If the Algorithm Is Healthy
At a recent youth tennis match, one dad asked the others, “Hey, have you seen the video of . . .” and he referenced a popular clip of an outstanding athletic achievement. Each of us confirmed we had seen the video. Around the sideline circle we offered our commentary. Then one dad observed, “We must be on the same algorithm.” I don’t think he meant it as a compliment.
Christian, are you aware of the selection process which determines what photos, posts, or articles come across your screen?
Unseen algorithms are at work in every one of your digital platforms. An algorithm is simply someone else deciding your digital diet for you. If you are digitally connected, someone is choosing the menu.
United States politicians and lawmakers are cracking down on social media tech companies. Last fall, the U.S. Senate heard arguments regarding social media’s effect on youth health. The Hill now reports that a group of attorneys general will investigate if TikTok violated state consumer protection laws and put the public at risk. A recent Forbes article reveals how TikTok live became “a strip club filled with 15-year-olds.”
It would appear that our algorithms are not healthy.
Jesus Warns of Unhealthy Eyes
In Matthew 6 Jesus warns, “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!” (Matt 6:22–23).
Jesus uses the human eye to illustrate issues of the heart. Taking the role of a physician, he is calling us to examine the health of our hearts and our eyes. Just before this Jesus pointed out that where our treasures are, there our hearts will be also (Matt 6:21). That wasn’t merely a poignant lesson, it was a doctoral diagnosis. Jesus was calling his followers not merely to examination but to redirection and healthier habits.
Healthy eyes invite lots of light. Unhealthy eyes either distort the light or block it altogether. Jesus calls his followers to examine their own health and to set their hearts and eyes on the kingdom. Daniel Doriani writes, “When Jesus commends the clear eye, he urges disciples to live out their true identity. One way to do that is to set our eyes on the right things. The discipline of the eye reflects a heart that is set on the kingdom.”
Jesus exposes the discipline of our eyes in order to expose the direction of our hearts. Healthy eyes and healthy hearts look to the kingdom. They let the light in. This is what it means to be healthy. Wyatt Graham explains, “Being good and being influenced by God means having a clear eye that can reflect the light of God. The converse is also true. Being bad and influenced by bad influences means having a clouded eye that cannot reflect the goodness of God.”
So if you want to know how it is with your heart, consider your digital pulse. Are your eyes saturated with unhealthy images? Are you delighting in what God has called you to forsake?
The Shaping Effect of Scripture Memory
I’d love to tell you that I’m not subject to algorithms. I’d love to tell you that I’m perfectly discerning in what comes across my screens. But I too have fallen into the mindless habit of scrolling and beholding. I’ve been shaped by my screens. But I’ve also experienced a far more powerful shaping.
I have, by God’s grace, experienced the shaping effect of scripture memory. Using Andy Davis’s technique for extended Scripture memory I have enjoyed memorizing paragraphs, chapters, and even complete books of the Bible. My closest times with the Lord have been those in which I have hidden his Word in my heart. I’ve had specific words and phrases from specific verses dominating my mental landscape as I’ve gone through trying moments. In one season, when preaching was fraught with a heightened sense of nerves, it was Jesus’s words in Matthew 28:18 that comforted me as I heard Jesus say, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” No algorithm put that on my screen. The Spirit brought it to mind through the work of memorization.
While I’ve not held on to all of the verses I’ve memorized, I’ve held on to some of them. And they continue to bear fruit. Even the ones I can’t immediately call to mind.
Far more than the dulling impact of godless algorithms; God’s Word shapes and gives life to his people. His Word empowers us in our pursuit of purity (Ps. 119:9). His Word shapes us into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). His Word, by the work of his Spirit, does what no algorithm can do.
The Search for Healthy Algorithms
As unhealthy algorithms are under examination, Christians should pray for investigations into social media’s impact on children. Pray for those politicians and legislators who are leading such investigations. If it is true that “the king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will” (Prov 21:1), then surely the same applies to the heart of the big tech CEO. Algorithms, and their developers, are not beyond God’s guiding authority.
Consumer protection laws may indeed prevent companies like TikTok from knowingly harming children. We should thank God for such common grace. Like Paul in Acts 22:25 we should leverage laws created by unbelieving lawmakers for gospel purposes. But they will not lead us to the truth. They will not make us healthy.
If we are looking for algorithms that will lead us to Christian maturity, they don’t exist. There are no healthy algorithms. We cannot expect algorithms to do the Spirit’s work. Or, for that matter, our own work in our spiritual walk.
So-called healthy algorithms won’t make up for unhealthy eyes or hearts. No, we must have healthy hearts and healthy eyes to discern when algorithms, even those which lawmakers have labeled healthy, fix our attention on unhealthy images. Take control of every thought, and the algorithms that fuel those thoughts, by deleting the app or turning off the device or downloading the filter. Say with the psalmist, “Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in your ways” (Ps. 119:37). Then, by the power of the Spirit and the work of the Word, you will have health.
Jeff Mingee (DMin, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is the Southeast Regional Strategist for the SBC of Virginia. He is the author of several books including Called to Cooperate: A Survey and Application of Teamwork and Digital Dominion: Five Questions Christians Should Ask to Take Control of their Digital Devices (forthcoming). He and his wife, Lauren, live in Newport News with their two boys, Aiden and Carter.