5 Ways Social Media Skews Reality and Why It Matters

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Your sense of reality is based on the things you immerse yourself in. When you spend a lot of time on something, it can influence your thought life and how you feel (Facebook proved their influence on emotions in a controversial study published in 2014). The influence can be spiritual, too.

If you’re between 18 and 35 years old, chances are that you spend about 3.8 cumulative hours a day on social media. The stats aren't much better for those over 40. That’s a lot of time and daily devotion, especially considering that only 15% of average American adults claim to read the Bible daily.

What’s the effect of all this time on social media?

For many of us, a skewed sense of reality, and with it, a skewed perception of self, others, and the Lord.

Consider these 5 ways that social media skews the truth:

1. Represents A One-Dimensional View

Have you ever had the feeling as you scroll through your Facebook feed that you’re viewing a gallery of someone else’s “perfect” life?

There’s a reason for that. Facebook is one-dimensional. On social media, users determine what they display. Most people display pictures of their families, beau, pets, exciting trips, etc. You see posts about Gotham and Parks and Rec, a Bible verse here and there, and some funny quips.

You rarely read about people’s personal struggles. Politics, religion, health issues, and other “hot button” issues are generally no-no’s. Those aren’t what social media is designed for. But struggles, conflict, and suffering are all a part of real life that you can’t (and shouldn’t) avoid.

2. Offers Only Positive Reinforcement

Whether or not you surround yourself with outspoken, opinionated people, your life isn’t one giant swath of positive reinforcement. In reality, life doesn’t always go your way. People argue. Your co-workers’ and friends’ body language let you know that people don’t always agree with you.

In reality, tragedy and loss are met with natural provisions of comfort. You receive empathetic looks. When you hear horrible news, you exchange expressions of sorrow or shock, and might give someone a hug. Whole conversations allow you to properly grieve.

On social media, you “like” stuff. From news reports about tsunamis to your friend’s RIP tweet, the most natural reaction you can offer on social media is to leave a quick impression, share the word, or reply with an emoticon. Condolences are often limited to 140 characters or less.

3. Provides No Context

A single image and a limited text box often provide very little space for substantive content. Especially when intermixed with all of your connections’ (and the world’s!) opinions and posts and pictures, it’s hard to really get an accurate message across.

When you post an article and say “interesting argument,” for instance, your opinion and beliefs are open to anyone’s interpretation and assumptions.

With no context for much of anything, social media creates a culture of tossing things out into the great beyond carelessly. The power of the story, the thesis, or the intent of anything and everything is simply lost in the process.

4. Buffers Consequences

Real-life consequences are largely buffered on social media. You can delete a contact for posting an article that you assume they agree with and that offends you deeply without ever confronting anyone. People can get into wild, vicious debates and devour one another with no real life effects.

It’s also possible to interact without ever actually doing or experiencing anything. How? Check out how many “likes” there are on a non-profit’s page about feeding orphans, and then look at the donations the non-profit actually receives.

5. Fosters an Illusion of Connection

What this all comes down to is that social media transforms reality into a tidy, manageable, set of illusions.

The world of social media allows you to connect with hundreds and thousands of people you don’t know. But you can make that connection without any of the risks of having to actually be in relationship with others.

With a buffer for consequences, a lack of context apart from your interpretation, loads of positive reinforcement, and a palatable, one-dimensional view, you can be “in community” without getting out of your own little world.

Here’s the problem: real relationships have risks and stretch you. Real life is risky. Living a life that honors the Lord? Even more dangerous and challenging. Through social media, we can feel like we’re really living and loving and relating, but we can completely miss the reality of what’s actually going on in our hearts and in others’ lives.

Why It Matters

Social media is virtual. Have you ever thought about that word? Virtual means: being very close to something without actually being it.

One of the first verses to come to mind in connection with the word: “having the appearance of godliness, but denying it’s power. Avoid such people.” Thank you 2 Timothy 3:5.

What about “be doers of the Word, and not just hearers deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22)?

So much of the time that we spend online we are just perpetually hearing. We are just enjoying appearances of “good” lives, causes, and relationships. But we’re denying the power of reality and of connection. We’re deceiving ourselves concerning what living actually requires.

As Christians, that matters all the more.

When you follow Jesus Christ, you’re called into deeper relationships. You’re called to commit your work to the Lord, to have integrity, to be sharpened, to test your heart, to speak the truth, as well as to ask for forgiveness and to forgive. Plus a whole lot more.

