Almost daily, someone online is encouraging us to get offline. Social media influencers peddle stillness and urge us to stop doomscrolling—but also to subscribe. Whenever a major news event, law enforcement and government officials beg us to get off the online rumor mill. Whenever something horrible happens, we rush to social media to see what the other side is saying. On any given day, there is offensive, false, and objectionable content that we interact with via screens. Very often, we are horrified. We should be, but less with others and more with ourselves.
Realizing that time spent on social media is harmful and distorting, we often tell people that they need to get offline and “touch grass.” This means that you should interact with the real world. Get analog. If you do, you will realize that life is not all bad and most people can and do still interact normally. Many of the upsetting things you see and hear online are ultimately outliers. That is all true and good advice, but it stops short of saying what we need to hear in order to solve the problem. The internet is not the real world, but it is the real you.
There is a famous quote attributed to Anaïs Nin that suggests “we don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.” There is considerable truth in that. It is common to suggest that Twitter or Bluesky or Tik Tok, or whatever, is full of trash and clickbait and outrage-inducing content. And it is, but that is more of a reflection of us than we realize. While the algorithms for any social media will push you content—some of which you truly don’t desire—for the most part, the algorithm feeds you based on your preferences. On most social media platforms, you can choose a private account, which limits your interactions with strangers. And you always make some choices about who and what you follow. If you log on to a site and see nothing but disturbing things, look no further than yourself for the source.
We complain all the time about the horrible things that are on the internet. But the “internet” is not self-aware and it does not have any volition. Every horrible thing online was put there by a person. Not all of us contribute to every horrible thing, but most of our social media feeds are shaped by our desires. What about bots and trolls? They succeed because we interact with them. We retweet them, we let them raise our blood pressure, we find them affirming our views. It may be a somewhat distorted mirror that you see when you log on, but it is more a reflection of you than it is of the world. It is not enough to get offline.
These are dark and troubling times because we are dark and troubling people. We have an uncanny ability to blame the state of society on everyone but ourselves. Yet, James 1:14-15 reminds us, “each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” (ESV) Staying off social media is not enough to stabilize society or to give an individual a healthier and more helpful point of view.
We worry, rightly, about protecting ourselves and our loved ones from the world, but we ought also to worry about protecting the world from ourselves. If you believe in the sin nature, you cannot see yourself as solely the victim of societal conditions. As Paul says in Romans 5:12, “sin came into the world through one man.” All of us play some role in shaping our immediate (and even distant) environment. In recent years, we have learned that things like mood and health are contagious. Being depressed makes your friends more likely to be depressed. Eating healthy helps your friends eat healthy. Even offline, some of your experience reflects your preferences. Voltaire wrote that “the most important decision you make is to be in a good mood.” Heaven forbid that Voltaire contribute more to making this world a livable place than many people who claim to be Christians, but go around angry and afraid, thus spreading anger and fear.
The solution is not to “touch grass” and stop there, it requires taking stock. If we do not like what we see on social media, we should look more closely at ourselves. What have we contributed to the world? Have we begun to fully consider that? It is very unlikely that most of us can go about our day and then answer Wesley’s 22 questions with a clear conscience. What can be done? In Power of the Powerless, Václav Havel urges an existential revolution with a “moral reconstitution of society” including a “higher responsibility.” Being able to look out on society without being distressed will require taking more responsibility for what we see. Fortunately, many have gone before us, recognizing this.
Consider the very famous prayer of St. Francis of Assisi
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
The shape of society reflects the shape of our hearts. In many ways, in 2025, we create our reality more than most of our ancestors ever could. Sometimes the lighting changes when we walk into a room. The seats in some cars adjust to our bodies automatically. When we look at screens, what we see reflects our preferences. We elect our own leaders. The way forward is not just stepping away from the internet or rejecting much of what we see in “the world”—moving forward requires recognizing the extent to which what we experience reflects who we are and taking responsibility for the state of things.