“7 TikTok influencers you should know,” read the headline. Seriously? Being an old guy, I am perpetually late to the party. I asked Lynne, “What the heck is an influencer anyway?” She was not a lot of help (good news and bad news, I guess). Turns out it is one of the new “things” (to me, anyway) in our culture today.

I started seeing things pop up in my Facebook feed where women were posing in various attire, usually photographing themselves in a mirror with the camera in front of their face. Being a curious guy, I decided to do a little checking via the local liberal newspaper (not sure if there any other type these days).

I don’t have TikTok on my phone, so it appears I’m missing a lot of the action in TikTok land. Several months ago, a woman posted a video on TikTok at an Astros game. Two women behind her were making faces, and during her selfie one made an obscene gesture. The video registered 43 million views! One (unnamed) viewer with 30 million followers slammed them and it went downhill from there.

A tsunami of criticism erupted toward the “mean Astro” girls. Both were subsequently accurately identified, precipitating an avalanche of hate mail. A local real estate company was incorrectly identified as employing one of the women. It was slammed with thousands of emails and one-star reviews from around the world. There were real-world consequences. And people call this entertainment.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines a social media influencer as “a person who is able to generate interest in something (such as a consumer product) by posting about it on social media.” Ahhhh, social media! Not exactly the boon to mankind it was supposed to be. Personally, I prefer the other definition of influencer in the same dictionary, which is “one who exerts influence: a person who inspires or guides the actions of others.”

Let me ask you: Who is influencing you? All of us are influenced by the people and the things we surround ourselves with. But let’s face it, not all influences are positive. We tell our kids the people they hang around with are going to influence them, but we fail to heed our own advice. As a young Marine, I learned the hard way that the people you hang with are going to rub off on you.

In Proverbs 14:12 we’re told, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” (ESV). Social media can be one of those ways — not physical death, although I could make the case for that. We are more connected technologically than we’ve ever been, but we’re lonelier, more depressed, and more socially disconnected than ever. Suicide among our youth is skyrocketing. We are amusing ourselves to death, and our kids carry in their pockets an instrument that cuts both ways, for good or for evil, and both they and us often lack the wisdom to use it wisely.

God made us for fellowship with Himself and with each other, but our society is becoming more isolated, more fragmented, and more polarized. Sounds like something the enemy would do, doesn’t it? The devil would have us separated from God and separated from each other, because unity is our strength. Fellowship with God is our salvation.

Through the prophet Jeremiah, God told His people what their problem was. “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13). When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman at the well, He told her: “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14). It is the same with us when we try to obtain satisfaction through the things that the world offers us.

I am not advocating throwing technology out the window. What I am advocating is that we be extremely cautious about what we allow to influence us. So, what’s a guy (or gal) supposed to do? Personally, I have decided to be conformed to the greatest influencer of all time, Jesus Christ. Every influencer we encounter has a product or an agenda. Jesus has one agenda: to make us more like Him, that our “joy might be full” (John 16:24). I am purposed to spend less time on social media and more time in the Word of God.

What say ye, Man of Valor?