A Pastoral Word on Social Media and Formation

"The algorithm is designed to give you what you want to see, not give you the truth." Ryan Kearns

A few generations ago, most people knew what was happening in their town, their church, and maybe their nation. Today, before breakfast, we can absorb wars, scandals, tragedies, injustices, and outrage from every corner of the globe. And we wonder why we feel anxious, angry, and overwhelmed. Social media is not neutral.

That is not a hot take. It is a formative reality. Every tool shapes the user, and social media, for all its benefits, quietly presses on our loves, our fears, our sense of urgency, and even our confidence about what is true (Prov. 4:23; Rom. 12:2). The question is not whether Christians should use social media. Many of us will. The deeper question is whether we are aware of what it is doing to us while we do.

This is not a call to retreat from public life or disengage from cultural conversations. It is a call to discernment (Phil. 1:9–10; Heb. 5:14). Because what we consume repeatedly will, over time, shape what we believe instinctively and how we respond reflexively (Ps. 1:1–3).

1. Why Social Media Is a Poor Teacher of Truth
Here is a simple piece of pastoral counsel that feels increasingly necessary: Do not get your news just from social media. That does not mean news never appears on social media. It means social media is structurally incapable of being a reliable guide to reality.

The algorithm is not designed to tell you the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It is designed to tell you what will keep you engaged. That difference matters. Social media platforms reward emotional intensity, outrage, tribal reinforcement, speed over accuracy, and confidence over humility. In other words, they reward precisely the traits Scripture repeatedly warns us to resist (Prov. 14:29; Eccl. 7:9; Jas. 1:20).

What rises to the top of your feed is not what has been most carefully reported or patiently verified. It is what provokes the strongest reaction from you. Over time, this trains us to confuse emotional resonance with credibility and urgency with importance.

2. The Algorithm and the Shape of Our Inner Lives
It helps to name clearly what is happening behind the screen. Algorithms optimize for engagement. Engagement means emotional response. Time on platform. Clicks. Shares. Comments. Lingering outrage that keeps us scrolling.

The algorithm does not ask, “Is this true?” It asks, “Will this keep them here?” Over time, it learns what works. It notices what makes you pause, what stirs fear or anger, what feels urgent enough to share. Then it gives you more of that. There does not need to be a moral agenda for this to be spiritually dangerous. Engagement alone is enough (Prov. 27:20). Different people respond to different emotional triggers, so feeds diverge. Some environments become saturated with fear, injustice narratives, and moral panic. Others with conflict, identity, or power dynamics. Division performs well, so division multiplies (Prov. 6:16–19; Gal. 5:19–21).

The result is not only polarization but miscalibration. The world begins to feel more dangerous than it is, more urgent than it is, and more morally obvious than it is. Rare events feel constant. Worst cases feel normal. Complexity collapses into certainty.

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has documented this effect for years. His research shows that algorithm-driven platforms increase anxiety, amplify moral outrage, and weaken our ability to reason together patiently. These systems do not merely inform us. They train us. That training does not leave the soul untouched (Prov. 23:7; Matt. 6:22–23).

3. Slowness, Reality, and the Limits of the Feed
One of the great distortions of social media is speed. Real life is slow. Real justice is slow. Real understanding is slow. Facts take time to emerge. Evidence must be weighed. Testimony must be examined. Courts and juries deliberate carefully, and thank God they do. Truth is usually more complex and more nuanced than the first viral clip or headline suggests (Prov. 18:13, 17).

The algorithm has no patience for this. By the time facts are clarified and truth is responsibly established, the social media machine has already moved on to the next outrage, the next crisis, the next demand for immediate judgment. This is not accidental. Slowness does not keep people engaged.

Christians should be especially cautious here. Scripture consistently honors patience, restraint, and careful judgment (Prov. 14:15; Jas. 1:19). We serve a God who works over time and whose purposes are often hidden before they are revealed (Eccl. 3:11; Gal. 6:9). When we are trained to demand instant clarity and immediate response, we are being formed away from wisdom.

4. A Better Way to Stay Informed
Christians should care deeply about the world as it actually is, not as it is presented to us on social media. The algorithm is designed to give you what you want to see, not give you the truth. Therefore it's not a reliable news source. 

This requires us to build intentional habits.

Seek sources committed to journalistic integrity, not just ideological alignment. Read widely from the left, the right, and the center. Use aggregation tools that help expose bias and place multiple perspectives side by side. Engage Christian worldview resources that aim to interpret the news rather than inflame you with it.

This is not about finding neutral sources. There are none. It is about becoming a discerning reader who can recognize framing, bias, and omission without becoming cynical or reactive (Prov. 2:1–6). Wisdom is rarely found in speed. It is found in patience. A biblical view of justice will always lean toward and include a strong appetite for patience, deliberateness, and lowering of passions. (Prov. 4:7).

5. James’ Checklist Before You Speak
Scripture gives us a remarkably practical filter for online engagement:

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” James 1:19–20

Most online engagement fails this test almost instantly. James does not say anger never feels justified. He says it does not produce the righteousness of God (Prov. 29:11). Something can feel right and still form us in the wrong direction.

6. We Were Not Designed for This Much Information
There is another quiet truth worth naming. Human beings were not designed to carry the emotional weight of the entire world all the time (Ps. 131:1–2). Being constantly bombarded with global tragedy, injustice, and crisis is a historically new phenomenon. It pulls us out of presence. It fragments our attention. It can quietly distract us from “the good works God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).

If the news cycle is regularly pulling you away from your actual callings, your actual relationships, your actual responsibilities, that should give us pause (Col. 3:17). Faithfulness is usually local, embodied, and ordinary (Mic. 6:8). Social media tempts us to feel morally productive while being practically absent.

7. Assume the Best, Especially Online
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 were written for messy community, not ideal circumstances:

"Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Online, we often reverse that posture. We assume the worst. We read uncharitably. We reduce people to their least careful sentence. Social media strips away tone, context, and relational history. Love puts some of that back in (Eph. 4:29; Col. 4:6).

Assuming the best does not mean abandoning discernment. It means refusing to let suspicion and cynicism become our default posture (Phil. 2:3–4). It also means we avoid reaching absolute conclusions in haste and use labels in a haphazard fashion that only inflames others and how we see a situation.

Those are not bad questions. They are simply not the first ones. The first question is always this: What is this doing to my soul? (Ps. 139:23–24)

If your digital habits are shaping you to be quicker to anger than to prayer, more reactive than thoughtful, more certain than humble, something is off, no matter how correct your positions may be (1 Tim. 4:16). And in an anxious age, a calm, grounded, patient Christian presence may be one of the clearest witnesses we can offer. Not because we do not care, but because we trust that the world is not held together by our commentary, but by Christ (Col. 1:17).