New research has urged 'digital literacy' for children's education in the UK, as fears grow about the damaging effects of social media on young people's wellbeing. The threat is profound, but the Church can lead the way – for both young people and adults – in modelling a more human way to live.
The Children's Commissioner for England has highlighted the immense pressure to gain popularity via likes, comments, and views on social media, facing children in primary and secondary schools today.
Researchers found many children becoming increasingly anxious about 'keeping up appearances' online and securing validation through affirmation and attention on social media tools like Snapchat and Instagram, according to Sky News.
Anne Longfield, Children's Commissioner for England, said there were 'significant risks emotionally' and said that 'digital literacy' needed to be taught in schools.
It's not of course the first time the corrupting ills of social media have been warned against. Last summer an extensive report published at The Atlantic warned adolescents were on the brink of a 'mental health crisis' due to the rise of the smartphone. Social media anxiety and smartphone addiction, researcher Jean Twenge said, was cultivating an epidemic of loneliness and depression, while inhibiting real-life social interactions amongst young people.
Clearly the issue is a complex one, and it's become increasingly common to recognise that blaming new technology as inherently 'evil' is neither accurate nor helpful. Clearly the companies at the helm of social media innovation – Facebook, Twitter et al – have work to do to protect young people, and parents and school must also play a role.
But the Church too should heed the warnings, if the flourishing not only of children, but the adults they become, is to be of any importance. The Christian faith indeed has profound messages about identity and the nature of community at its heart. There are at least three ways the Church can help people to use social media – and not be used by it.
1. Switching off and getting out
The advice may seem blindingly obvious or perhaps ambitiously old-fashioned, but one answer to the encroaching role of technology on our lives is to push it back. We've become used to constant connectivity, daily bombarded with notifications and interactions to the space that technology does not invade becomes nearly non-existent. Even when we sleep, our smartphone surely lies close at hand. We may simply want to be available, but end up becoming addicted. Nonetheless, we remain in control – the power to let our phones go, to draw boundaries with our tech and 'switch off' from the online world is entirely ours. Habits will shape us for better or for worse, so why not habituate a less frenzied existence? It's easier said than done of course, but it can be done – just 20 years ago the offline world was the norm.
Getting fresh air instead may sound patronising but its health benefits are well established, and for Christians it provides an abundant space for time with God, an opportunity for silence, prayer, nurturing the sould amid nature – space away from chaos and self-comparison. Indeed the contemplative life may never have been more attractive than in an online age such as ours, so pervaded by noise and the anxiety of constant 'activity'.
2. Real time with real people
Simple but somehow increasingly radical innovations like youth clubs and summer camps, hallmarks of historic church ministry, offer invaluable time not simply for keeping kids busy, but for giving them joy and unconditional community, inviting self-reflection and deep relationships. Needless to say, a life lived in front of a screen offers not a scratch on the power of real friendship. Not that Christians own the idea of community, but they're known to do it quite well. Indeed, its no optional add on for the life of faith – the Christian Church is inescapably social and communal: to be social is part of what it means to be spiritual. To love and protect those facing an epidemic of loneliness, it will need to take that vocation seriously.
Researchers are warning that the smartphone isn't just a dinnertime distraction, but particularly for children dramatically inhibits their ability to socialise, to make conversation, to be interested in others. Ultimately the danger is becoming less human, missing out on the richness of real relationship because a virtual existence sapped it away. Again, technology can clearly be a boon to love and connectivity – but it can't replace one's social life.
3. Preach a hope that lasts
Anyone who remembers their adolescence will know that the perils of constant comparison, pressure to perform and the longing to be loved are inevitable trials on the path to adulthood, indeed in many ways they never go away. But its also clear that technology is exacerbating these traumas in new ways. Identity has become public in ways it never has before: being suddenly loved – or shamed – by a sea of strangers is a strange new possibility that mature adults struggle with, let alone vulnerable children. Identity is also malleable and highly superficial: we shape what the world sees according to whatever we wish to be – but our deepest pain and struggle stays secret. We can easily ignore what's hard – and so fail to grow through it, while we attempt to become something we're not.
Christians aren't free from peer pressure or identity crises, but their faith addresses these struggles in a profound way. Identity for the Christian is in Christ, it is a relational gift to be received not achieved. It is given, not grasped for. When we fail to find the belonging or popularity we wish for, this remains the defining, liberating truth: we are fully known and fully loved by God. Children shouldn't be spared this good news, and many Christian adults may need to re-learn it.
The world is always changing, as are we. The quest of Christian wisdom is to weather that change without losing who we truly are.
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