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This article addresses a very sensitive topic that often invokes a drastic or averse response. However, would suggest you read it till the end and not discard it assuming it to be some outdated gyan which is not meant for contemporary times.
We all are well aware that use of the mobile phones and social media is important and almost indispensable. Thus, it does feel rather uncomfortable to learn that there may be something wrong with its usage, or it could potentially harm our well-being. It is wise to be well-informed for our own well-being.
Trust that you would not regret taking out precious ten minutes to go through this article that could offer you some meaningful insights.
The Social Disconnect
You walk into a public space, and almost everyone is looking down, into their phones. Some even seem to need guidance on the road since the phone has their attention rather than the zooming cars around. It is not unusual to see a family, or a young couple dine out, with all their attention on their phones – be it individually or for taking photographs and instantly posting them on their respective social media accounts. Mothers do not tell stories to their babies to feed them, instead, they now show them cartoons on their phones. You attempt spending time with an elderly person only to realize, that they have better company through their social media accounts or wish to just have you stare into their phone as they scroll through endless reels. They do not wish to share their story with you anymore. They would rather have thousands read it on Facebook and gain popularity. Parents of teenagers keep on complaining about them being glued to the phones, when they themselves, demonstrate the trend of mobile addiction and have often involved the children in the process early in the years by meeting family on WhatsApp every day, and making them pose or act for endless pictures, reels, etc.
Would we be able to preserve our valuable family and vibrant Hindu community in this way? Where is the potential for healthy dialogue and nurturing human relationships if this is our direction?
Lost Experiences
There was a time when backpackers, nature-lovers and hikers were quite free of their need to connect with the world all the time. However, today it is rather surprising to see many doing live documentations/shoots of hikes into deep forests for Instagram reels. Their sole aim seems to be to make the social-media clips and not really soak-in the beauty of the spot they reached after an hour-long hike. A life-time experience is reduced to a little show for virtual “likes” and “comments”, disrupting the pristine experience of other travellers who need to move left or right, so not to come in the range of the camera.
Are we losing interest in our actual living experiences of this precious human life? Are we finding it hard to connect with mother nature?
Need for Feedback
Many creative one’s can now only manage to continue doing their art/writing/craft/cooking, etc., if they have feedback from followers encouraging them. It is okay to pass through such a phase or do so off and on, but if there is a constant need for feedback without which one is not driven to create, one must be vigilant of what is happening to the mind.
Do we always need claps of a huge audience to do what we love?
Loneliness & Virtual Company
Today, there is hardly any need to call relatives who live far away since daily updates are available on family WhatsApp groups. If someone happens to visit your town, you have been in touch so much, that there is hardly any novelty left in “catching up” and meeting. It is an irony, since most people knowingly or unknowingly take the support of social-media to battle “loneliness”. While, this addiction itself is creating a genuinely lonely existence, by disrupting all real relationships or the possibility of creating them beyond the virtual world.
The “feeling of loneliness” can be an important stimulus to start a person on their journey of inner-seeking, self-improvement, reviewing and building actual relationships and starting with hobbies, etc. It could be the reason to start our spiritual quest. This feeling can be experienced even ordinarily. It is often this impression of loneliness that makes us question the purpose of our life, compelling us into a grand exploration that takes us towards discovering the path of dharma.
However, our intensive online presence and constant interactions over calls and social-media keep us in pleasing delusion of having constant company, preventing us from experiencing this underlying ordinary loneliness that may just be the beginning of a transformative journey. We are comfortably numb with our virtual companion. We do not feel relevant beyond the space of social- media that keeps us hooked on.
Could this be an obstacle to our growth and evolution?
Addiction & Mental-health
The mobile phone and social-media are often used as a coping mechanism for depression, anxiety, sheer loneliness, family problems, or just an escape from one’s life during a stressful phase. When taken to as a support in a vulnerable phase, it may be helpful in the start, but it does not take time for it to turn into a very unwholesome habit if kept unchecked. Here is the bitter truth:
“Social-media has a reinforcing nature. Using it activates the brain’s reward center by releasing dopamine, a “feel-good chemical” linked to pleasurable activities such as sex, food, and social interaction. The platforms are designed to be addictive and are associated with anxiety, depression, and even physical ailments.” (1)
If you are going through tough times, be sure that social-media cannot heal you. If we look at the above quote through the Hindu point of view, we can say that our desires or rajasic tendencies are aroused and fed heavily to form harmful addictions that in turn drag us into the space of darkness or tamas where anxiety, depression and illness rises. This is in-fact the opposite of what is desired to improve our well-being which is the movement from tamas to rajas and further to sattva guna. You can read more here to learn about gunas and positive transformation.
