Â鶹Éç

Good morning. Yesterday a report was published by the children’s commissioner for England about young people and mental health. It told an increasingly familiar story of high levels of anxiety and depression, with girls more affected than boys. The report claimed that one of the reasons children struggle is immersion in social media. You can see how popular platforms aimed at young people might amplify random fears until they intrude into every moment. Think what it might be like to be plagued with negative thoughts about your body, or your prospects in life,

Like many people I enjoy social media, but every now and then I sense a whiff of sulphur about it. I was hacked over the weekend and found my friends had been contacted with weird requests. Nothing that a change of password couldn’t deal with, but I still felt as though I’d been, well, possessed, by an alien entity. In the Bible and in Christian tradition there are many stories of possession. In the Gospels there is a story of a troubled man who lived in a graveyard and wandered about naked injuring himself with stones. When he was asked his name by Jesus, he answered ‘Legion’, adding, ‘for we are many’. A poignant picture of possession, disintegration and deep human distress. There are anecdotes and folk tales about possession and how the presence of evil makes places go cold. Think of those dementors in Harry Potter, preying upon young people, sucking out their joy and hope.
St Augustine defined evil as an absence of the good. I think what he meant was that when we experience evil it is as a negative energy which always depersonalises. Whether the origins of evil are metaphysical or in the human mind it is this lack of personality which is most telling. In the Gospel story it is when Jesus addresses the demons as a person that they tumble out of the sick man and he is found sitting restored to his real self, calm and in his right mind.

I would be less alarmed by the effect of toxic internet content on young people if it were the fault of a few deranged operatives who could be addressed as persons, but because of the way platforms are set up damaging material spreads beyond individuals through the mindless play of algorithms.

Many years ago the theologian Paul Tillich spoke of the human vocation as ‘the courage to be’. And for those with mental distress, fear, and depression every day requires that courage. Sometimes we need to take the plugs out of our ears, turn away from the phone and show our faces. Face to face, we are stronger than we know.

Show less