Why Are We All So Dang Angry, Anxious and Afraid?

Why are so many of us so dang angry, anxious and afraid?  

Oh, I don’t know — maybe it’s because we are all spending way too much time scrolling, and not enough time interacting with real people.

Maybe it’s because we are focused on the things that anger us and frighten us — so much so, that we’ve forgotten about all the beautiful things in this life and the life to come.

Or maybe some of us don’t believe in the next life — that this is all the life we’ve got — so we fight tooth and nail to control everybody around us so that our “quality of life” isn’t lowered or eliminated. What a tiring kind of life that must be.

So grateful to know that the resurrection and everlasting life is real — much more real than all the silliness of this world!

God is real and for that reason alone I can walk through this world with hope in my heart.

I have been that person who had to fight the demons of negativity and fear in my own life — still do — but let me just say that hope in God does not disappoint!

I mean, look at everybody fighting on social media right now — it’s understandable with the challenges we are facing, but God doesn’t want us to live that way!

He doesn’t want us to tear each other apart or to be torn apart by the trolls of the world. He doesn’t want us to be angry, sad or afraid.

He wants us to be free.

I don’t know exactly what that is going to look like for you — but I do know that there are definitely things in our everyday lives that are not helping us to live free — in fact, they are compounding the problems way more than we know.

So many of us are living in such a state of constant agitation that we don’t even notice it anymore. Anxiety and depression are increasing at an alarming rate.

Parents, did you know that anxiety and depression in your kids increases with the use of social media?   It’s true

Did you also know that the same rings true for adults — but who wants to look at our own social media habits ?  I mean, let’s just focus on our kids and ask them to do the thing that we ourselves aren’t willing to do.

I bring up social media, because it is a way that many of us spend our “free time” — and it has been proven to increase all these things we see rising up in our own hearts and the hearts of our kids: fear, anxiety, anger, and depression.

Time and again, studies show that screen time can not offer us the joy that one meaningful conversation with a real person can offer us. And yet, so many of us keep going to it to find comfort.

Did you know that when you have “in-person” real-life interactions, your body releases hormones that alleviates stress and makes you feel happier, healthier and more positive?

In fact, a Study at the University of Pennsylvania found that high usage of Facebook, Snap chat and Instagram increases (rather than decreases) feelings of loneliness.  

Conversely, the study also found that reducing social media usage can actually make you feel less lonely and isolated and improve over-all well-being.

Everybody agrees about the harmful effects of cyber bullying on teens — but very few people point out the harmful effects of cyber-bullying going on among “adults” on Facebook, Instagram and (Lord, help us!!!) TWITTER.  

What effect do those arguments and attacks have on our own well-being?

Maybe you’re one of those awesome people who refuses to fight on social media — but even so, what effect does watching other people fight on your feeds have on you?

How does it affect your outlook on life?

The next time you pull up Facebook, just look at how it highlights the inflammatory comments and not the reasonable ones — why are those comments often highlighted?  

Could it be because Facebook, Instagram and Twitter actually want you to fight and keep jumping back on social media to see if that awful person responded or reply to the next awful person saying something ridiculous?

Trust me, they want us to fight.  They want us to keep coming back for more.

They want us to keep the frenzy of fear, anxiety and hatred alive — because that kind of frenzy boosts their numbers and increases activity.

That kind of frenzy helps them get investors. That kind of frenzy helps them influence elections, form consciences and keep us on our screens and off of real life.

At the end of the day, that is their goal: less real life, more cyber life. Less reasonable discourse, more venom and fear and hate. It pays the bills, as they say.

I, for one, am trying not to be a pawn in their silly games. I, for one, am trying to share the good the true and the beautiful — without venom.

Sometimes I fail — but hey, I’m trying!

Maybe that’s why they’ve banned this blog on Facebook and Instagram — because I refuse to play their silly little games…hmm…I will never know. They refuse to tell me.

But I am moving on….because I can choose to move on…and so can you! They don’t have any power if we don’t give it to them. So don’t let the social media “powers that be” manipulate you any more.

Don’t give in to anger, hatred, darkness or despair. Be the Light. Share what is good, true and beautiful and let that be your final word.

You don’t have to live by their petty rules. If you are going to stay on social media, establish your own rules and live by them.

Rules like: Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, body and soul and Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

Also, it has to be said, make sure you are in a healthy place — both mentally and spiritually — before you get onto social media. If you are not there, then might I suggest you step back until you are in a good place?

Or maybe give it up altogether. Pray about it.

You might be logging on to see the beautiful things that your friends are posting– but inevitably you will have to dodge the bullets of negativity and anger and hatred and misinformation to see those nice things.

All those “sucker punches” in the middle of the “nice posts” are what feeds our constant state of anxiety and fear.

So choose well. You spiritual and mental health are at stake.

Moral of the story: Don’t look to Social Media or any Media to give you comfort. You will be sorely disappointed if that is your goal.

Let God be your comfort — and the family and friends that He gives to you — and you will have the proper expectations of your social media feed.

Invest more time in real-life encounters with Jesus, family and friends — less time in social media — and miraculously (not really all that miraculous) your fears, anxiety and anger will likely be in check, again.

I’m not suggesting you have to abandon social media altogether.

If you can treat it as a place to share some good news and keep in touch with our friends in between actual encounters, then I think it can be a good thing in your life.

I also believe we should prayerfully examine the ways we can treat social media as a place to share the GOODNESS OF GOD, THE TRUE AND THE BEAUTIFUL.

If Christians entirely abandoned social media, then what would be left of it but ugliness and cruelty and despair?

We should be sharing the truth of Gods love and His power in those spaces.

Which means we need to stop fighting with each other and keep our eyes on the real enemy — the one who wants to sow only darkness, sadness and despair — ultimately the real enemy isn’t the media moguls or even the ignorant people on it, it’s the devil.

Don’t forget that. It will help you love those people that sometimes make you want to punch them in the face! Ha, ha!

So fight the power, people! Break the chains of anger, hatred, fear, and anxiety. Refuse to add to it.

Be the Light. Share the Light with a world that is desperate for it. You go! I believe in you!