One may also start the intensive usage of social-media for some meaningful purpose, networking for business, activism, meeting like-minded people, but one could potentially slip into a destructive addictive pattern, slowly and unknowingly. Social-media companies are designed in a way to lure you into addiction. It happens at a subtle level; you may not be aware of.
“Many Internet companies are learning what the tobacco industry has long known — addiction is good for business. There is little doubt that by applying current neuroscience techniques we will be able to create ever-more-compelling obsessions in the virtual world.” (2)
The “addiction” to an “online-life” often goes unnoticed since today the norm is that everyone must have a mobile phone and several social-media accounts. Not having such an online existence is often frowned upon and people are quick to label such a person as a hippie, Amish, old-fashioned or abnormal.
Watch this wonderful video to see how silly the smart phone can make us:
Mobile usage and social-media activity are indeed considered normal and thus, assumed to also be good for us. It is hard to fathom the risks of unregulated mobile and social-media usage since, unlike the impact of tabooed addictions like gambling, drugs, heavy smoking or alcohol, there is no experience of dire side effects of the mobile-addiction to one’s well-being. Probably, most would find it hard to link problems like memory issues and depression with excessive use of your smart phone.
Deep down inside you would know how hard it is when you have struggles on social-media or find it hard to spend ten minutes without looking into your phone for messages and notifications. Your natural intelligence tells you something is wrong; you feel a restlessness and are aware that your peace of mind is kind of dependent on your mobile-life. Maybe you have even observed this tendency but suppressed any warning sign compelled by the next dopamine kick you are awaiting (unknowingly).
“Put briefly, these social media platforms leverage the same neural circuitry “used by slot machines and cocaine to keep us using their products,” states Harvard Medical School research technician Trevor Haynes in his piece “Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time” (Haynes, 2018).”
Maybe you were not aware of this grave situation but after having read this you might be able to understand some of your experiences linked with the use of social-media platforms. There are ways to free yourself from addiction and protect the young one’s in your family from falling into such traps.
“In one interview, Dr. Lembke noted that “social media [has become] a way to drugify human connection” (McNamara, 2021).” (3)
Do we see the risky path we are treading on?
Young are Vulnerable
From college-work, online classes, to reading and seeking like-minded people, it is a bigger challenge for the young generation who has grown up with internet, to pass a day in peace without it. Many young people have lost contact with the real world around them and rely solely on their social circles and activities that exist online. If they decide to take a break from social-media, their college assignments and interaction with teachers brings them back online and the step into personal browsing, gaming and other online activities is not that far, then. Things get worse if parents are not available to regulate their use of internet. The young curious mind explores everything possible.
The unchecked use of mobile phones and social-media carries many risks with it. Poor mental-health, stress, tendency towards suicide, low self-esteem, poor academic performance and alertness, sleep disorders, constant need for external validation, emotional struggles, and low brain power and cognitive abilities (4) can be linked with excessive use of social-media (5).
Often, youth today, are not very aware of their direct environment and have trouble in engaging with their real surroundings, people, and nature. Interacting with anonymous persons on social-media causes breaking of basic social barriers like respect for elders, and maintenance of decent boundaries while engaging with the opposite gender. This results in spoiling the way youth are socializing, particularly impacting old cultures where high importance is given to maintenance of boundaries. On difference of opinion, youth are quick to use the resort to rude language and even swearwords addressing older persons.
With the unregulated freedom of expression and disregard for any social decorum that is culturally aligned, young women tend to express themselves in promiscuous ways, and young men tend to resort to vulgar and violent language. Both such growing trends from rural to urban India are very harmful. People take more liberties and disregard social values of their culture very easily, online. Over a period, the ways of communication used on social-media strengthen and such behaviour patterns start expressing themselves in real life. This gives rise to crude, and uncouth social behaviour which is misaligned with good values and causes a rapid degradation of an otherwise refined tradition and culture.
Sexual content on the internet has dangerous effects on youth. This includes the rise of unhealthy patterns of casual sex, multiple partners, sex addiction, sexual aggression, and various skewed sexual tendencies. It leads to difficulty in forming healthy intimate relationships and many other problems. (6)
Today, it is distressing to see the level of cultural destruction owing to the exposure to all types of explicit content on the internet. This also opens doors for sexual exploitation and abuse through online communication. Young women and minors are very vulnerable with such an exposure.
“In the past, society has been able to put physical barriers in place to make it more difficult to satisfy unhealthy obsessions. Things are very different today.” – Bill Davidow
Are we ready to draw some lines to protect ourselves and the younger generation from the path of destruction?
