Louie Giglio warned those gathered at the Passion 2023 Christian conference last week about the dangers of society operating “an economy of attention” through social media platforms and sites that “absorb” Christians by distracting them and taking their money.
The 64-year-old pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta told the mostly Gen Z audience at the three-day conference that social media is “absolutely pointless.” And he called out the $4.6 billion company TikTok as a platform that is profiting off viewers’ and users’ time.
He said, “People are getting paid and they’re counting on you to pay them.”
Giglio explained that social media is designed to make it hard for people to stop watching and clicking while companies are benefiting financially.
He said, “If you have an addiction and you end up on certain sites, you [are] literally paying people. It’s going out of your bank account into their bank account.”
“And you’re thinking that you’re getting a desire, the flesh, gratified. And really, they’re just getting paid. They couldn’t care less about you, except that you’re paying them.”
Giglio proposed the idea that rather than dedicating long portions of time to social media platforms, Christians should begin to “guard their time” by devoting more time to God.
He said, “When I give [God] my attention, He gets paid. Not that He needs more money, but He gets the glory that He deserves.”