Remembering Our Identity as We Engage the Online World
February 13th, 2023 • by Denise J. Hughes
I did it again. I looked up from my phone and realized I had just spent more time staring into that tiny screen than I intended to. It’s like a vortex that pulls me in and then keeps me there longer than I wanted.
So, I had to ask myself:
Should I log off forever?
Or, is there a way to stay engaged online in a healthy and life-giving way?
How can I be sure that I’m not just adding to the noise?
Perhaps you’ve wondered the same thing. The answers to these questions will, of course, vary from person to person. For me, there may come a day when I sense God leading me to log off forever, but until that time comes, I want to be intentional with how much time I spend online, as well as the way I engage in online spaces.
To do this, it’s important to understand why the internet holds so much sway over us. More than ever before, the online realm has become the place where identity formation is taking place.
“The online world has allowed us—even encouraged us—to turn our focus onto ourselves in a fairly intense way.”
Retraining Our Focus
Consider for a moment the evolution of the screen. Beginning with the big screen back in the early 1900s, people would have to leave their houses and go to the theater to watch actors on a larger-than-life movie screen. Then came the small screen—the television. Eventually, most households had a TV in their living room, but the people on these small screens were still actors you would rarely encounter in real life.
Today, of course, almost everyone has a micro screen in their back pocket, and these micro screens are different from the big screens and the small screens in two crucial ways. One, our micro screens are completely portable. We can take them with us anywhere we go. Two, the people on our micro screens are no longer actors from Hollywood. Now we are the main characters in what has become the online reality show of our own lives.
In this way, the online world has allowed us—even encouraged us—to turn our focus onto ourselves in a fairly intense way. So, when we’re trying to figure out a healthy way for us to engage in online spaces, we must keep in mind this evolution, from the big screen to the small screen to the micro screen, and how we have become the main characters.
The very nature of these micro screens leads us towards a greater focus on ourselves, and the algorithms that run social media are designed to support this focus. And yet, we never find peace by focusing on ourselves. It’s only when our focus is on Christ that we find true peace.
“We don’t need to look to micro screens to curate an online identity for ourselves, for our God has already given us an identity as a part of his family.”
Flipping The Script
So, as we consider how best to engage in online spaces in healthy and life-giving ways, we want to flip the script. First, we can make one simple change that makes all the difference: namely, to make God the main character, and after him we want to make others the main characters. This is just one way we can follow the two Greatest Commandments, to love God and others (Matt. 22:36-40). When we approach social media from this vantage point, then our online interactions will be God-honoring and others-honoring, rather than me-honoring.
Consider for a moment all the elements in that tabernacle-sanctuary in the Old Testament. Every aspect of that sanctuary, from the gold lampstand to the bread of presence pointed to Christ, for he is our peace (Lev. 24:3-9). And that is what our online posts can do. We can share pictures and words that lift up others by pointing to Christ in all we say and do.
Then second, we can remember that we don’t need to look to micro screens to curate an online identity for ourselves, for our God has already given us an identity as a part of his family.
Looking To Christ
As friends and sisters and moms and daughters, we all want lives that are rich in relationships and memories. We want to feel connected to a real community with a deep sense of belonging. And we want our work and service to make a difference in other people’s lives. But we will never experience the fullness of these things if we are looking to our screens to tell us who we are.
In Scripture, we find an invitation to step into the sanctuary where we will discover the truth about who we are, how we were made, and what our purpose in life really is. In God’s sanctuary, we not only find deep quiet and genuine soul rest, but we also find everything our identity-driven hearts have been longing for. For our identity is found not in a screen, but in Christ alone.
Denise J. Hughes is the author of Sanctuary: Cultivating a Quiet Heart in a Noisy and Demanding World. As an English teacher, she loves to teach books, where life and literature connect, but her favorite book to teach is the one Book with living words. Denise enjoys quiet days at home in North Carolina with her husband, three nearly grown kids, and two pups who are convinced they’re humans with paws. You can connect with her at www.denisejhughes.com.
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