On July 21, France became the first nation in the EU to ban social media for children under the age of 15. In 2024, Australia banned social media for children ages 15 and younger. Spain, Denmark, Greece, and the U.K. have all announced intentions to follow suit.
Across the board, lawmakers cite systemic addiction as a major issue with social media platforms.
Social media is designed to capture attention, cultivate dependence, and keep users returning every second — a business model that profits from human weakness.
However, mainstream social media platforms may also be the widest-reaching outlets for Christian communicators — and the very addiction they cultivate reveals humanity’s longing for the freedom only the Gospel can provide.
It’s addictive.
It’s missional.
It’s complicated.
Over five billion individuals use social media every day, representing 64% of the global population. Behind every number is a person: an exhausted mom seeking encouragement, a teenager searching for belonging, a lonely soul looking for connection, someone desperate for answers.
The needs driving them online are needs only Jesus satisfies.
For Christians, the question is not simply whether to enter these spaces, but how. The endless scroll is teeming with trapped souls desperate to hear the hope of the Gospel.
But believers must be careful not to be shaped by the very darkness they seek to confront.
“For those who follow Christ, we are called to submit every area of our lives to His lordship — including how we use social media,” wrote the late John MacArthur. “Social networking can be a useful tool when used to communicate the right things — messages that honor Christ, exalt His Word, and direct people to profitable tools for spiritual growth. But social networking can also be abused.”
Social media is not the first communication medium to make Christians wary of participation. When radio was still a novel technology, early broadcasters faced a fair bit of backlash for dabbling in the territory of Satan, “the prince of the air.”
But social media is different than its predecessors, precisely because it was designed to addict users.
American teenagers are especially likely to engage in addictive behavioral patterns, devoting an average of nearly 34 hours each week to social media — just shy of a full-time workweek.
With the near-constant attention of the masses, platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram shape culture by malforming souls and discipling children to engage in envy, comparison, vulgarity, and hatred.
As discontented and despairing individuals increasingly crave online affirmation, their growing dependencies drive them back to the hand that fed them poisonous lies again, and again, and again.
Social media feeds are shaping today’s youth. The question is whether users will be discipled by Christian voices or the voices of an attention-driven algorithm.
In “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” Jonathan Haidt writes that “there is a hole, an emptiness in us all, that we strive to fill. If it doesn’t get filled with something noble and elevated, modern society will quickly pump it full of garbage.”
And social media makes society’s garbage taste like forbidden fruit, luring users into addictive behaviors through autoplay features, personalized feeds, and endless scrolling which together create a dopamine-inducing environment psychologists have likened to gambling or recreational drug usage.
Many have noted that only the technology industry and the drug industry call their clients “users.”
Even the innovators behind the platforms acknowledge the destruction wrought by exposing malleable minds to the onslaught of mind-numbing content. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk restricted their children’s screen time. YouTube cofounder Steve Chen said he does not want his kids watching short-form content.
The harmful nature of mainstream social media is no secret.
This summer, Shawn Whitson launched ActsSocial as an alternative social media platform that encourages gratitude instead of comparison, encouragement instead of hatred, and faith instead of fear. While developing his own algorithms, Whitson spent hours learning the nuts and bolts behind mainstream social media — how it works, what it rewards, and who it benefits.
He knows better than most how destructive these platforms are, yet he is wary of the temptation to forsake them altogether.
“Is there a swamp that’s too swampy for us to go into? I don’t think so,” Whitson said. “I think we should push forward and consider bringing God’s kingdom to almost anything, and eat with the sinners.”
Christ has undoubtably commissioned His followers to preach the Gospel to all nations. His Word confirms that faith comes by hearing, and the lost will only hear if the found speak.
And the lost are listening online.
A survey conducted by NRB and the Barna Group found that over six in ten Americans use Christian media and over 50% of Americans do so at least once a week, with social media commanding the broadest reach among all Christian media platforms. The vast majority of these users come to Christian media seeking encouragement and discipleship.
Younger generations especially are encountering the Gospel through podcasters and influencers like Allie Beth Stuckey and Bryce Crawford who intentionally engage with the people and ideas furthest from the truth.
When addictive habits draw people to social platforms, communicators have an opportunity to offer hope beyond measure to those who feel trapped in their feeds. The Gospel can cut through negativity, sin, and desperation as Christians engage the world’s hub of activity without conforming to the patterns found there.
Ryan Helfenbein, vice president of communications and public engagement at Liberty University, has witnessed the power of media to reach the unreachable.
“This is not something Christians should retreat from,” he said. “This is something that Christians can dive in and engage with, and it can be used as an evangelistic tool. … We need to have more light in the midst of darkness.”
Through persistent, unyielding messaging, Christians may even begin to change trends of culture. Influencers can example contentment instead of comparison, hope instead of despair, and forgiveness instead of bitterness.
The song of the Gospel could overwhelm the siren of its enemies.
“We are called to go out into the world, and that includes social media, and be the light of it,” said Whitson. “However, … none of us are actually bulletproof with our soul completely. No matter how strong you are, if you stay in it, you’re going to soak it up, … when we’re taking that stuff in through our eyeballs, which is the window to the soul.”
Successful Christian influencers necessarily adapt their content format to appeal to an addicted audience. Communicators only gain audiences when they play by the addiction-driven rules of the social media game regardless of their intentions and message.
In such an environment, even stalwart believers might be tempted to change their message when complaint earns more clicks than gratitude and contempt captures more attention than grace.
When Whitson was researching the methods of mainstream social media platforms, he was struck by a hard truth: Christianity will never win online. The algorithm deck, so to speak, is stacked against positive, value-driven content.
“One of Satan’s biggest tools is social media and how he can use it against us,” Whitson said. “[But] if we build it on a cross-centered backbone, we take control back.”
Whitson calls on believers: “We need to stay on all the platforms. If you’ve got a following, do not ditch your people. Stay on there, stay strong, stay in prayer.”
Content creators must preach the Gospel to themselves, resisting the temptation to serve their own egos and idolize engagement as the ultimate metric of success. Faithfulness comes by focusing on Christ.
“Whims and fashions and fads change from day to day to day, and it’s important to remember Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore,” Helfenbein said. “Whether we’re with culture or we’re against it, we’re going to be who we’re called to be.”
Engagement serves the Gospel — not the other way around.
Those who choose to refrain from social media may become voices of accountability for those entering the digital mission field. Different callings can complement one another as each part of Christ’s body fulfills its purpose.
“No one’s bulletproof, but God gave some people more armor than others,” Whitson said.
Produce quality content. Offer users something hopeful and real. Connect with followers. Testify to Christ’s power and love. But cover every action in prayer, lest platforms succeed in misleading even Christ’s people.
Apart from Christ, the temptations of social media will eventually overwhelm even the most well-intentioned influencers. But no algorithm can stop the God who parted the Red Sea, making a way for His people to walk in the good works He prepared.
God has freed believers to be slaves — slaves of righteousness, walking in the light and serving others in humility. As such, Christians are free to proclaim the Gospel and defend a biblical worldview online — but only so far as they continue to act in service to Jesus, not an algorithm.
The freedom of the Gospel stands in stark contrast to the slavery of media addiction.
Christ offers a calling, but He also offers confidence in His already-won victory. Christians do not engage culture with fear of defeat, but with assurance of triumph.
Social platforms may compete for attention, but they cannot satisfy the human heart; only Christ can. And Christians are called to bring that hope wherever people are searching.
“Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves.” – 1 Peter 2:16