Do You Really Need to Be Driving? Pt. 1: Christians, Social Media, and the Loss of Wisdom

We know we should live with restraint in real life. Around the dinner table you do not say every thought that crosses your mind. In a church service you do not interrupt with half-formed opinions. These are ordinary boundaries of speech. Yet something happens when we log onto social media. We lose that filter. We speak quickly, we speak often, and we speak as if no one is really listening.

Social media is like driving. On the road it is easy to forget that every car carries a person. When you do not see the person, you drive more carelessly. Online we forget the faces behind the screen. We forget that every avatar represents a soul. The distance makes us reckless.

Scripture consistently warns about speech. James tells us to be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. Proverbs reminds us that where words are many, sin is not absent. Jesus says that we will give account for every careless word. The Bible does not give us different rules for online behavior. What you type is as real as what you say.

Christians are called to season their words with grace. We are to use speech for building up, not tearing down. Yet the incentives of social media push us in the opposite direction. The loudest, sharpest, fastest voices get attention. Wisdom takes time, and patience rarely goes viral.

This does not mean Christians should abandon these platforms. But we should enter them with our eyes open. If we cannot use our words wisely online, then perhaps silence is the better witness. Slowness is not weakness. Careful words honor Christ more than quick words.

Social media has trained us to react, not to reflect. The way forward is to resist that training. To pause before posting, to consider the person on the other end, and to remember that digital speech is still real speech. Wisdom is always countercultural, and right now wisdom may look like restraint.