By Sandra Bost
I quit social media in 2020. The constant bickering. The censorship. The conspiracies. The division. The keyboard warriors and meme makers. The political polarization and spiritual schisms. All of it.
My heart grew so heavy and weary, and confusion seemed to cloud my thinking– not to mention the ridiculous waste of time from consuming the cornucopia of “creative” content of clout-chasers. (How is that for alliteration?) I didn’t want to be complicit in the censorship of ideas, and I was finding it difficult to see what my neighbors were posting and maintain a healthy love and respect. Sadly. So, I quit.
I completely deleted all of my profiles across platforms and walked away. During my social media exit, admittedly, I was able to reclaim my peace of mind, salvage some self-respect, and continue to waste time with other ridiculous endeavors.
It wasn’t until November 2022 that I tiptoed back into the abyss of social media. I created a private Instagram/Facebook account to follow my kids and a group of professional speech-language pathologists. At first, I didn’t make any posts and my time was limited to researching therapy practices and adoring my grandbabies. It wasn’t long before algorithms picked up and I started getting follow/friend requests from some of my old friends. Eventually, with a clearer-mind and a renewed sense of balance– believing that the digital thought police had quieted just enough to make the book of faces feel welcoming again– I plunged back in.
Additionally, I was gearing up to release my first children’s book, so I took the advice of my publisher and poised myself on all social media platforms in order to market and promote my book. I followed all of their advice, and did the uncomfortable self-promotion videos which felt more like self-sabotage. Before you know it, I was back to scrolling through selfies, statuses, and staged sandwiches.
Fast forward to social media this week. The tragic events in our nation over the past few weeks have had a profound and unsettling impact on social media in America– and across the world, really. It has revealed the power and peril of digital platforms in shaping public discourse.
Not only were we subjected to unedited and graphic videos, without warning, our feeds were flooded with toxic rhetoric and click bait designed to prioritize engagement over accuracy or value. According to an article entitled “A Second Look at the Social Dilemma” on ksmmedia.com, the documentary The Social Dilemma from 2020 critiques the dark side of social media and persuasive technology through its use of algorithms set to amplify controversial content, which reinforce biases, and at times, incite hate.
As I willed myself out of the digital fog, I realized something deeper: my soul wasn’t just tired from the noise– it was starving for truth. So, as I traded scrolling for seeking, I found myself drawn back to Scripture–not for content, but for connection. And that’s where today’s devotion begins.
In a world where algorithms shape our attention, and opinions are boldly proclaimed by keyboard warriors, it is easy to lose sight of what is real. Social media may offer connection, but it often comes at the cost of clarity, peace, and spiritual grounding. God calls us to a different kind of engagement–one that begins not with scrolling, but with sacrifice and surrender.
Romans 12:2 in The Message paraphrase says, “So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
Let this be a reminder: your worth isn’t measured in likes, your purpose isn’t found in posts, and your peace isn’t dependent on a controversy-free comment section. It is found in the person of Jesus–in the quiet moments of reflection, and in the renewing of your mind through His truth.
My journey away from–and back into–social media reminded me that while platforms change, God’s truth remains. I found clarity not in the feed, but in the Faith. And that’s a message worth sharing–even if it never goes viral.
Connect with Bost on social media platforms by searching for “Sandra Mullins Bost.”
