Social media offers us the ability to share our thoughts and pictures with friends and family near and far, or those we don’t even know. It can connect us with people all over the world, providing an opportunity to hear and learn from those with different experiences or expertise than we have. The flip side of this, of course, is that rather than an interesting learning experience, scrolling social media can become a mundane waste of time or worse. Rather than connecting with others in meaningful ways, we begin comparing ourselves with others, negatively impacting our happiness or sense of satisfaction with our lives.
Play the following video for your students [2:36]: Why teen brains are particularly vulnerable to social media
As we saw in this video, social media can affect adolescents in significant ways—even to the point of altering brain development! Emerging studies are also showing how social media can have a significant impact on users’ mental health. When we’re constantly scrolling through perfectly edited and curated images of other people’s lives, it can be easy to feel worse about our own lives by comparison.
- Has time on social media ever caused you to compare yourself with others or generally feel less satisfied with yourself or your life? How so? (Answers will vary. Students will likely want what they see on social media, whether an advertisement for something they don’t have, a friend’s trip they’d like to take, or an instablogger’s life they’d like to emulate.)
- What is it about the social media format that contributes to these feelings of dissatisfaction? (Accept all reasonable answers. In many advertisements, which social media posts sometimes are, the images shown only frame part of the story—the best or best-looking part. The nice things you see or read imply a satisfied person, but even the smiley-est of us have struggles, coming before or behind or alongside the joys.)
- When you feel dissatisfied or discontent, where do you turn to fill yourself up? (Answers will vary. Sometimes it is a purchase, food, a laugh, a good grade, or a word of validation we seek to satisfy us. We may turn to friends, family, achievements, or places we feel safe and known and appreciated and accomplished. Sadly, sometimes we get into bad habits in our search for satisfaction.)
Our search for satisfaction can become a vicious cycle. We don’t have what we want and it makes us feel empty. So we seek out something to make us feel full. Then we realize that didn’t fill us up either, and we feel empty again. Jesus once called Himself the Bread of Life, and that all who come to Him will never hunger again, implying He can satisfy our needs and break the cycle of fruitless seeking and empty feelings. Is that what He meant? Is that even possible? Let’s take a look…
