is that even a thing?) at two in the morning more times than I would care to admit.

Now, this is going to be incredibly opinionated, but I’m going to put forth a thought: short form content in general is stupid, dangerous, and mostly completely unhelpful. I’m willing to bet there’s a couple people out there who agree. Even if you don’t think it’s all that bad— which is fine! We need all the thought power we can get!!— knowing how to navigate the dopamine trap that is the entertainment side of the internet is still most likely pretty useful. Couple rules for you: 

1. Long-term satisfaction is way more satisfying than short-term. 
2. Life is too short.
3. Time is too valuable. 

Basically, we need to spend our time doing things that actually matter. I’m not saying entertainment is bad. It’s great— it makes us think, imagine, escape, enjoy. However, YouTube shorts have most likely never left anyone a better person. I promise you, if you take the time to shove your phone somewhere and go be present, life is so much better. It sucks at first— you feel restless, most likely because your brain is expecting a much faster pace of stimulation. There’s a wanting feel to the boredom, like hunger but less concrete. We most likely all know the feeling. However, every second stretching out is, in my opinion, a blessing. We don’t have that much time in a day, or a week, or even a month. We don’t know how much time we have left on this planet, to be honest. Why wouldn’t we want to be fully aware of every 

minute?

Now, of course, being fully aware is uncomfortable. It sucks. Seriously. Especially when you’re stressed, because the second you stop distracting yourself everything starts pressing at you. I’m gonna tell you what I have to tell myself all the time— suck it up. With all the respect and love in my heart, just… suck it up. ‘Cause, like a friend of mine once said: “Life is pain. You either live with the pain of growth or the pain of regret.” I’d rather suffer to improve than suffer by stagnating. Put your phone down, or whatever else is distracting you, sit down with yourself, and you sort through all the nonsense, and you start getting to know yourself. You figure out where you stand in the world, what you believe, who you want to be. Then, when new information comes your way, you take the time to truly think about it. You look for beauty. You spend time with people. 

That leads me to our third problem: loneliness. I saw a study not too long ago that asked people of varying generations if they thought they were lonely. Our generation was wayyyy higher than the others for ‘Yes’ responses. I can’t say I was too surprised. Turns out, the main reason is most likely technology. I’m not knocking texting, or FaceTime, or Instagram. I’m just saying we were made for much deeper connections. For Christians, it’s all through the Bible that God created us to need each other and Him. For non-Christians, there’s the concept of empathy, the way our brains have specially designed centers for mimicry, the fact that personal contact and even long conversations create serotonin and oxytocin in the brain, and much, much more. 

It’s uncomfortable. It’s not as culturally expected as it should be. But I promise you, taking the time to meet with people face-to-face on a regular basis and just do life with them is worth it in so many ways. Technology allows us to share information and maintain relationships from a much farther distance than we used to be able to (unless we’re counting letters?), but there is no replacement for sitting down and trying with someone, no matter how awkward it is. Communication is an art, and it’s one worth learning. 

If technology poses so many problems, is it even worth having a phone? When you get to the anti-tech side of Instagram in your journey through the algorithm, you’ll probably see about a million different ways of stunting your phone. There’s dumb phones, Bricks- little devices that turn off all but necessary functions on your phone- and probably a million other things. That might be the route you want to go. You wouldn’t be alone— flip phones are making a crazy comeback with our generation. However, I’m not saying technology isn’t worth it. For all the bad, it’s really incredible! It’s a calculator, GPS, research engine, camera, music player, calendar, messaging system, entertainment system, and a hundred other things all in one little box. It’s a really cool, really powerful tool. However, it needs to be treated as such— a tool. Of course, don’t take my word for any of this. Do your research. Come to your own conclusions. Take agency. All I ask is that you think. I believe that if we use our phones, laptops, and other tech as a way to better the life that we already have instead of making them a permanent fixture of said lives, we can truly become unstoppable. 

Image credit: Robin Worrall

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