TikTok has become Mischief Night on steroids. For those of another era, you may recall in your fuzzy past that the night before Halloween was designated in many regions as Mischief Night. It was a night of pranks, tricks, and assorted acts of mischief carried out in local neighborhoods. Depending on the geographic regions where one lived according to Wikipedia the night carried other names like "Devil's Night", "Goosey Night", "Moving Night", and “Cabbage Night”, among others. As time went on the pranks degenerated into major violence and vandalism. The night has become a nightmare for cities like Detroit and New Orleans where arson and vandalism have required a major police presence and often prove dangerous to innocent bystanders with damage and loss of property.
The problem is so prevalent with this social
media format that Connecticut’s Attorney General, William Tong, posted on
Twitter that TikTok Inc. Chief Executive, Chew Shou Zi, should visit
Connecticut. He wrote, “I respectfully request that you come to Connecticut to
meet parents, educators and myself to hear firsthand the impact your business
has had on our communities, and to share with us what more you will do to
protect our youth” (Bloomberg News 10.04.21). Indeed, there is a
problem, but it goes beyond technology and social media.
The root problem is a heart issue not a technology
issue. The Prophet Jeremiah describes the people of his day this way, “Judah’s
sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets
of their hearts” (17:1). The Lord adds the result, “The heart is deceitful
above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand
it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according
to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve” (17:9-10). What is the
result of a deceitful heart? Jesus says it succinctly, “But the things that
come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For
out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft,
false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person” (Matthew 15:18-20).
TikTok does not dream up one’s mischief. A deceitful heart dreams them up and
the social media simply displays that which has been concocted in that evil
heart.
C. S. Lewis in his book The Problem of
Pain observes, “A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to
Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really
feel this assumption of His to be true, though, we are part of the world He
came to save.” Too often people like to blame our thoughts and conduct on things
other than ourselves. On occasion we look at an evil act we produce as a
mystery saying, “Where did that come from?” The honest answer is that the evil
act came from an evil heart. The reality is that our deeds simply display who
we are. Our deeds do not make us who we are.
Is there any hope for a person who has a deceitful heart? King David wrote Psalm 51 after he was confronted about the sin of his deceitful heart that bred adultery, murder, and deception. He saw the way of recovery in a restored relationship with God. He wrote, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (51:1-3,7,10). He trusted God to restore his evil heart.
Don’t blame TikTok for who we are. Take
responsibility for who you are and let God change you.
