This is what's missing from the social media debate

As Parliament debates whether to ban social media for under 16s, I find myself reflecting on a new TikTok trend: people choosing to “go analogue” - rejecting screens for books, tangible hobbies and time in nature.

I’ve been reading a lot of Jonathan Haidt lately. If anyone thinks we should be spending less time online, it’s him. He writes about how social media saps our energy, attention and focus and it’s also linked to a deterioration in mental health for children and young people. Haidt argues that we are raising an anxious generation – and I find it hard to disagree with him.

Building a hope-filled generation, not just an anxious one

Unfortunately, social media doesn’t only affect the young. Even if I’m not obsessively using Instagram, I’m doom-scrolling BBC News, absorbing bad news left, right, and centre. It’s exhausting and sometimes feels uncontrollable.

So, perhaps “going analogue” is worth a try. It has certainly prompted me to examine how I spend my time and how it aligns with my faith. How does the Bible speak into the time we spend on our phones?

In Philippians 4v8, we are encouraged to think of “whatever is true, right, lovely, excellent, or praiseworthy”. Can we honestly apply this to what is reflected back to us from our phones? A news cycle that now flows 24/7 is neither healthy, nor beneficial to our souls. We need rest, contemplation, and time away from the latest lure of the headlines.

Finding a solution – going screen-free

Recently I have started to experiment with my own screen habits. A friend started up an online community, enabling busy young dads (of which I am one) to claim back time from their devices. The newly formed habits weren’t complicated. Over two weeks, I turned off my notifications, set time limits on social media apps, and removed my phone from the bedroom. Small habits, leading to a transformational change. The digital world is a good servant, but a poor master. And for too long, I was living as the servant to the technology around me, albeit subconsciously.

Maybe it’s not just screen time, but time in general

Thankfully, as a Christian, the conversation about screen time is richer than just “technology bad, offline good”. The deeper question isn’t just how long we’re online, it’s who and what we worship with our time.

After all, worship isn’t confined to a Sunday morning; it is reflected in how we use our time, energy, resources, in our love for God and others. While “going analogue” is a brilliant idea, simply stepping away from screens or swapping scrolling for sewing or reading doesn’t tell the whole story. The real question isn’t just whether we’re online or offline, but how we are using our time, and what that reflects about our relationship with God. There’s always the risk that we’re replacing one distraction with another, rather than redirecting our hearts and attention toward what truly matters.

The digital world can expand, and minimise our lives simultaneously

As the CEO of The Word One to One, a ministry encouraging Christians to read the Bible with their friends, colleagues or loved ones, I’ve heard countless stories of people coming to faith having encountered Jesus through our resources, including our app. Praise God for the fact that you can download a Bible app from anywhere in the world, free of charge, efficiently translated, or that you can meet with fellow believers across the world in prayer. All of this, and so much more, is a wonderful result of digitisation.

But paired with this exciting growth, is the knowledge that God made us for relationships. This is why loneliness is such a tragedy. In a world with such connectedness, we are so easily forgetting that real joy comes through investing in and valuing one another. The challenge that remains for us is not simply to become “analogue”, or to just remove access to social media for young people. It is to tell the better story of what we are made for: relationship with God and relationships with each other. As we do, we might ensure technology serves us, rather than enslaves us.