The Golden Calf in My Pocket

by Jennifer Saber

With a heavy sigh, I let my phone drop into my lap. I caught myself red-handed doomscrolling.  Again. I feel deflated, like my self-esteem just took another virtual beating.  Just now my Facebook feed served up the winner of an award I didn’t win, a family vacation my family would never take, and a party my kiddo wasn’t invited to.  

Can you relate? 

We often reach for our phones and open Facebook out of habit.  Why do we give so much time and energy to social media when we could be doing almost anything else?  And why do we give it so much authority over our mood, our confidence, and our sense of “enough”?

I’d like to suggest that social media can be a form of modern idolatry.  

The Chai Mitzvah Critical Conversations sourcebook opens with a line that feels painfully true: “Idolatry is not an obvious concept for most of us today…” Most of us hear the word and picture ancient statues. But we’re nudged to widen the definition. In In Good Faith: Questioning Religion and Atheism, Scott A. Shay writes that idolatry can include “science, technology, or anything that you elevate to a unique status of power or authority.” Suddenly, my doomscrolling feels less harmless.

Social media can become a modern-day golden calf.  Not because posting a photo or a video is wrong, but because it’s something we create, and then, without realizing it, start treating as an authority over our worth. That dynamic affects both sides of the screen. For the person posting, it can turn into a kind of measurement: Was I seen? Was I liked? Did I say it right? And for the person scrolling, it can quietly become a judge: Am I behind? Am I enough? Am I included?

After moments like this, I keep coming back to one line from Psalm 146: “Put not your trust in princes, or in mortal man who cannot save.” I don’t have princes in my life, but I do have modern equivalents: an algorithm, an invisible audience, and a stream of curated images that quietly claims the right to grade my life. When I let my social media feed define what “success” looks like, I’m putting trust where it can’t possibly hold. It can’t save me. It can’t steady me. And it definitely can’t tell me who I am.

So the question becomes: What would it look like to take that authority back…one small choice at a time?

Here’s my small challenge for this week: before you open Facebook (or Instagram or whatever your app of choice is), pause for five seconds and ask yourself, What am I looking for right now- connection, or reassurance? If it’s reassurance, try a different source for it: text a friend, step outside, name one thing you’re grateful for, or do one quiet act of goodness that never becomes content. And then ask yourself this: What would change if you stopped trusting the feed to measure your life?  Even for one week.  

Jennifer Saber is the Manager of Community Engagement and Partnerships for Chai Mitzvah. Join Chai Mitzvah’s virtual session on Thursday, February 19 at 7:30pm Eastern Time: CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS: What is Modern Day Idolatry? (Lies about Power).

Click HERE to register.