Don't Like This Post

For the love of God, please don’t.

The narcissism machine doesn’t need your help. It’s doing plenty fine with the billions of users who chase the almighty like each and every day.

It might seem harmless enough, until you realize we live in a culture driven by external validation, and that the like has become one of the main emblems of our insanity.

We speak about social media addiction as though it’s this benign thing. It’s not. I believe it’s slowly eroding our ability to sit still and to engage with nuanced ideas that require sustained attention.

In other words, it’s making us shallower. Flitting in and out of cat videos, epic fail montages, and polarized political essays for months and years on end isn’t doing your soul any favors, or our society for that matter.

So why did I create this post, if not for external validation? I’m not pretending to be some ascended master. I’m just as much a heroin addict for other people’s approval as anyone. A part of me really wants you to like this post. If it gets zero likes, I’m sure I will feel disappointed.

But that’s also an edge I’m enjoying exploring lately. I spent two months away from social media to reexamine my relationship with it. My conclusion? Engaging with the me machine is a necessary evil, as this is where a huge chunk of the cultural conversation is happening and I have a duty to take part in that conversation.

However, I aim to do so from a place of greater sovereignty. I will not tolerate the dopamine rollercoaster most of us spend our lives riding, which prevents us from truly penetrating beneath the surface of the most important issues facing us.

Beneath the social media addiction, beneath the likes and loves and other digitized expressions of what were once uniquely human capacities, beneath all the shiny distractions, there is a gaping unmet need—the need for genuine connection with one’s self, with one’s calling, with nature, with other people, and ultimately with the divine.

I’ll meet you in the space beneath.