{"id":39761,"date":"2017-07-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-31T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/teens-cling-to-destructive-social-media\/"},"modified":"2017-07-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-31T00:00:00","slug":"teens-cling-to-destructive-social-media","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/teens-cling-to-destructive-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"Teens Cling to Destructive Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In her book <em>American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers<\/em>, researcher Mary Jo Sales reports a conversation with a teenage girl at a mall in LA who told her, &quot;Social media is destroying our lives.&quot; Sales told her, &quot;So why don&#39;t you go off it?&quot; Nancy replied. &quot;Seems reasonable, doesn&#39;t it? If something is destroying you, let it go. Smash it. Get rid of it.&quot; The girl&#39;s response was instant: &quot;Because then we would have no life.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Trevin Wax comments: &quot;If I were to cast that conversation in spiritual terms, I&#39;d put it this way: My idol is destroying me, but if I smash my idol, then I disappear.&quot;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3380,3462,3655,3726,3808,4112,4206,4207,4272,4374,4444,4662,5013,5038,5129,5130,5134],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-39761","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-addiction","tax_ctp_tags-avoidance-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-computers","tax_ctp_tags-culture","tax_ctp_tags-distractions","tax_ctp_tags-habits","tax_ctp_tags-idolatry","tax_ctp_tags-idols","tax_ctp_tags-internet","tax_ctp_tags-lifestyle","tax_ctp_tags-media","tax_ctp_tags-pop-culture","tax_ctp_tags-social-trends","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-bondage","tax_ctp_tags-technology","tax_ctp_tags-teens","tax_ctp_tags-temptation"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Teens Cling to Destructive Social Media - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/teens-cling-to-destructive-social-media\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Teens Cling to Destructive Social Media - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In her book American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, researcher Mary Jo Sales reports a conversation with a teenage girl at a mall in LA who told her, &quot;Social media is destroying our lives.&quot; Sales told her, &quot;So why don&#039;t you go off it?&quot; Nancy replied. &quot;Seems reasonable, doesn&#039;t it? 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