Social Media – JARRETT FLETCHER

What makes a book good? Good books fill gaps in knowledge, whether it be our own or society’s at large. Good books serve as a key to unlock the mystery of something that happened in history or is presently occurring in the world. There’s something satisfying about reading and thinking, “so that’s what’s happening.” But good books must also compel and prescribe action. No one wants a book full of statistics and trends that offers no advice on what to do with them. Perhaps such books are necessary, but they don’t fit my definition of a good book.

Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation is a good book. It fills a gap in society’s knowledge by answering the question of what’s causing the rapid increase of mental illness among Gen Z. It also solves the mystery of how smart phones and social media are changing childhood and affecting our mental health. And it offers compelling calls to action to parents, schools, governments, and tech companies. It is an excellent book.

In The Anxious Generation, Haidt argues that “the great rewiring” of childhood is causing the current epidemic of mental illness among Generation Z (those born after 1997). This rewiring consists primarily of the the transition from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood that took place in the early 2010s.

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In today’s world, distractions abound. Phones, social media platforms, sporting events, and advertisements compete for our attention. Once they have our attention, they begin to clamor for our time. Soon, we begin investing large amounts of time on these platforms, at these events, or watching these shows. Yet God has called us to invest the majority of our time in three primary areas:

Our relationship with Him.
Our relationship with the people in our lives (family, church, friends).
Our life of work.[1]

Are we spending the majority of our time investing in these three areas? If not, what distractions keep us from them? There are only twenty four hours in a day, seven days in a week. If we invest time in one place, it inevitably detracts from the time we can spend in another. Too often we become distracted and end up mindlessly investing our time in things that do not matter. Not only do they not matter, but they take time away from the things that do matter. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. That’s why Paul tells us to make the best use of our time (Ephesians 5:15-17).

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