How Social Media Is Causing an Anxiety Pandemic—and What Can Truly Cure Us

Posted on Jun 01, 2023 Topic : Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Elyse Fitzpatrick

We’re in the middle of a pandemic. But not that one.

The pandemic we’re in the middle of is self-inflicted. We’re causing it. In some ways, we’re even addicted to injecting the very viruses that cause it. I bet you’ve already done it today. Maybe that’s how you ended up here.

I’m talking about the anxiety pandemic that is caused by the use and overuse of social media.* Like COVID-19, this pandemic has an acronym, too: FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. Social media use is driven by the fear that if we’re not scrolling we’re missing out. “Social media use continues to rise across all ages and demographics. The average is 2.5 hours per day. In social media alone.** And while that’s an average across all ages, our youth spend nearly twice that.

What does social media do? Sure, it entertains. Sometimes those cat videos really are funny. But what else does it do? It insinuates that others are living a meaningful, fun, blessed life. And it forces us to compare ourselves to them. It makes us afraid that we’ll never have the kind of life “they” have. And so, we keep searching and posting and comparing…on and on until we’re bent down under the weight of it all. All this social media consumption is making us sick. It’s making us anxious.

“Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down, but a good word cheers it up” (Proverbs 12:25). We’re weighed down with the worry and fears that we’re not…enough. We need a good word instead.

A Good Word

Here is the vaccine you need: You don’t need to mine for likes to know you are okay. You don’t need more friends or followers in a virtual world to find rest in knowing that you’re welcomed and loved. You don’t need to put special filters on your selfies to prove that your life is so, so pretty. You don’t need to compare yourself to others…in fact, you should ask the Spirit to help you resist that comparison impulse.

Questions like, “Am I as popular/beautiful/free…” are nothing new. Adam and Eve suffered from ancient FOMO.They were the first but not the last. Fast forward a bit to the story of Joseph and his brothers and you’ll see FOMO again. Father loves him best! He got a new coat! Fast forward once again and see how even the execution of Jesus was caused by the fear of missing out on the power and love of others:

Matthew 27:18, “…it was because of envy that they had handed him over.”
John 11:48, “If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

Sure, the question, “Am I as okay as others?” has always been asked. But things have changed with the internet. Now, the question taps us on the shoulder thousands a times a day, driven by a global community who, just like us, is searching for freedom from the anxiety that whispers, “You’re not enough.” Everyone else is. But you’re not. Look. See how you don’t measure up. Keep looking.

What’s the good word you need? Is there a vaccination? A cure? It’s really simple. Here it is in the words of the Apostle Paul: “…God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.” (Romans 4:23-25 NLT).

What’s the answer to our all-pervasive fear that we’re not enough? Proverbs tells us that we need a good word…and that’s what the word “gospel” means. Like the ancient fear of missing out, the ancient word of cheer is so simple and so freeing: You aren’t enough. You can’t be. Rest in that truth. But that’s not all. Someone who loves you was enough in your place.

You are more loved and welcomed than you ever dared hope. Knowing that you’re loved, that you can’t be any more “okay” than you already are, is the only good news there is. “…God will count you as righteous if you believe in him.” You are okay. You won’t miss out.

Listen, friends. Ultimately, it really doesn’t matter if someone “hearts” your post. In 10 years, or even 10 minutes, no one will even remember that picture of a beautiful coffee drink and dessert you shared. The only judgment that will reverberate for eternity is the one that has been spoken over you because you’ve trusted in the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

A day will come when social media and all our FOMO will vanish…like a dream. It will be gone. And if you’ve transferred your trust off yourself and onto Jesus to forgive you and make you okay in God’s sight, then his perfections will be yours.

Don’t look to social media to prove that you’re okay. Instead cast all your anxiety on him, because He cares for you (see 1 Peter 5:6-9a). You might pray something like this:

Lord, I don’t feel like I’m good enough. Please free me from this self-absorption and help me trust that you will do what you said you will: You’ll forgive me and counted me as perfect. And please, Lord. Help me disconnect from social media and everything that draws my heart to look away from you. Help me resist, knowing that you have said that you love me and that’s all I need.

*In this short blog, I will only concern myself with the form of anxiety that is caused by social media consumption. I’m not talking here about other forms of anxiety or about debilitating anxieties that have a physiological component.

** https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-deep-dive-time-spent-on-social-media#:~:text=The%20company%27s%20latest%20data%20reveals,at%20the%20start%20of%202022