Demented, Twisted and Beautiful

My writings do not come from a place of expertise. They do not come from studying or even experimentation, rather, my writings come from experience and observation as I walk alone through the hell fire of life and try to figure it out along the way.

This topic I feel very strongly about, and I’ve experienced being both “connected” to and being completely off of socials at different times in my life. As a 23 year old single man, I believe that, at least at this point in my life, social medias do more harm than good. I do not wish for this writing to be a prognosis for everyone, but rather I wish it to be an observation that potentially other can relate to and glean some kind of new insight from.

I was out one weekend with my friends drinking a couple weekends ago, and at a certain point in the night i was leaving one group of friends to meet up with another group. I called my uber and she picked me up. Once inside we proceeded to converse like normal humans and eventually the conversation shifted to her battle with addiction and now how she has dedicates a large portion of her time to trying to assist women that are in the same sinking boat that she was. during this conversation she said something, “addiction touches everyone’s life whether you know it or not”. This was interesting to me and admittedly, what I took from her quote was not what she intended but nonetheless it was meaningful to me. I believe when she said that she was referring to the magnitude at which DRUG addiction runs rampant through this country but my interpretation was much simpler. EVERYONE, and I mean everyone is addicted to something. We are addictive creatures by nature for some God awful reason, thank the big man in the sky for that trait lol. What’s interesting to me though is that the severity of your addiction depends almost solely on the societal stigmatization around said addiction. To be fair, the societal stigmatization of an addiction is very closely correlated with its magnitude of harmful effects it has on someone’s body but not always.

For example, Heroin=pretty bad… Cocaine=pretty bad…Sex=maybe bad, depending on how it manifests… coffee= not that bad…. Drinking= Sometimes bad, depending on how it manifests… Work= Maybe bad?…. Reading= Good :)… Learning=Good:) and finally, last but not least… PHONES= Bad? Good? Maybe? I have no idea…. My point being that its complicated and sometimes a grey spot on whether an addiction is deemed bad or not.

Phones/social media is an interesting one to me though. If you asked anyone my age if it is good to be addicted to your phone, they would say it is VERY bad, YET no one is opening rehab facilities for socially addicted people to go to when they cant sit and watch a movie without checking Instagram. It is a interesting observation to me to realize that we may be in an in-between period where the seriousness of an issue does not directly correlate with the stigma it carries societally.

That brings me to my final point (Maybe lol). I believe Social media has insanely negative consequences on ones psyche that is not talked about, and even more alarmingly, not recognized by the majority.

So why is it so successful at this damage without anyone noticing? It all has to do with 2 very important variables: 1: Connection and 2. Subconscious envy.

1. Connection:

I believe connection and community is one of the essential pillars of a fulfilling and content life. That being said, I believe social media presents itself as a solution to this challenge like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It promises this connection without actually having the tools to actually satisfy this completely human need. Even Worse, it puts you into a mode of connection gluttony where enough is never enough. It sucks you back in with the promise of more connection and more connection but never actually gives you what you desire so desperately.

2. Subconscious Envy

I am not going to speak much on this one because I am going to do more parts to this (hence Pt1 in the title) but basically it is the idea of seeing something you want hundreds of times a day that you become numb to the sense of envy therefore not even allowing you to realize how it is affecting you.

After all that rambling here is my disclaimer: I have absolutely no F**king clue what I am talking about and sure as hell don’t claim to have the right answer. BUT, I am wiling to put my theory to the test. So starting this month I am going completely social media free and will come back for a part 2 to further dissect this issue that plagues us and keep a log if being disconnected changes anything in my life.

And never forget, that even through all the mess that is life, Life is beautiful in some twisted and demented way. Find Your Balance 🙂