Yesterday, I spent 11 hours watching YouTube and Instagram on my computer. Although I have summer holidays and there is nothing much to do, that nagging feeling of guilt overwhelmed my senses.
Today, as the summer sun shone brightly, I sat down on my front porsche. As the birds around me chirped away merrily, I started a ruthless interrogation. Who was the lucky individual that was being questioned?
After a few minutes of self-introspection, I came upon this question that I simply could not answer. My brain’s wheels had clogged up and simply could not produce an answer. The question being;
What attracts an individual to social media?
To answer this question scientifically is very simple. Any activity that makes us happy usually results in the brain releasing many chemicals. One of these chemicals is dopamine. In simple terms, dopamine is our “happiness” chemical. Anything from eating your favourite food to playing video games releases dopamine.
Our body LOVES dopamine, especially from activities which do not tax us much energy. Once this chemical is released, the brain will want you to repeat whatever activity you did. If you keep repeating the activity long enough, neurological pathways will be created. This means that the brain’s want for dopamine will turn into cravings for dopamine and congratulations, you have officially become an addict!
Unfortunately, I am not satisfied. Although science answers the physical side of things, there is still a “spiritual” side that needs to be questioned – Only then can we uproot our plant fully.
So I continued doing what I do best; thinking. After much ponderment, I stumbled upon an antithesis ; life is large and uncontrollable while humans are small but always in search for control. This dichotomy creates frustration and anger.
In our struggle for control, comes social media, eureka! Everything ranging from our feeds to our friend list is in our control. Even our advertisements are tailored towards us! What we experience is a relief as our eternal struggle for command over life is temporary sedated. It is truly a catharsis.
Think about it. How many activities that we do, do we have full control of it?
- Food? Always the chance of it turning out a bit off in taste due to wrong measurements.
- Sports? You will always have days where you are off form.
- TV? There will those long advertisements which are not tailored towards you.
To me this realization was profound. After writing and publishing this blog, I will work towards decreasing my use of social media. So before I bid adieu, I will leave you with this very fascinating paradox;
As humans we try to control life which is uncontrollable while social media gives us the power to make a part of our life controllable which results in the part of our life not related to social media uncontrollable, hence (in the long run) making our time on social media extremely uncomfortable.