Social Media = the new 'omnipresent force' causing FOMO!.....but maybe a great gospel stepping stone too!

Here are some very enlightening excerpts from a recent ABC news email I received a couple of days ago (Sunday 8 November):

*#FOMO leading to higher levels of depression, anxiety*

The fear of missing out (or FOMO) generated by high levels of social media use can lead to depression and anxiety, according to a new report looking at the way social media impacts wellbeing.

........over half (53 per cent) of Australian teens reporting that they used social networking sites for 15 minutes before bed every night.

Sydney student Jessica Sahay, 17, spends over an hour browsing through Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat before she goes to sleep.

........More than half of young respondents in the survey said they had felt worried, jealous and anxious after finding out they had been left out of a gathering through pictures or status updates on social media.....

"You feel a bit jealous and the next time you see them it gets a bit tense but that stuff happens all the time."

.......The survey found that a fear of missing out does not stop once people enter adulthood, with the survey noting that those aged 18-35 reported the highest feelings of being left out amongst all adults. 

Dr Ferrier said that people needed to be aware of the positive and negative impacts of social media. 

"It makes it harder for people to feel happy and have gratitude for their own lives and that's quite a debilitating and serious thing," he said.

"We've got an omnipresent force here that's making people feel less satisfied and less happy with their own lives."

(emphasis mine)

LEFT OUT

Social Media which appears to promise SO much - popularity, approval, likes, inclusion in a group, connection, happiness, acceptance, - a sense of belonging, importance, value and honour...........delivers much less.  Not only can it deliver less it can be destructive and damaging and debilitating, so the survey revealed.

People are feeling 'left out'.  This is nothing other than a sense of rejection - "why wasn't I invited".  This is part of the picture of shame - or lack of honour.  It's about fear of disapproval - fear that somehow I've not done enough of whatever it is to get included, and instead I get 'left out'. I've not met the expectation of those I desire approval of and someone else got invited and I didn't.  

If ever there is evidence of a subconscious belief of 'limited good', here it is. 

Here are millions of people who feel they have been excluded simply because they haven't been 'included'.  They inherently feel that someone else has somehow got valued higher than them simply because they didn't get asked to a party. .....and what is the evidence of that.....the little word 'jealous'.  Along with worry and anxiety (essentially fear), there is a very real awareness that someone else got something that they were deprived of.  Along with it is worry and anxiety - this is essentially fear - fear of the pain of loss of psycho-social connection and honour - the fear of shame of not being chosen that translates to awkwardness (shame) 'next time you see them'.

WHY?

Because people are looking to other people for what God created them to receive from Himself.

The last line of the news bulletin is the 'tell all' statement - "We've got an omnipresent force here that's making people feel less..."

The reason there is a sense of an 'omnipresent force' of the negative variety is that people were actually looking for an 'omnipresent force' that would always notice them and praise them and approve of them and like them and want them to be near and part of their lives.  That's why they are spending hours every day checking their social media status and updates - they want 'constant' and 'always with them' belonging and honour.  They are actually looking for God and not knowing who it is who is the answer to their heart's longing.  

GREAT GOSPEL OPPORTUNITY

Although this is very revealing as to how the 21st Century youth and young adults are functioning and what they are longing for, it also reveals a great 'contextualisation' point thoroughly immersed in shame, honour and identity dynamics.

This is not an era in the West where you can walk up to someone and ask 'do you feel under a load of guilt?', or maybe not even 'do you want to go to heaven?', but it is a generation that you can walk up to and get into conversation about the positives and negatives of social media and how it makes a person feel.  There is great opportunity to use even the terminology mentioned in this news bulletin....and great opportunity to bring people desperate for connection, belonging and approval and honour to an understanding of what they are really looking for and a realisation that the world's solutions to such problems are empty and even destructive and we need to look to the only One who is truly omnipresent.

They are looking for an omnipresent (always seeing and knowing), loving Father who accepts and approves.  They are looking for a family outside their biological family where they belong, are loved, and valued.  They are looking for others to know them and still accept them.  They need to know how much God wants to be their Father and how He wants them as part of His family sharing in His Son's identity.  They need to know that its sin and rebellion that separates us from God and from each other, its our insistence on looking to people for what only God can give that brings us worry, jealousy, anxiety and depression.  They need to know that the truly Omnipresent One is both our Saviour to rescue us from this mess, but also our Judge if we choose to stay as part of the mess. They need to know that any sense of 'left out' now is but a minimal taste of what its going to mean to be 'left out' of the party for eternity (and according to Jesus' parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus those in hell are able to see the party and those at it and have constant 'salt rubbed into the wound' of exclusion).

Good news is only good if it is the answer to bad news.  The social media world is handing the Church the 'bad news' answer opportunity, on a platter.

Don't get caught in the social media trap, but also lets open our eyes to those around us who are caught in it or fast heading in that direction where they are seeking in Facebook what only living before the face of God - 'Coram Deo' -  can do.

Let's bring them the good news of Jesus Christ!