Addiction has become a central concept for the ills of society. Oddly, addiction has also become a keyword in modern LDS discourse, occupying a vaguely defined middle ground between sin (we don't approve of addictive behaviors) and illness (we want to cure them). So this morning I'm just a few pages into Hubert Drefus and Sean Dorrance Kelley's All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age (Free Press, 2011) when up pops this entirely unexpected critique of blogging as an addiction.
[T]he peculiar phenomenon of addiction is highlighted by a modern form unknown before the technological age: blogs and social networking sites. At first there is an excitement associated with them. When one discovers the world of blogs, for example, one finally feels as though one can be up-to-the-minute with respect to every breaking event on the current scene. ... Similarly with social networking sites. Finally one feels completely in touch with all of those friends you didn't realize you had been missing for so long.
If one falls into the grip of these kinds of obsessions, its phenomenology has a sinking dimension. For one finds oneself constantly craving the newest, latest post, wondering what the most recent crisis or observation or tidbit could be. One cycles through the list of websites or friends waiting for the latest update, only to find that when it is completed one is cycling through the sequence again, precisely as expectant and desiring as before.
This is obviously written by someone who is familiar with the condition. It also has a hint of parental frustration that I'm sure you've heard before in the form, "Why are you wasting so much time doing X?" with X being (depending on your generation) watching TV, playing video games, blogging, My Spacing, Facebooking, or tweeting. Seriously, before technology got rolling, what did parents complain about? Did kids do nothing but homework and chores before Philo T. Farnsworth unleashed the idiot box? Aren't blogs at least a literate form of distraction (when they are not in the serious business of sharing bold new thoughts on topics of interest to bloggers and readers)?
Hm. Sounds like something written by someone in denial. ;)
Seriously, though, to try to insinuate that social media addictions are a "better" kind of addiction sort of misses the point of being aware of addictions in the first place. How easily any of us can be pulled into a trap of escape-like behaviors. Each individual has to decide and discern where that line is, but I think this really is a challenge of our day, and it's not just kids who are running into the problem. Whether or not its a literate form of distraction doesn't take away from the fact that it can be an unhealthy form of distraction. Loss of agency doesn't only come with "big sin" kinds of behaviors.
Posted by: Michelle | Feb 04, 2012 at 04:41 PM
Look at the lillies of the field. They do not toil, neither do they spin. Aren't we SUPPOSED to live in the moment? For some people, blogging is their moment. For others, drugs are their moment. Escape brightens an otherwise unceasing bondage.
Posted by: Bradley | Feb 11, 2012 at 08:40 AM