This Week in Sunday School: Who, or what, is shaping you?

Last week, a court in California held Meta and Google responsible for depression and anxiety in a woman who used social media as a child, while a jury in New Mexico ruled that Meta violates state laws and harms children’s safety and mental health with its platforms

Additionally, there is a growing body of research that shows some of the intentional design elements of social media platforms, things like infinite scroll, algorithmic content generation, notifications, and “like” features, can not only be addictive, but are particularly difficult for teen brains to resist. Mitch Prinstein, who researches technology and brain development at UNC, puts it like this: “”These are young folks who have a hypersensitive, social brain and a very weak prefrontal cortex…It’s just too hard for adolescent brains to resist.”

So all of this opens up a really interesting question for us as people of faith — who, or what, is shaping you? Paul writes in Romans 12 that we, as Christians, should not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but rather transformed by the renewing of our minds that we may live out God’s good and perfect will. How do we resist conforming to the world when the very platforms we use to communicate with one another are intentionally designed to commodify our attention and turn us into the product? Who, or what, are we giving power over our thoughts or emotional well-being? How do we, as Christians, engage with the world in a way that centers our identity in Christ and God’s will for our lives?

We’ll discuss all of this and more.

Gather in the Youth Center at 10am.