General
Addiction, in a word, is weakness. It is the inability to exercise one’s own will, a complete bypassing of the decision-making process. Today, many people live as if they were on autopilot. Some are addicted to social media, some to other people, and some to the television screen…
Social media, in particular, draws people in like a magnet. There’s an algorithm behind it that insidiously hooks you; it knows what you like better than you do. For example, a video pops up on TikTok and you watch it for just a few seconds—and you’re hooked! The algorithm keeps feeding you one option after another of the kind you like. Before you know it, three hours have flown by!
I ask you: What could you have accomplished in three hours? Yet when you look back, all you see is a big fat nothing. You ask yourself, “What did I learn in those three hours?”—nothing! Time completely wasted. Of course, social media can be used positively; it can serve as a means of communication. But if it’s used solely to kill time, then in my opinion, that’s addiction.
Let There Be No Purpose in Life
The need to form attachments—not just to technology, but to people—also plays a major role in our lives. People form attachments as if that person were the sole purpose of their existence. Feeling dependent on someone actually reveals an inner void. Because the individual isn’t happy within themselves, they believe they’ll find happiness when that person calls or sends a message.
The moment you send the message to the other person that “I can’t be with anyone but you; I’m dependent on you,” you lose that person. Because thoughts always become reality. The more you fear, “Will I lose them?,” the more your brain brings about the very loss you’re focusing on. You must first love yourself and become whole. When you respect yourself and believe you’re perfect, the other person will respect you too and won’t want to leave you.
Don't Clutter Up Your Subconscious Like a Trash Can
The same applies to television addiction. When you sit in front of the TV, you aren’t choosing what to watch; you’re just watching whatever they’re showing you. Sitting in front of the screen aimlessly has a hypnotic effect on people.
Watching TV or using social media is, in fact, a way to escape reality. When people face economic, social, or family problems in life, they get lost in the screen and forget everything. However, this doesn’t solve the problems—it only puts them off. You’ll be happier if you tackle them head-on and look for ways to resolve them. We should limit TV watching to a certain number of hours.
Some people watch the same news stories from morning till night. For something to be newsworthy, 90 percent of it has to be negative. You leave the TV on and let all that negativity seep into your subconscious like trash. This is an addiction; it messes with your mental health.