REV. RICK SHOTT, Nokomis Baptist Church
The point was similar, but they used two terms, one I had known and the other not. I wish I had used both in my sermon; they are more colourful and evocative. The terms are quite descriptive: doom scrolling and vicarious trauma.
As we leave the obsession with COVID and enter anxiety over Ukraine, these have fueled our news choices. Whether you come by your news through more traditional outlets or the social media feed of choice, there is an ever-expanding list of problems in the world. The list is influenced by the company involved. Fear is leveraged to keep us looking at their service with psychology. We watch what we fear because then we can see when danger comes for us. The problem is that most of the dangers shared will not come for us.
Moreover, watching too much will hurt us. This hurt is called vicarious trauma. Witnessing evil in the world actually affects us too. You cannot avoid evil, but mindlessly repeating the evil we cannot affect will make us numb and creates other problems in our lives.
The other term comes from social media creating an “infinite” scroll list. This is merely an extension of 24-hour news, which never has more than two hours of information. This is where the doom scrolling comes in. As bad news creeps into our feeds, bad news appears more often if we click on it. If you click another article, even more will come. It can be a downward spiral, with some feeds even becoming almost entirely bad news. This leads to believing the world is coming to an end. Yes, the world will come to an end. No, not that quickly and never as easily seen by doom scrolling. There is always more going on. There is even good in this world.
There is hope. Christ died for us. This is something that has an effect, not merely in the resurrection, but also in our everyday lives. As people made in the image of God, we are capable of good, not just sin. There are even people doing good around us. People living honourable lives. We must not forget this. This is why Paul writes in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (ESV) We need to focus on the good in the world around us, to see that there are things worthy of praise. There are people making a difference. Even more so, these people are everywhere. God is working through his people, and that is a hope for today.
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Disclaimer: opinions expressed are those of the writer.
