How Social Media Use Shapes Our Hearts
The average person spends roughly 2 1/2 hours per day on their mobile devices, with teenagers spending nearly double that amount. Much of that time is spent scrolling through various social media applications (or apps for short). The most famous are Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. These apps help us keep in touch with our friends and family, and provide a way to share what is happening in our lives. These are some of the positive ways social media can impact our lives.
However, there is a danger when using social media. These social media apps are intentionally engineered to keep us online and engaged for as long as possible. They accomplish this through sophisticated algorithms that examine what we engage with and how we spend our time on their app. Whether we realize it or not, our social media use has a large influence on our lives — it can shape our hearts.
Data Collection
The cornerstone of the algorithms that social media companies use is the data they collect from us while we use their app. Notice that many social media apps are entirely free, requiring only an email address and a password when signing up to use their service.
After providing an email address and password, the user is presented with a long list of “Terms and Conditions.” Buried in those pages and pages of tiny text that we typically quickly scroll through before clicking “OK” are some very broad rights that we surrender. When we agree to those terms and conditions, we often allow the social media companies to collect what they describe as “certain data.” This is a broad term and often includes all of the social media content that we share, including all of our status updates, pictures, and videos.
The companies can then use any of those items for their own purposes, including marketing their apps to others or even selling that information to advertisers. The companies will sometimes even track our locations. This is how an app knows to offer us an advertisement for a restaurant or a store nearby, even when we are away from home.
Social media apps also collect the types of social media content that we view, and record how much time we spend looking at and interacting with them. This information is essential for the next step in their personalization process.
Engagement Analysis
Once the social media app has a multitude of information about us, it unleashes its engagement analysis algorithms in an effort to learn more about us. The algorithms study all the information they collected to determine details about our browsing habits, including:
- Browsing history – this can include every website we have ever visited
- Social media app activity – all of our activity on their apps is examined, such as:
- The amount of time we spend looking at each piece of social media content. If we spend a long time looking at a certain type of content, it demonstrates our desire to see more content of that type.
- How we interact with social media content, like, share, or comment on the content. Our willingness to engage with that type of content indicates our preferences. It implies that we wish to view more of the same type of content.
Personalized Feed
After the app’s algorithm develops an understanding of exactly how we are spending our time using the app, it presents us with more of the same type of content: a feed of content tailored just for us. It does this for one reason: to keep us on their app for as long as possible. In the words of Facebook’s founding president, Sean Parker:
“The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?'”
The content we engage with is ranked higher, and similar content is presented to us more frequently. It is a concerted effort to consume our time.
Biblical Application
Consider Proverbs 4:23 in the context of our interaction with social media apps: “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” The heart is the source of how we live our lives. The algorithms analyze our engagement to feed us similar content. If the things we view are edifying and positive, this is a good thing. However, if we find ourselves lingering on worldly pursuits or sinful desires, we expose ourselves to more of those same influences that will warp our desires and confuse our priorities. This is why it is so important to actively protect our walk with God from this unchecked data-driven manipulation.
Consider the following three ways social media use shapes our hearts:
Our inner heart condition determines our outer behavior
During Christ’s earthly ministry, the Pharisees approached Him, wondering why His disciples did not ceremonially follow their traditions of washing their hands. Jesus responded by rebuking them, with the following verses found in Mark 7:21-23: “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: all these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
Jesus was not teaching against washing our hands before a meal. Rather, Jesus told the Pharisees that following a mere tradition like hand-washing would not determine the defilement of His disciples. The condition of our hearts reveals our behavior. When we choose to interact with content that does not edify us, we risk exposure to more of the same type, creating a negative feedback loop that can impact our hearts for the worse. When we choose to view and interact with social media content that does not honor God, we hinder our spiritual walk, worsen the condition of our hearts spiritually, and ultimately, demonstrate it by our outward behavior.
Our words shape our hearts
Jesus, again rebuking the Pharisees, said the following, “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Matthew 12:34) The condition of our heart influences our speech. Many who use social media professionally are referred to as “influencers.” We can find ourselves talking like those we follow on social media, just as we are a reflection of the people we spend the most time with. If we spend time with faithful, mature Christians, we can develop a vocabulary that honors God. However, the wrong influence can cause us to have speech that dishonors the Lord.
Our eye affects our hearts
As Jeremiah witnessed the destruction of Jerusalem, he experienced profound grief. Remarking on the emotional toll of seeing the devastation of the city’s women, he remarked, “Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.” (Lamentations 3:51). The social media content that we interact with online affects the condition of our hearts. The first time we see something objectionable or ungodly, we will likely have a strong negative reaction to it. However, if we allow our curiosity or our flesh to get the better of us, we can give in to temptation and thus expose ourselves to more of the same. The algorithms are more than happy to indulge our desires, and we can find the sensitivity of our hearts growing calloused.
Guarding Our Hearts
Equipped with the knowledge of how these social media apps work to present us with information and the negative impacts they can have on us, we can take steps to guard our hearts while using these apps.
Scroll with Intention
There are positive uses for social media. There are encouraging testimonies of fellow like-minded believers. We can read updates from missionaries around the world on their needs. We can listen to Bible teaching and preaching. As we navigate social media applications, we should seek content that consistently honors the Lord.
Do not Engage with Objectionable Content
Despite our best efforts, we may still find ourselves presented with objectionable content. Social media apps sometimes promote emotional content because they know it generates a reaction and keeps us glued to their app. When objectionable content appears, we should not interact with it. Instead, we should quickly scroll away from it or even choose to block the account that shared it. We can train the algorithm with these decisions to show less objectionable content.
Let God be Our Ultimate Influencer
Our ultimate desire should be to become more and more like our Lord and Savior. We should seek to be changed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18), as we conform our lives to His will (Romans 12:2). Let us pray that God would continue His work in our lives, and let us draw closer to Him.
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