Last Tuesday, more than 33 states filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming that the tech giant willfully built addictive features into its social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, that negatively impact the mental health of children and teens.

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That knowledge is not new. Two years ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that Meta knew the harmful effect of its Instagram platform on teenage girls struggling with mental health and body image issues.

And in 2017, former Facebook Executive Chamath Palihapitiya voiced his concern that social media is damaging society and worried about its impact on children. In an interview, he stated: “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse. No cooperation. Misinformation. Mistruth. And it’s not an American problem. This is not about Russian ads. This is a global problem. So we are in a really bad state of affairs right now, in my opinion. It is eroding the core foundations of how people behave by and between each other.”

Around the same time, former Facebook President Sean Parker fessed up to the company’s deliberate design of addictive properties in its social media platforms: “The thought process that went into building these applications, Facebook being the first of them, … was all about: ‘How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?'” Parker added. The company achieved this by adding the “like” button or letting people comment on posts or pictures, with Parker calling these “a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology.”

And concurrent with the lawsuit against Meta, eight states are now investigating the harmful effects of TikTok on teens. In the news report, Dr. Ellen Braaten, a licensed child psychologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, was quoted as saying, “It helps parents take a step back and think, this is a serious issue … in serious enough ways that our legal system is willing to investigate it.”

The lawsuits, whistleblower reports, and investigations corroborate what independent research is increasingly discovering: Constant engagement with social media puts our brains into constant multi-tasking mode, which shortens our attention span and hinders our ability to focus.

Perhaps even more dangerously, constant engagement with digital media hinders your capacity for abstract thinking, according to a study published by Dartmouth College. Our brains constantly renew themselves as we learn new things and absorb new information and impressions. Digital media exposes us to a barrage of information that constantly engages our brain’s information processing functions. As a result, our brain’s ability to imagine, comprehend abstract thought, meditate, pray, and make moral judgments stays underdeveloped. Think of it as a bodybuilder who only focuses on bulking up his biceps while the rest of the body remains untoned and untrained.

Don’t miss Satan’s intention behind using tech to dominate humanity: He purposely keeps us spellbound with information processing through digital and social media so we lose our ability to pray and meditate on Scripture – our ability to maintain a relationship with an invisible God, listen to the Holy Spirit, understand and apply the pictorial language of Scripture, and build our faith, which “is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1 NKJV).

Faith, worship, and knowing God employ faculties in our brains that need constant training. That is why the Bible speaks of spiritual growth, growth in the knowledge of God, and faith-building. Those indicate the work of the Holy Spirit in training our thought life (i.e., what our brains occupy themselves with) to be set on God and not the things of man. And Satan is busy hindering that, so we won’t pray and grow in faith and the knowledge of God. The seemingly fun and harmless world of social media and digital entertainment turns out to be a very effective tool.

And the younger we are when we start, the more we are dominated by social media when we enter adulthood, where our brains are supposed to evaluate things and make wise decisions. For many, it is by then nearly impossible to overcome media addiction and retrain the brain to communicate with God and meditate on Scripture. That’s why the Enemy has targeted young children and teens with an onslaught of social media and entertainment.

The lawsuit by the 33 Attorneys General is an answer to our prayers that what is hidden in darkness comes to light. According to the WSB-TV report, “the 233-page federal lawsuit filed Tuesday, states that Meta “created a business model focused on maximizing young users’ time and attention spent on its Social Media Platforms” and designed “harmful and psychologically manipulative product features” aimed at enticing users under the age of 18 to stay engaged longer. Its motive is profit, and in seeking to maximize its financial gains, Meta has repeatedly misled the public about the substantial dangers of its Social Media Platforms,” according to the lawsuit. “It has concealed the ways in which these Platforms exploit and manipulate its most vulnerable consumers: teenagers and children. And it has ignored the sweeping damage these Platforms have caused to the mental and physical health of our nation’s youth.”

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), identity issues, anxiety and depression due to loneliness or online bullying, confusion about what is true or not, and mental disorders like ADHD have all been mentioned in research as being caused or exacerbated by addiction to digital and social media. And that is on top of hindering communion with God, which science does not think to study.

This lawsuit, the confession of whistleblowers, and the proliferation of research into the harmful effect of social media on the cognitive and social development of the brain are steps in the right direction. Let us thank God for answering prayer and undergird it with prayer for more:

• Let us pray that they wake up parents, schools, youth organizations and ministries, and society as a whole to the truth that the constant exposure to technology is killing us, especially our children.
• Let us pray that the news of this lawsuit will spread and encourage others to follow suit and cause global alarm on the use of social media and other forms of addictive technology.
• Let us pray that it will ignite hunger to return to parenting, teaching, and learning that engages the ability to think abstractly, read books, comprehend their content, and seek to know God.
• Let us pray that the awakening that things have gone too far will lead to a hunger for a relationship with God and the use of our brain according to His design and purpose for it.

God of Truth, we thank You for this answered prayer. We ask today that the news of it will spread and cause a worldwide awakening to the dangers of social media and a hunger for communion with You. Come against Satan’s attempts to undermine our ability to pray and know You with all Your might. In Jesus’ Name we pray.

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Remco Brommet is a pastor, spiritual-growth teacher, and prayer leader with over 40 years of experience in Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa, and the U.S. He was born and raised in the Netherlands and pastored his first church in Amsterdam. He moved to the U.S. in 1986. He and his wife, Jennifer, live north of Atlanta. When not writing books, he blogs at www.deeperlifeblog.com and assists his wife as a content developer and prayer coordinator for True Identity Ministries. Jennifer and Remco are passionate about bringing people into a deeper relationship with Christ. Photo Credit: dole777 on Unsplash.