Social Sanity in an Insta WorldSample

Have you ever done something uncomfortable or wild just because everyone else was? Like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? The Cinnamon Challenge? A TikTok dance challenge?

Even if you haven’t—even if you’ve never logged in to Instagram or Facebook—you’re still being influenced by social media. It changes how you shop, what you eat, who you vote for, where you give money, how you exercise, how you educate your kids, what books you read, and what you talk about at the dinner table. Social media will shape what’s important to you. What’s worthy of your time. What you believe. And what you love.

At its best, social media can be a “Titus 2” experience. From quiet time ideas to prayer strategies to hospitality tips, the people we follow online can “teach what is good.” Our time spent online can be a powerful tool to influence us to follow Jesus right where we are.

But we can also lose our way. We get confused about our own giftings and offerings, trying to muscle them to match the ones we see online. We distrust God’s plan for our lives, seeking other options and paths. Our identity falters as too many influences call to us, telling us what to do and how to live.

So it’s worth investing time in curating a feed that will influence you toward biblical faithfulness. Ask yourself, “Is this person influencing me toward what is true, good, and beautiful? Do they help me to savor and be satisfied in Christ?”

Let’s get one thing straight: being influenced by others isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s part of God’s design for us, and we can’t change it. The question to ask is: what—or who—is your primary influence?

Are God’s words most important to you? Are his ways your ways? Are his loves your loves? Jesus is the perfect influencer, our great high priest, and his heart is bound to ours. He promises to help us in our time of need (Heb. 4:16) and has sent the Spirit to guide us (Rom. 8:14). Like Paul on the road to Damascus, Zacchaeus in the tree, the woman at the well, and Rahab in her house, as we fix our eyes on Christ, peripheral influences will hold less power.

Recently, I taught my children a hymn I learned as a child to help them run to the Lord when the world’s voices feel heavy and confusing. Perhaps, with a small, modern-day modification, it can be of help to us all: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the influences of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”