
Mere Fidelity Replay: Put Social Media In Its Place with Andy Crouch
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Feb 18, 2026 Andy Crouch, Partner for Theology and Culture at Praxis and author on technology and Christian formation, weighs how social media, video games, and pornography shape young people. He discusses data showing strong harms to girls, why boys’ problems can be hidden, how algorithms amplify impulses, and practical ideas like limiting phones and providing off-ramps for healthier formation.
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Social Media Harms Girls Over Time
- Reliable long-term data now shows strong correlations between adolescent social media use and girls' mental-health decline.
- The effect is cumulative and often invisible in short-week studies, so longitudinal data matters.
Simulated Mastery Undermines Young Men
- Video games and porn often satisfy boys immediately and mask short-term wellbeing.
- Those simulations of mastery and sexuality fail to translate into adult competence and relational maturity.
Idols Work At First, Then Deform
- Addiction functions like biblical idolatry because idols work at first and then deform us.
- Technologies that deliver early rewards can therefore become long-run formative problems.

