Why Our Devices Matter
Phones, tablets, TV, and social media are still new in human history. Researchers are still sorting out exactly how they affect our mental health. Some studies find a clear link between heavy screen use and depression. Others are less certain.
But experience tells a clearer story. When screens are misused or overused, depression gets worse. And when people struggling with depression are asked to put their devices away for a while, signs of distress, and even addiction, show up quickly.
The key words: misuse and too much
Technology itself is not the enemy. It can be a wonderful gift. What matters is how we use it, and how much. Finding a healthy balance is one of the most important life-giving rules you can put into practice.
| Helpful | Staying close to family and friends, Bible apps and worship music, learning, getting directions, calling for help |
| Harmful | Doom scrolling, comparing yourself to others, late-night screens, constant interruptions, and screens that replace real relationships |
"All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any."
1 Corinthians 6:12 (NKJV)
Case study
A Pilgrim in Despair
John Bunyan (1628–1688)
John Bunyan
John Bunyan was a tinker, a mender of pots and pans, from a village near Bedford, England. He had little schooling. Yet he wrote one of the most beloved Christian books of all time.
But before that book, Bunyan spent years locked in agonizing loops of anxiety, guilt, and deep despair.
Years before his imprisonment, during his extended spiritual conversion, he often feared he had committed the unforgivable sin. A tormenting thought kept telling him to "sell Christ," over and over, until he could not eat a meal or "stoop for a pin" without it coming back.
"Despair was swallowing me up," he wrote. For more than a year he found almost no relief, "unless I was asleep."
But Bunyan was "never out of the Bible," searching for a promise strong enough to hold onto. Slowly, God's Word broke through the loops in his mind.
Prison
In 1660, Bunyan was arrested for preaching without a license. He spent the next 12 years in the Bedford jail. This time a different anguish and despair set in. Being torn from his wife and children felt like "the pulling off his flesh from his bones," his first biographer wrote.
But by this time, he had also gained an unshakable confidence in his faith, in his Lord. In that cell, Christ was "never more real" to him.
It was in that cell that he began writing The Pilgrim's Progress.
The Book
Published in 1678, it became one of the best-selling Christian books in history. It has never gone out of print and has been translated into hundreds of languages.
His struggle is in the story
Bunyan wrote what he had lived. His pilgrim, Christian, sinks into the Slough of Despond, a bog of discouragement. Later, Giant Despair locks him in Doubting Castle. Christian finally escapes with a key he had been carrying all along.
"I have a key in my bosom called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle."
Christian, in The Pilgrim's Progress
God wasted none of Bunyan's pain. His darkest years became light for millions of readers. Your hardest season is not wasted either. And like Bunyan, your way out of the loops is God's promises.
Sources: Cities Church · University of Calgary · Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
Your Story, God's Story
The story you tell yourself about technology
What do you tell yourself about your devices? Tap any that sound familiar.
The story God is writing
What would a healthy, life-giving relationship with technology look like for you?
What does God say?
What Will Master You?
Read 1 Corinthians 6:12 and Philippians 4:4–9 together. Paul says many things are allowed, but not all of them help us. And he refused to be "brought under the power" of anything. Our screens decide much of what fills our minds. In Philippians, Paul tells us what to fill them with instead.
Most days, what do your screens fill your mind with?
