I had a chance last spring to speak to high school and middle school students about how to how media literacy, essentially how to navigate in a world that is constantly connected and influencing us every day. I could not have imagined how continually wild the following year would bring. The increase in AI reliance on everything as well as the increasing difficulty to tell if it is or not is a serious issue (also the environmental impact it makes). Mix that in with election cycles with a lot of anger and hate, social media becoming a flood of advertising, and a deeper divide on what is true and not biased in news media.

Feel freaked out a little? Don’t be; you have been created by an amazing creator who gives us what we need to navigate technology with wisdom. Wisdom is how we navigate everything we come in contact with and it is freely given to each of us.

“Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.”  -James 1:5 CSB

I want to share with you some insights and mindsets that I have in place when navigating our world. We need to be aware that there is always something trying to gain your attention, and that attention is a way to gain income. Social media succeeds when you and I stay on it longer, news receives more site traffic when you click on a clickbait title, videos have thumbnails that are designed to make you click them, apps are banned through the lobbying from competing apps; it all is designed with that purpose.

Knowing this is important, because it should make you pause and question the emotion or the “time suck” feelings you experience.

When you are presented with information, pause and reflect on the motive.

A popular beer company rolled out an advertising campaign recently, and it had a pretty glaring misspelling, a misspelling that made its way onto all of their campaign elements. This created massive engagement on social media from people pointing out the mistake, but it wasn’t a mistake, it was designed to generate engagement. That engagement trains algorithms that then would send more advertising to those who engaged; it was a plan to make sure you had this brand at the front of your feeds.

While that isn’t too harmful, we need to be aware that certain things are not what they seem. A popular social media in 2020 had a lot of misinformation and was questioned why they let that happen on their site, and it was only through whistleblowers that they saw it drove up their website engagement and viewership; which translated to revenue and they liked it.

Research shows that anger and “rage bait” have better engagement, that engagement turns into site visits and views, which becomes revenue, starting to see the picture? We need to be able to pause and ask ourselves, “why do I feel this way,” and “what is the motive behind this.” The article I just linked a sentence ago, did you actually click it? Maybe you did and you got very confused at me “Rick Rolling” you, here is the actual article by the way, but often we don’t dig just a little bit deeper in our investigation on motives.

Meditate on truth and things that bring us closer to bearing the right fruit.

It breaks my heart to see people easily influenced by cheap depictions of someone who follows Christ. Galatians shows us that there is fruit that comes from us being in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23), this means that our life should be a clear example that there is a Spirit that dwells in us.

“For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and every evil practice. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peace-loving, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without pretense.” -James 3:16-17

If your belief is that someone who says they follow Christ but there is no fruit is fine, you’re missing out the beauty that comes from a relationship with Jesus. Take a step back, breathe, and don’t allow the enemy to lure you into a false idol worship that the world so deeply wants you to follow.

I don’t want you to interpret this as having a conspiracy mindset, I want you to understand that in this world, there are things actively trying to take your attention away from practicing the way of Jesus. Set time limits on apps or get rid of an app that causes you to feel angry and act out angry. Don’t follow someone blindly, follow Jesus and what His word actually shows us how to treat and love others. Remain in the truth, and be influenced by it.

There are a lot of things in the world that are trying to get your attention, make sure you have your attention focused on the love of the Gospel.

“Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.” -Philippians 4:8 CSB

You have the tools and the power to navigate technology with wisdom, so be wise.

-Joshua

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About the Author: Joshua Thomas is a husband, father, and pastor doing what he can to love others the way Jesus did. You can find him reading a good book, sipping warm tea, taking pictures, or dreaming. He may not have it all figured out, but the journey is the best part. You can find him on the only social media he uses, Bluesky and Instagram