Is it time to take a break from social media?

Amid talk of a TikTok ban in the USA, Stevie Hope considers a Christian approach to digital wellbeing..

Where do you spend your time? Maybe you’re a Meta fan, with a focus on Facebook, Instagram or Threads. Perhaps you prefer Pinterest, YouTube or Twitch. And let’s not overlook outliers such as LinkedIn, Reddit or Bluesky.

Whether you’re an active user or not, it’s hard to deny that social media has had a tremendous impact on every one of us over the past couple of decades. Society as we know it is fundamentally different thanks to this billion-dollar industry. But what if it disappeared?

TikTok was one of several apps owned by ByteDance banned by the US government on 19 January. While the enforcement of said ban is up in the air at the time of writing, after an executive order granted a 75-day delay, it has left many people asking themselves: ‘What would I do if TikTok went away?’

The app’s style of short-form, fast-paced portrait videos may not be the social media for everyone, but we can ask ourselves the same question about our platform of choice. What would we do if it went away?

It can be easy to forget that stepping into these digital social spaces is much like stepping into a physical social space. So easy to forget, in fact, that we can often interact very differently.

Have you ever been in a room filled with unhappy people gossiping and arguing and thought ‘this is healthy, I’d like to be part of this’? It’s very likely we’d soon walk away and withdraw somewhere more peaceful.

That’s not always as easy to do online. Strong emotions can drive engagement, so algorithms can push us towards such content and negative feelings to keep us hooked – this is what it means to doomscroll. Stuck in this cycle, it’s easy to let our mental, emotional and spiritual health slide.

There’s no quick-and-easy fix to finding our way out of these potentially harmful rhythms of life. That said, if we’d rather be living Jesus’ ‘unforced rhythms of grace’ (Matthew 11:29 The Message), he offers a beautifully simple response. Luke 5:16 tells us that ‘Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed’, and he invites his disciples to do the same: ‘Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest’ (Mark 6:31). Jesus’ response to the busy social lives they led reflects his idea of Sabbath rest (see Mark 2:23–28). Log off. Find peace. Pray. Reset.

Of course, it isn’t as simple as banning all social media from our lives altogether. Despite flaws, these platforms can help foster social cohesion and inclusion, not to mention giving Christians an opportunity to let their light shine before others (see Matthew 5:14–16). We simply need to be aware of our own limits and be comfortable enforcing personal rules and rhythms that give room for God.

Reflect and respond

• Many phones give us the opportunity to look up our screen time or digital wellbeing. How does yours make you feel?
• Reflect on the lyrics to ‘Take Time to Be Holy’ (SASB 790).
• Read Psalm 23. What ‘quiet waters’ (v2) or ‘darkest valleys’(v4) do you notice in your online activities?
• Consider taking a social media Sabbath in the next few days.