This month’s issue of ESPN the Magazine features a piece by Chris Jones exploring the impact of social media on those who struggle with depression. In his short yet penetrating article, Jones discusses the recent decision of professional tennis upstart Rebecca Marino to retire early due to her battle with depression. According to Jones, Marino cites not only the depression itself, but also the emotional wounds she suffered at the hands of cruel, unrelenting critics on Facebook and Twitter.
Jones reveals his own battle with depression and his sympathy for Marino’s plight:
“Unless the dark is the only place that feels safe. I’ve also battled depression, and I believe I know what or at least how Marino is thinking. I’ve thought a lot about giving up my job and vanishing — if I’m being honest, I’ve occasionally thought about vanishing in bigger ways too. When I’m in a good place, it seems insane to me that I’ve ever thought that way. My job is a dream job; my life is a dream life. But depression’s worst trick is its powers of distortion. It takes the good and makes it nearly invisible, and it takes the bad and amplifies it. People with depression also have long memories for hurt. Stings linger and layer.”
Jones then explains that his depression has, at times, been exacerbated by vocal critics, including one Twitter user who tweeted that he wished Jones would “eat a shotgun.”
This article is definitely worth a read, because it is a poignant commentary on the effect of the high-opinion, low-accountability, instant-sharing culture that has been created on the Internet, largely as a result of the prominence of social media interaction.
While social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have made many positive and important contributions to different spheres of communication, commerce, and activism, they have also done their share of damage. Wherever people have the ability to instantly say whatever they want, with little or no accountability for what they say, there is both great opportunity and great peril.
For example, let’s consider Twitter for a moment. For me, one of the greatest benefits of Twitter is the ability to break news stories the moment they happen. In fact, many major news outlets have integrated Twitter into their normal communication strategies, encouraging consumers to tweet their questions, photos, ideas, and suggestions. It is clear that Twitter has revolutionized the way news media outlets do business.
At the same time, however, I cannot count how many “breaking news” tweets I have encountered over the past year that have turned out to be partially or entirely false. In such cases, we are left to grapple with the frustrating reminder that the First Amendment protects not only the distribution of information we find positive and helpful, but also that which is not so helpful, and sometimes even harmful.
Is Rebecca Marino a coward? Some would say so. But I would suggest that she is the least cowardly of all in this sad narrative. While some would use technology to give full vent to their hatred and bitterness, Marino has had the courage to stare social media in the face–with all its commercial appeal and recreational allure–and disengage. Social media, Marino has decided, will not own her. It will not destroy her.
Contrary to what many of us–myself included–believe, social media is not an inevitable fact of life in a world saturated with instant e-communication. No, Marino has apparently decided that social media–and even her budding tennis career–can be discarded like everything else. Even in the digital age, there is more to life than staying connected.
Marino’s story is a reminder to us that real evil exists in the world, and it originates in the hearts of human beings. As much as we see and experience all the good contributions humans have made in this world–all the progress, all the philanthropy, all the peace initiatives, all the wonderful advances in medical and business technology–we are also faced with the reality that all of us, even the best of us, have within us a darker nature which compels us to do harm. And though we may insist on our good deeds and our honorable intentions–all of which may be true–none of us is immune from this corrupt nature the Bible calls sin.
Just as we see that human beings–made in the image of God and yet corrupt by nature–have a dual capacity for good and evil, we must also understand that the innovations of man likewise have a dual capacity to accomplish much good and much evil.
So what does this suggests about social media platforms? Are they evil in and of themselves? Are they to be avoided, or at least frowned upon, by those who wish to pursue righteousness? No, I do not believe that is the conclusion to be drawn here. Rather, we must grapple with the fact that the true source of evil exists within us. It comes from a heart that rejects the authority of the one true God in order to pursue our own selfish desires. Long before these heart desires reveal themselves in the form of vitriolic tweets or status updates, they grow up in our own hearts.
As such, social media is neither completely benevolent or malevolent. To the contrary, social media is a useful tool that can be abused. As such, the challenge for us is to exercise great care in how we use social media, recognizing that it can indeed become a grotesque platform for our sin.
This concept is not at all foreign to biblical Christianity. In fact, it is foundational to properly understanding the spiritual state of mankind in this world. Jesus himself affirms this in his teaching about what defiles a person:
“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him…What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
– Mark 7: 15;20-23
Since Jesus is here offering a rebuttal for a false hope of righteousness from ritual purity, that is the primary point of the passage. But it also points to the broader principle that sin and righteousness are always matters of the heart, not merely physical things. Moreover, this world is filled with many things which, being neither inherently good or evil, require us to exercise much wisdom in our use of them.
In short, social media is not the problem. We are the problem. However, social media–as Rebecca Marino can attest– is a dangerous weapon in the hands of sinners. As such, we cannot afford to partake of social media without reflecting on our own hearts. On a practical level, this could mean something very different for you than for me. But faithfulness to God–and simple human decency–demands that we handle social media with the utmost of care.
FREE INDEED 
