Going Cold Turkey in Our Addiction Economy
We’re prone to addiction, and addiction is highly profitable. They know it, and we know it.
We inhabit an Addiction Economy. We all know the cure for addiction is to go Cold Turkey: drop the denial and delusion of control, and excise the source of the addiction from one’s life.
This is of course not easy; it’s agony on multiple fronts, for we’ve come to depend on the source of addiction for dopamine hits, pain management, and distraction from our troubles and travails.
Sources of addiction that tie into our identity and need to be recognized and valued are especially pernicious, as these are what make us feel that we exist in a meaningful way.
We’re talking of course about social media as the source of our most compelling and tenacious addiction, for social media is the means by which we say “I exist, my opinion matters, I matter, and here is the tangible evidence, everyone can see my selfie, photo, tweet, post, note or comment, and since everyone has a device to access my opinion, I can imagine multitudes seeing it, for I can see it.”
In a physical world where we’re invisible and don’t matter, the universal, tangible visibility of social media is addictive, for there is no substitute for it in the real world in which we’re anonymous and invisible. Try getting your photo or opinion in the Mainstream Media, on network TV or in a mass media publication. Unlike these rigorously gated forms of media, social media is open to all, an irresistible opportunity to stake a claim to becoming visible.
There is nowhere in the real world to express oneself with such ease. Shouting on a street corner will get attention, but not the sort most desire. Standing up in a public hearing will provide three minutes of public exposure, but this only whets the appetite for a wider audience and a more substantial self-confirmation.
But this confirmation of selfhood is a chimera. That others see our selfie, photo, opinion or post is no substitute for relationships in the real world, and the relationship we have with ourself, in which our integrity and actions earn our self-respect, regardless of what others see or don’t see and what they think or don’t think about us. Our worth has nothing to do with visibility, and neither does our identity.
Let’s stipulate that the phone is a mechanism of addiction, but it can be used sparingly for non-addictive practicalities. Sales people may well spend much of their day on their phone communicating with clients and making cold calls. Brief SMS texts serve as efficient communications, as do quick emails and phone calls.
The iPhone software identifies this communication as social, which confuses it with social media. Practical communication isn’t social, it’s communicating essential information in the most efficient manner.
The mobile phone also serves as a business tool–doing a bit of online banking, mapping a route, etc.–and as a modest platform for creating content: recording an idea or melody, sharing an idea for a podcast, etc.
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