The Seven Deadly Sins online

By Daniel Francis

One of the most powerful and influential tools of the current era can be found in our pockets: the mobile phone.

Our phones provide us with essentially unlimited access. On the positive side, there is no limit to what we can access to learn, the potential to build community through online interactions, and the list goes on.

However, on the negative side, one can argue that our phones are a black hole of unlimited temptation to things that pull us further away from God.

What if I said that the seven deadly sins—pride, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, greed, and sloth—are not just relics of some past moralism but exist as algorithms now? Let’s explore this idea.

Pride

Social media culture encourages us to curate a persona of ourselves that may not be steeped in truth. There is this obsession to create this perfect depiction of ourselves on platforms. Couple that obsession with a chase for likes and comments to fill this need to be seen and want of constant validation. It is a space where we become the brand, but a line is crossed with self-promotion. We become the centre where only God should be. We become our own idols and lose focus on God.

Envy

The perfect profiles of ourselves that we create foster an environment of inadequacy. We scroll through the perfect lives that we see online and begin comparing these filtered, altered realities to our reality.

Comparison to this breeds inadequacy, and we wish that we could live the lives of these individuals we see through the lenses of their profiles. We find inadequacies in our bodies, relationships, careers, etc. Even the Catholic influencers can breed envy in the somewhat performative nature of their content. Envy corrodes gratitude and trust in God’s providence.

Wrath

We have all seen how vicious people can be in comment sections. Emboldened by the separation and anonymity that a profile can bring, some say and express themselves in a way that they would never do in real life.

They write scathing comments; they spew hate, not taking a moment to realise that there is a flesh and blood person on the receiving end of their remarks. Even when defending your faith online, there is a tendency to allow our anger to speak in a way that comes off vengeful and dehumanises the person with whom we are engaging.

Lust

The endless array of sexualised content is dulling our sense to it. I complained just the other day to a friend that no matter how much effort I put into trying to adjust my algorithms, for some reason, explicit content always seems to find its way onto my feed. Consuming this type of content can truly distort the purpose of the body and damage real-life relationships. Lust becomes normalised as we constantly feast with our eyes.

Gluttony

It is so easy to get caught up scrolling. I find myself going onto social media to maybe reply to a message, and somehow, I’ve lost 20 minutes doomscrolling (the act of spending excessive time online, particularly on social media and news websites, consuming negative and distressing information) and forgetting why I even came on the platform.

Gluttony is not about overeating but overconsumption, which is easy to do on social media because that’s what it was designed for. It was designed to keep us on the platforms constantly consuming. The overconsumption numbs us, and we can’t hear God’s Word.

Greed

I have conflicting feelings about those who profit off faith. On the one end, you are sharing the Word of God through your platforms, but on the other end, you may be obsessed with followers, ad revenue, product placement, chasing clicks instead of truth.

I see faith becoming a product, especially with the performative nature of some faith-based pages. I can see a fine line being crossed. Greed can twist even noble intentions into vanity projects, leading us away from trust in God.

Sloth

It’s so easy to scroll for hours, but difficult to pray or read our Bible. That’s the negative power at play here. A trap in which I also found myself caught: I would ‘like’ the spiritual content and feel proud, yet I would not take the time to properly read my Bible and get a better understanding of God.

I was exercising a level of spiritual apathy but not engaging in a level of discipline to grow closer to God.

I want to urge you to examine your digital habits. Is your digital consumption a problem and having a negative hold over your faith? I want to encourage us not to get swept up in the digital current that may be leading us to vice.

Maybe now is the time to explore a digital fast to encourage real prayer, real relationships, and real engagement in our faith.

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

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