Students and the Digital Missions Field

It used to be as simple as MySpace.

Now our brains and our phones are flooded with what seems to be an endless number of social media platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, BeReal, YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, Reddit, etc. If the complete overload of voices and influence on our students from these apps wasn’t enough, we can do a quick Google search and find out that social media is one of the leading causes of teenage depression and mental health issues in our society, or we can find out that the average teenagers’ screen time per day is roughly 9 hours, or what comes out to be 38 percent of their entire day.

When we hear statistics such as this, and continue to see all the mental health issues that are arising in our teens as a result of the social media boom, our gut reaction can be,

“Take the phones away!” “Make them interact with each other!” “Get them to play outside more! Just do something other than look at that screen!”

While this may be coming from a good place, it doesn’t look like this half-a-trillion-dollar industry is going away or being expunged from the lives of our teens, or future teens, at any point. In a world that is only becoming more and more consumed by screens and social media, it is often thought that we have only two options, abandon or conform. We may think that they need to either be completely disconnected from social media or let them have free range, but what if there was a third option?

What if our teens didn’t have to merely abandon or conform, but they could revolt? What if there was a whole untapped mission field waiting to be explored? What if our students used social media’s influence to fulfill the Great Commission? (Matthew 28) What if our students brought forth the Kingdom of God into the Digital Age? What if our middle schoolers and high schoolers looked into the eyes of our culture and revolted with something greater?

It's No Doubt That People are Hurting

In a recent public health study, it was found that roughly 17% of all teens age 12-17 years old have experienced a major depressive episode. Not only that, but those numbers stick across mostly every age group. Even three years post the global pandemic, it is no doubt that most people prefer living most of their lives from the comfort of their own homes, with little to no social interaction – apart from social media.

For many, social media exists as not only their main source of entertainment and news but also their main interaction with others. This rings true for our teens as well. To them, the interactions that they have with others via Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Snapchat, or texting are incredibly real and authentic. They are not just something to be discounted, but they are real forms of connection that our students are forming. Many people who inhabit these platforms and use these as their primary sources of relationship suffer from depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

What if, alongside pushing our students to love God and love others well in person and in physical relationships, we taught them to love God and love others well on social media? While Matthew 22 was not written in a time when there was social media, I see no reason that the great commandment could not spread to every aspect of our lives and to every corner of our culture!

Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” – Matthew 22:34-40 (NIV)

Far too often our students are discouraged from engaging meaningfully with people online and to only do so in person. I will be the first person to say that meaningful physical relationships should be primary, but what if we raised this digitally native generation to fulfill the great commandment in a way that has never been done before in history? What if instead of reposting recent celebrity red carpet outfits, we shared the truth that there is a God who is close to the broken-hearted?

Maybe the answer is not to dismiss and unplug our teens from social media entirely, but to have them reach one of the most depressed generations ever, exactly where they are at, with what they know how to use.

The Digital Missions Field

With recent natural disasters across the world, missionaries and churches have responded by sending resources and people across the globe to help those who are hurting. What an amazing opportunity we have as believers to be the hands and the feet of Jesus.

Think about how improper and nonsensical it would be if disaster struck 2,000 miles away for us and we demanded that they come to us for aid. Nobody would ever respond like that, right? Yet, with a mental health crisis amongst our teens, and more depressed users who are stuck on social media, we expect them to completely meet us where we are at, as opposed to the opposite.

What if we treated the digital mission field the same as we treated every other mission field? And who better to send into that mission field than our teens?! Even as a 22-year-old “Gen-Z’er”, I see the culture changing and shifting faster than I can keep up. But with this, I also see so many able-bodied young workers who can tend to the mission field that is social media.

In Matthew 28 when Jesus ushers the Great Commission he says,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)

In a commission such as this, to go forth into all nations, it would be unwise to think that our going forth should only be done in physical places. I think our duty to spread the gospel and make disciples extends to intangible realms, to the place where society lives to social media.

Our teens want change. They don’t want to merely abandon or conform, but they want to revolt. Not in an anarchist way, but in a way that sees the gospel go into places where it has never been before and reach an audience that is hurting more than ever. It can be easy for us to shy away from social media, or to see it as this scourge of society. However, we have an opportunity to encourage students not only to interact with the physical mission world but also to be a light, spread the Gospel, and make Christ known by declaring his Lordship to an audience and generation that needs it more than anything.

Let’s shift our minds from seeing social media as merely a cesspool of degeneracy and take a page out of the Apostle Paul’s book and “become all things to all people so that by all possible means I [we] might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22) Not so that we may be glorified, not so that we can conform, but all “for the sake of the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:23) Let’s encourage our teens and our students to lead the cultural revolt. Let’s empower them to take on the digital mission field.

Check out this episode of Perspectives where the Student Ministry Team talks about teen loneliness.

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