While you may be able to use social media as a tool for launching into the kind of life Jesus gives, you’re not going to live that true life entirely online. But it may feel like you are.

So take warning. Don’t be deceived. While you don’t need to delete your profile, you must examine your ways. Are you relying on the illusions of social media to guard yourself against the (social) life that Christ designs? 

Why We Like False Gospels

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When a false gospel is preached, it seems that often the falsehood is simple derived from over-emphasis on one trait, one gain, one reward, etc.

For example, a gospel of “prosperity” is considered false because of its focus on personal gain and the misconstrued beliefs that follow, like that Christians should always prosper and that Jesus exists to make us happy. Likewise, a gospel of “experience” may put excessive value on the personal encounter with God, leading many to believe that whatever they feel or interpret must be true.

When such a one-sided gospel is presented, it is often to make the true Gospel more palatable. “Gospel” means “good news.” The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the Gospel. It’s the good news that we are redeemed in Christ and can be reconciled with God. But that is big news, and, while giving the deepest joy and peace and purpose to life, is also hard news.

Often false gospels are just snippets of the easier parts of the good news. They address one particular need that is being felt.

Many false gospels, rather than sharing the truth of Jesus Christ, select and run with a chunk of the truth easier to accept for those who aren’t looking to give their lives over to God, acknowledge their sinfulness, and spend eternity glorifying the Lord instead of themselves (and really, how many of us are eager to do that?)

Prosperity gospels share good news about feeling fulfilled and gaining what you desire, not self-sacrifice or laying up treasures worthy of heaven and denying the power of currency of this world. Experience gospels validate feelings and soothe fears of inadequacy at the cost of standing on the more difficult to like, whole truth.

Sometimes, apologetics becomes a false gospel of reason and intellect. Addressing the needs of those who find God irrational or Christianity foolish, the false gospel of apologetics often fails to address the aspect of Christ that is indeed foolishness to this world and that isn’t rational within our bounds of reason.

Apologetics can be presented as being supportive of faith rather than supported by faith. Further, rather than basing a relationship with the Lord on a faith so deep and true that it includes reason, apologetics at times suggests that as reason stands, faith can have a place if you’d like it to.

It’s not that apologetics or appreciating intellect is wrong. Or that the Lord causing you to prosper or blessing you with His presence is anti-Jesus.

Few false gospels that live under the auspices of Christianity say “this is it. It’s all intellect. It’s all in your heart. Or it’s all in your wealth.” It’s rare for such false gospels to even claim to be anti-Jesus.

But rather, in “sheep’s clothing,” many who proclaim false teaching seem harmless and even enticing (Matthew 7:15). At their core, many false gospels fit within the confines of truth, but rather than building up off the foundation of Christ, they build out additions to make the space of faith a little more comfortable.

In Jeremiah 5:30-31, we read that:

“An appalling and horrible thing

    has happened in the land:

 the prophets prophesy falsely,

    and the priests rule at their direction;

my people love to have it so,

    but what will you do when the end comes?”

2 Timothy 4:3 seems to echo the words: “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”

It’s no surprise that false teachings always seem to align with the fears or obsessions of current generations or cultures. Many arise not out of a desire to divert from the truth, but to gratify the part of the flesh that is currently hungering most. Like a piece of candy given to a crying child, false gospels are given in response not to needs, but to desires.

We’re a part of that. Our demands to have things our way and to have our preferences often affect the truths we’re willing to hear. We feed and reward those churches that perhaps aren’t heretical but certainly aren’t mature, wholesome, or Biblically-based when we fail to seek the Lord for what He says we need. Instead, we tell the Lord or we direct His words in order to meet the wants that we perceive.

Imagine what we lose. 

At a Price: The Relationship Between Love and Freedom

“Why do the innocent suffer? Because of love. God designed love to be based on our free will. He didn’t want to be loved out of fear, or out of compliance. He wanted to be loved out of gratitude. But love has a price tag. If love is free, then a lover is free to be unloving. Otherwise love is forced. Because we are free to be unloving, many of us have been run over…” –Pg. 71. Safe People by Cloud and Townsend

Love and freedom are inextricably connected. The two are interdependent.

Without love, you cannot experience true freedom. Without freedom, love isn’t love.

