Social Media Isn't Church

There are a lot of reasons why we use social media, and some of us are better than others at managing our time there. But the problem is the headspace. Instagram platform is on my mind, every day. And for some of us, this space can become a kind of spiritual community. ⠀
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But we can’t replace church with Instagram.⠀
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In a New York Times op-ed last week, the writer Leigh Stein compares a new flock of female influencers to televangelists of the 80s and 90s. Women celebrities, Stein argues, including Gwenyth Paltrow and Glennon Doyle, are cultivating a sort of on-demand church for millions of Millennial followers.⠀
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Stein, who is not religious, writes, “We’re looking for guidance in the wrong places. Instead of helping us to engage with our most important questions, our screens might be distracting us from them. Maybe we actually need to go to something like church?”⠀
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Stein’s op-ed has me thinking about social media’s pull, whether we’re religious, spiritual, or none of the above. ⠀
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Church can be a difficult place for some of us right now, for a lot of reasons. But if you’re a Christian and you’re subconsciously using Instagram to fill in the space of church, I want to give you a gentle nudge to consider what that means. ⠀
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The core of Christian faith is embodiment. We can only be embodied in gathering together. That’s why Zoom church is hard. ⠀
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So much has been said about the performative aspect to social media. We can make each other feel bad about ourselves here by stylizing our #bestlifeever. Church can be performative, too. But I don’t know if it’s possible for Instagram to not stir up comparison, envy, or longing for an aspirational life that’s just out of reach. ⠀
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At its healthiest, social media can build beautiful community. But we cannot come together here like we can in a broken body of people that are in each other’s local, messy lives. For me, that’s got to be the church.