Our annual study of a specific spiritual topic comes to a close today. The title of the series, Chains Of Our Own Choosing, reflects the ease with which we can find ourselves overwhelmed by a highly addictive and still relatively new, technology. In fact “TheFacebook” as it was called at the time began exactly 20-years ago this month.
At the risk of being hyperbolic, our society was a sitting duck for these new worlds of digital media. Our lives, culture, language, way of looking at relationships, shopping, work, and even how we buy lunch have changed. Not only are social media platforms powerful, they are invasive. Along with pictures, comments, likes, and flair; came a machine that analyzed our ever move, predicted who we would vote into office, and decided what we would see, hear, and even believe. Social media has been a willing partner to disaster in many lives. Loneliness, pornography, anxiety, feelings of worthlessness, lies, coveting on a new digital scale, and isolation were hoisted on an unwitting population. It may take years to climb out of the rubble.
One other factor in this digital revolution, has been the COVID outbreak with its subsequent shut-downs and precautions. People got used to living an almost entirely on-line life. Work from home! Stay home on Sunday’s and catch it on Facebook. This pales in comparison to what teens and 20-somethings discovered during the past four years. If the government will send me a check for $600 a week, you can play video games, gamble, and never leave your house. When the munchies hit, all you have to do is get on your DoorDash app and magically, someone will bring you a sandwich.
Another effect COVID has produced is a kind of, “stuck in time” denial about how much the world and our people have changed. If you closed your eyes in 2019 and just woke up, would you know gambling is legal in all 50-states and weed is completely legal in all but 11 of our united states. Add the end of Rowe v. Wade, plus the implantation of Obergefell v. Hodges and we are living in a strange new world. Abortion is no longer an “on demand form of birth control.” The law of the land states women can marry men. Men can marry men. And if none of that makes them happy, men can participate in women’s and even girl’s sporting events. You just identify as a 17-year-old girl.
This brings us to today’s topic. Four months ago, a company called BetVision, introduced on-screen, instant gambling system, and they just partnered with the NFL so you can bet (lose money) on something during every play. The idea that a major sports league would not only allow gambling on games, but locate a franchise in Las Vegas and hold a Super Bowl there, would baffle any of us in 2004. Now it is just part of the fabric of our lives.
Many sociologists have pointed at the similarities with the early 1970’s when the book Future Shock was written. It’s author, Alvin Toffler, described a world moving too fast for the average person to cope. There is no doubt social media seems to bring us some new problem every three months. But many of the problems are rooted in the same lusts of the flesh that have plagued human beings since the Garden.
Was it wrong to be unfaithful to your husband or wife before on-line porn became a reality. Yes. The same way you deal with one is the way you deal with the other. Don’t dance so close to the flame that you get burned. Don’t go to lunch alone with the man or woman at the office whose marriage is falling apart, and “Just wants someone to talk to.” Don’t find yourself alone with your smart phone when a website ad suggests there are, “Singles in your area you can meet right now.”
May God help us to flee temptation. Help us to cling to our actual brothers and sisters in Christ. We can overcome loneliness, purify our hearts from sexual sin, avoid the psychological damage of envy, jealousy, and FOMO, and walk into this year sober-minded and demonstrating good stewardship over God’s many blessings. Lord, please bless our families and our church in this world of anti-social media.
An Epedemic Of Loneliness (Part I Chains of our Own Choosing, Anti-social Media)
What Is Done In The Heart: Porn (Part II Chains Or Our Own Choosing)
FOMO: Fear of Missing Out (Part III Chains of our own Choosing)
Leave a Reply