Youth worker challenges people to partake in ‘Scroll free September’ as social media becomes ‘a god’

The Royal Society for Public Health wants users to sign in to their accounts for the last time on 31st August ahead of ‘Scroll free September’.

The charity has claimed getting people to cut down on their social media use is as important as efforts to tackle smoking and drinking.

It follows campaigns like ‘Dry January’ and ‘Stoptober’, which encourage people to put their habits on pause.

Dave Cornes, youth minster at St James Church in Muswell Hill, north London, told Premier News Hour about how the misuse and overuse of social media can be dangerous.

“Social media is intended to bring people together so we can be connected and understand what’s going on in our friends and families lives,” he said.

“But the danger is with any good thing God has given to us we turn it into a god thing. The Bible calls it idolatry and it’s so easy to do that with social media.

“We compare ourselves to other people, we portray these perfect images of ourselves and yet we don’t share with other people the things that are wrong with our lives.

“So this initiative is really a great one I think to say, let’s have some self-control and tone back our social media usage a little bit.”

Cornes said getting involved in the campaign can also be beneficial to a Christian’s relationship with God.

“One of the brilliant principles in the Bible is self-control and equally with the principle of fasting…