That’s the way God designed it, and the implications are many:

What Love Gives Us: Freedom

• ·         Because He loved us, we are free

“The truth will set you free.” But what is the truth? “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). The truth is revealed by the loving character and actions of our Lord. That’s how He gives us freedom.

• ·         His love gives us the freedom to truly love others

1 John 4:19 says it concisely: “we love because he first loved us.” The love we have to give, in and of ourselves, is limited by our sinful nature. Our natural love is flawed and distorted. But the love of God, instilled in us and flowing through us by the Spirit –that’s perfect. In Christ, we are free to truly love others as He intends, in His timing, as His children.

• ·         The love of God frees us to be who He made us to be

Sin, as exemplified by Satan’s temptation tactics, tells us that who we are isn’t enough and that we can change who we are in order to be like God. We’re enslaved by the sinful conviction that we must take the place of God in our lives. When we ground our hearts in the love of Christ, we find that we can be who we are and that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

What Love Costs: Freedom

• ·         For God, love meant giving up freedom temporarily

In the person of Christ, God “Himself bore our sins” (1 Peter 2:24). The Lord who created everything and lives forever died for you and me before rising again. He “gave Himself up,” temporarily surrendering His freedom and rightful place. And He did that because of His great love for us.  

• ·         Loving God means becoming a slave to righteousness

When Christ died and rose again, we were redeemed. Each of us was “bought with a price; do not become slaves of human beings” (1 Corinthians 7:23). Instead, your freedom means being a “slave to righteousness” (Romans 6:18). When you love the Lord, you surrender your will and your freedom to Him that you may gratefully serve Him as an expression and a natural result of your love.

• ·         Emulating His love requires that we allow others their freedom

The Lord’s love sacrifice’s self. Those who love the Lord plead “take this cup if you are willing” and obey when the answer is “no” (Luke 22:42). Often encumbrances on our freedom are the result of loving others as the Lord does.

Consider the fruit of the Spirit. Those fruits aren’t conditional on those you love behaving how you would like them to. To love like the Lord, you set aside your freedom to sinfully manipulate others or to seek personal gain, and you emulate Godly love (patiently, gently, meekly) as others use their freedom (even in ways you don’t like)!

Little Lies

An advertisement came on. It boasted images of beautiful beaches and expressed this basic message: "beaches are all different. But every beach has beer in common".

Being a literal person, the first thing that came to mind is what a lie that is...lots of beaches ban alcohol.

It makes sense to me that an alcohol company would be advertising alcohol...but why resort to a lie to sell it?

Yet this is a strategy that people use everyday, not just corporations. How often do we tell little lies? And why do we do it?

We're told in the Bible to uphold the truth. We're told that the truth is light that dispels darkness. That the truth sets us free.

And then we tell little lies. You know, just the type that make things sound better than they are, or that twist facts in our favor. We tell lies that help us avoid confrontation -something so common it has a label: a white lie.

It's our hope that our reasons are so good that these little bits of deception are acceptable. But they aren't.

The purpose of our little lies is always, ultimately, for ourselves. We don't want to be liars -we just don't want to lose whatever it is that we're guarding with our lies. We don't often lie by saying outrageous things or weaving big webs. A little twisting, a little silence, a few blanks in conversation lined with implications...these do the trick. Such lies don't hurt anyone else, we assume. They certainly don't hurt us!

Lying is not only a sin, according to the ninth of the ten commandments, but it draws out the sorts of things in our hearts that the Lord finds detestable. These are the sorts of things that cause our feet to stray from His righteous path, as we look not on who we're following but on where we want to get to.

To tell little lies is to do away with integrity, valuing "righteousness" only when it's convenient. Little lies evidence that in our hearts, we don't trust that God can achieve or provide or make a way for us without the aid of our deceptive powers.

A little lie says "Lord, the right way isn't enough to get me where I want to be, so I'm doing it another way that is, well, not right but not wrong."

There's no such thing. It's His way, or the wrong way. That's it. There are no terms to negotiate or compromises that are acceptable.

Luke 16:10-15 cites Jesus' words:

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight."

Little lies are born of little faith. They betray our heart's preference of gain over obedience and righteousness. Though we find all sorts of ways to justify little lies, enough is enough.

God knows our hearts. He is willing, eager, and certain to make a way for us that doesn't require the sin of lying. Give it up and have faith that the honesty He so values -even in the littlest things- is worth it.