Normally, You Would Not Step into The Dark Alley But…
The internet is a space where there is content expressing the darkest and most heinous tendencies of the human mind. There are no limits or boundaries to what can be expressed or consumed. Such content (mostly gory or sexual), if engaged with, knowingly or unknowingly creates strong impressions on the mind. We become aware of horrid possibilities of violence and inhuman ways. This can be very degrading and dangerous for the mind and arouse such tendencies in those who are young, impressionable and vulnerable. Such exposure also starts bringing a sense of normality to that which is inhuman or skewed.
While the dark ally’s exist in the world of the internet as much as they exist in the real world, in the real world we would normally not step into such areas. On the internet, things may be different. At times, there is a choiceless exposure through our social-media networks.
The virtual world is being built in a very attractive and aesthetic way, drawing all age-groups rapidly into the trap of internet addiction. It also creates an escape from one’s actual physical environment which our senses are not quite pleased with being enamoured by what we see online. If we get too obsessed with this illusionary wonder-world of social media, our family life, work, social relationships suffer and mental health declines.
Are we alright with non-discerning consumption online?
Your Tool is Carving Your Ways
It is in our hands to stay within limits and regulate the exposure of the internet for young ones. We must remember that technology is a tool. A tool can be used for a good purpose or, it’s use can be abused. Wisdom lies in using it to our benefit and at the same time being aware on how the tool of social-media influences you while you may imagine that you alone are the “influencer”.
The use of internet and social-media must not be compared to the use of all mechanised inventions. Reason being, internet and social- media directly impacts our mental health, brain power, shapes our behaviour at a very subtle level to the advantage of companies, is addictive, etc, while a vacuum cleaner or washing machine, for example, add convenience alone. At maximum we can say that a washing machine can make us lazy, maybe, and shape society in some way by making the role of a washer-woman/dhobi obsolete but we know it cannot manipulate our mind, create mental-health iss
ues or the way we form our interpersonal relationships, for instance.
Are we really making independent and informed decisions?
You are being Manipulated
Let us not forget that there is a deliberate attempt of social-media platforms to manipulate our minds and have us get hooked on to these “tools”.
““I feel tremendous guilt,” admitted Chamath Palihapitiya, former Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, to an audience of Stanford students. He was responding to a question about his involvement in exploiting consumer behavior. “The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works,” he explained. In Palihapitiya’s talk, he highlighted something most of us know but few really appreciate: smartphones and the social media platforms they support are turning us into bona fide addicts.” (7)
The above is just pertaining to Facebook. Similar manipulation methods are used by all social-media platforms. It is the agendas of the companies, and governments that are promoted through the silent manipulation of our mind. Our human vulnerabilities are tapped meticulously to keep us hooked to social-media. Our engagement with it influences us in a way that shapes our views and impacts the various decisions we take in our lives – from what we buy, what we accept as a “norm”, to our personal medical decisions. It is certainly not empowering to learn about this.
Is it not disturbing to learn about this? Is this manipulation of a helpful nature and aligned with humane virtues and our ancient civilization?
Hindu Wisdom
With the extensive invention and use of mechanization, the existence of divine things and persons is brought to extinction. – Jagadguru Puri Shankaracharya
Ancient Hindu wisdom warns us on how the excessive and uncontrolled use of technology leads to destruction. Jagadguru Puri Shankaracharya has shared how our wisdom and intellect, life-force, vitality and vigour, and character can get destroyed with the excessive use of mobile phones.
While Jagadguru is not opposed to the good use of technology and appreciates the ease with which so many persons can access teachings through YouTube etc., He has voiced the importance of the need for government regulations on the use of internet. Today, this is the common concern of many doctors, scientists, teachers, and parents, world-over. So, to think our traditional principles are invalid in current times, is naive. The wisdom of the vedas and shastras addresses concerns related to the human mind which has always been a miracle and is always prone to destruction if not taken care of. We must pay careful attention to these teachings for the sake of preserving humanity or “manavta” in human society.
Are we not blessed to have such profound and crucial guidance from our own ancient tradition?
Where do you stand?
If this article is making any sense to you and reflects some of your experiences or what you see around you, it may be good to take stock of your own situation in relation to the use of the mobile and social-media.
Social-media can offer us a lot – from forming good connections with like-minded people, to giving us life-saving information that is suppressed in mainstream media like that of the experimental C-19 vaccines. It could do wonders in our business, expand the scope of our hobbies, help us learn and share a lot from others, and even help us form healthy relations.
However, after learning about the potential harms the use of technology can cause, it would be wise to be watchful and figure out for yourself as to how much of mobile and social-media usage is too much for you?
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