Monday Read: Anxiety in the Age of Information

You woke up this morning and within minutes consumed more information than a medieval peasant encountered in their entire lifetime. News alerts, social media updates, text messages, emails - an endless stream of information demanding your attention, most of it designed to provoke anxiety. Breaking news about disasters you can't prevent. Political outrage about issues you can't control. Personal updates from people showing their best moments while you're living your worst.

We're drowning in information while starving for wisdom. We know about everything but understand nothing. We're aware of global crises but paralyzed to address local needs. We're anxious about situations on the other side of the world while neglecting people in the next room. The information age has produced the most anxious generation in history.

Jesus spoke to people who walked everywhere, communicated in person, and received news weeks or months after events occurred. Their problems were immediate, local, and limited in scope. Yet even in that slower world, he addressed anxiety: "Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" (Matthew 6:34). If people needed that reminder then, how much more do we need it now?

Peter wrote: "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). All your anxiety - not just the legitimate concerns, not just the spiritual worries, but all of it. The work deadline, the health scare, the financial pressure, the relationship tension, the political chaos, the global pandemic, the climate crisis, the cultural warfare. All of it. Cast it on God because he cares.

But here's what we do instead: we consume more information, trying to feel less anxious through greater awareness. We doom-scroll through news feeds, thinking if we just understand the situation better, we'll worry less. We obsessively check updates, as if constant monitoring gives us control. We share articles and argue in comments, converting anxiety into activism that mostly just spreads anxiety to others.

This isn't working. The more information we consume, the more anxious we become. The more we understand about global problems, the more helpless we feel. The more connected we are to everything, the less peace we experience about anything. Information is not the cure for anxiety - it's often the cause.

Paul wrote from prison (again): "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:6-7). His prescription for anxiety isn't more information but more prayer. Not greater awareness but greater dependence. Not better understanding but deeper trust.

What if you went on an information fast? What if you didn't check news for a week, ignored social media for a month, stopped consuming information about problems you can't solve? You'd probably feel anxious at first - the fear of missing out, the guilt of being uninformed, the worry that something important might happen without your knowledge. But underneath that surface anxiety, you might discover something deeper: peace.

You cannot carry the weight of global information on your shoulders. God never asked you to be aware of everything, understand everything, or fix everything. He asked you to trust him, love your neighbor, and be faithful where you're planted. That's manageable. That's your actual responsibility. Everything else is noise.