Social Media: Freeing Yourself From Addiction

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Friends! I believe that this article will be useful to those readers who have passed through their hearts all the negativity associated with obsessive visits to social networks, and are fed up with it. The solution I proposed here is deep and goes to the root of the problem. I hope that once digging deeply, such an experience will have a significant impact on a person's life, and the destructive habit will inevitably be eradicated.

It is impossible to deny that a person's character, as well as his aspirations and priorities in life, are formed under the influence of certain combinations of traits prevailing in society, also known as social character (E. Fromm) or social unconscious (K. Jung). In our time, social networks are as powerful a factor in the formation of social consciousness as the primitive system at the dawn of human civilization or the availability of television in the 20th century. Social networks influence the human psyche of our time by “feeding” information to the individual. The danger of this reality lies in the fact that a person sitting in his hands with a gadget gets the impression that he has the ability to choose freely.

It's easy to see how social media encourages us to make predictable choices in all walks of life. We want to wear certain clothes, have sympathy for certain candidates in politics and feel that no matter how good we are, there will always be someone who surpasses us - and this person for the benefit of our own prosperity - whether we realize it or not - is necessary be sure to surpass.

As we discussed earlier on Psy-Practice, addiction to social media is formed by earning quick rewards without making time-consuming investments. A person may feel deprived of the pleasures of the world, but at the same time periodically “rewarded” with doppling in the form of likes, investing time and money in an online character. An online character, understanding the essence and illusory nature of which will help to throw off the shackles and finally resolve the dilemma of "enter-not enter" and "enter why and how often."

Facebook is a game

Remember the RPG toys from Neverwinter Nights, where we spent a long time trying to find the best character stats to keep them performing well in the game? The same thing happens on the social network, only most of us are not aware of it.

If we take into account the fact that we live in a world of subjective perceptions, then we can deservedly consider social networks as a superstructure over the life of society. “These Internet of Yours” have so merged into social life that their influence has taken on colossal proportions. At the same time, a critically thinking person will inevitably find it absurd and unreasonable to waste the time of his precious life in order to “pump” his character to the detriment of the real, real, feeling, living “I”.

The beauty of social networks is tied to a person's ability to create an ideal image of his personality or organization (collective consciousness is no exception). Through posts, likes, reposts and promotions, we get the opportunity to talk about our own merits and pastime, without supporting the “wrapper” with a chocolate foundation. In other words, with social media, we have a candy wrapper, but we don't have candy. Investing in the filling is not necessary now: the mind of the consumer / viewer / user (which each of us is) independently recreates the missing details in such a way that the image acquires completeness, integrity.

Thanks to countertransference, carried out consciously and unconsciously, such character images are mobile and super-plastic: each consumer complements characters created by other people, so that each of them corresponds to their inner idea and expectations regarding the other person.

Escape from reality, inability to be realized (which in most of our cases is painfully contrived and subjective) in the offline world, fear of the spontaneity and unpredictability of being, the desire to control the development of events - all this forces us to hang in virtual reality, interacting with virtual characters, stimulating our imagination and throwing us further and further in its loneliness - and the most dangerous thing in our development.

In his work "To Have or to Be" (published in 1976 - relevant to this day. I recommend reading!) Erich Fromm offers a sequence for solving a problem that leads a person to suffering:

1. We suffer and are aware of this.

2. We understand the reasons for our suffering.

3. We understand that there is a way that can save us from our suffering.

4. We recognize that in order to be free from our suffering, we must follow certain norms and change the existing way of life.

So, realizing the root cause of suffering is a fundamental step (in our case, a long stay on the social network, an attempt to brighten up the routine with senseless wandering back and forth on the "exciting and unpredictable" news feed.) The awareness itself is healing to the extent that a person is able to trace the source of suffering and feel the need for change.

By realizing the destructiveness of the social network in the application to which we mostly resort, and by observing the negative emotions that accompany this application, we can muster the courage to try to live in a new way, investing in the present, rather than avoiding reality by participating in a virtual toy. …

Considering "social networks" as a kind of video game, we get the opportunity to reduce the importance, the significance of participation. The virtual world can be cool and exciting, but the very understanding that we can always go back is healing for our psyche. Such an understanding can guide us on the path of recovery and unity with our unique, beautiful personality and recreation of that living wonderful interaction with reality that every person dreams of.