New technology tends to follow a cycle.

When it’s first introduced, it’s only for the elite (or the geeks) that are rich enough (or nerdy enough) to buy it. Then, as everyday people begin to notice the ways it benefits their elite or geeky friends, they start to jump on the bandwagon.

As the technology gains widespread acceptance, it’s commended as “trendy” by its supporters and denounced as a “fad” by its opponents.

But if it proves itself useful enough, even its initial opponents will be won over, and it will move from being “trendy” to being a “staple”—everyday life begins to be built around it, and it becomes harder and harder to imagine a world without it.

But the cycle doesn’t stop there.

Often, long after it’s become well-woven into the fabric of everyday life, its long-term effects on society start to rear an ugly side. Smoking really does harm your health. Football increases your risk of severe brain damage. Blue light from screens messes with sleep.

And thence commences the debate again—this time, not over whether a brand-new innovation should be accepted or rejected, but over what we should do about an integral part of everyone’s lives which we are beginning to realize is actually harming us.

And on May 23, the U.S. Surgeon General published a 25-page advisory indicating this very phenomenon for a ubiquitous aspect of our lives—social media.

The advisory does acknowledge some benefits of social media: it connects people with others who have similar interests, helps them form communities online that can support them through hardships, and gives them an outlet for their creative impulses (p. 6).

However, it also emphasizes the significant harms researchers have begun noticing about the ever-permeating technology.

Researchers found that adolescent use of social media in certain stages (11–13 years old for girls and 14–15 years old for boys) was significantly correlated with a decrease in life satisfaction (p. 5).

Furthermore, one study of 12–15-year-olds discovered that those spending over 3 hours a day on social were twice as likely to exhibit poor mental health, including depression and anxiety (p. 6).

The negative effects of social media are all the more alarming when we realize just how much of today’s youth uses it. The advisory relays startling statistics on how much young people use social media.

Up to 95% of 13–17-year-olds report that they use social media, but over a third say that they use it “almost constantly” (p. 4). And as of 2021, children in 8th and 10th grade use social media for an average of 3.5 hours a day (p. 7).

But that’s not all—almost 40% of 8–12-year-olds use social media, even though many sites require users to be 13 years of age (p. 4). Ultimately, the advisory’s self description shows how severely the Surgeon General views this issue:

Advisories are reserved for significant public health challenges that require the nation’s immediate awareness and action. This Advisory calls attention to the growing concerns about the effects of social media on youth mental health (p. 3).

At this stage in the debate over a new technological invention that has become so entrenched in our way of life, no one will be able to realistically argue that we can eradicate it from society—it has proven too useful for connecting with others, from small friend groups to large swaths of the voting populace.

But on the other hand, this new research indicates that no one can realistically argue that we should keep on using it the way that we have been—it has proven too detrimental for mental health and self-image.

This calls for a response grounded in Christian discernment. How can Christians use social media in a God-honoring way?

I believe one important component of the answer is that we should take dominion over the tool without being dominated by it. On the one hand, God expects us to be good stewards of the resources He has given us. He gave Adam a garden to work, He gave Noah an earth to fill, and He gives us two hands and a new sunrise every morning so that we can do something with them.

The servant who buried the talents given to him failed his master’s wishes precisely because he didn’t make the best of what He was given. And social media gives us an incredible way to reach large amounts of people in unprecedented ways for the gospel and for Christ-centered political action causes—you may be reading this very article because it was posted on IFI’s Facebook page.

On the other hand, social media has incredible potential to suck people into a false world and leave them discontented with their own lives after they see the airbrushed version of everyone else’s.

Social media allows people to create selectively orchestrated profiles of themselves, full of the highlight reels of their lives—and what they’re eating for dinner—and skip all the defects that are an inherent part of simply being human.

And when we see each other this way, we are often tempted to be dissatisfied with our own life because we see ourselves as we actually are. When we let ourselves get sucked into this lie, we are being dominated by the tool instead of taking dominion over it.

Social media is incredibly powerful but incredibly dangerous.

Let’s always be sure we are using it for the glory of God, and not for our own glory.