Whenever one bad habit leaves our lives, another one comes to fill its place. I felt compelled to write this post because I have been struggling with maintaining autonomy over my own life recently.
I often feel like Sisyphus from that infamous Greek myth. In the story, Sisyphus is punished by Zeus and the gods; his eternal punishment is to push a heavy boulder up a giant hill. The catch is that, as soon as the boulder nears the top, it inevitably rolls back down the hill, and Sisyphus is forced to repeat his slow climb. My own life feels like this many days. I work hard to root out selfish habits within myself only to find a new one that is ready to take its place. The lapse feels more punishing than the small successes ever could.
The bad habits that plagued our culture fifty years ago are entirely different from the ones we face today. The American Lung Association tracked smoking among adults from 1965 to 2022; over this period, smoking rates fell from 42.6% to 11.6%. Young adults are also drinking less and are far less addicted to tobacco consumption. So why are rates of depression and anxiety so high?
Unsurprisingly, the data suggests we are filling these voids with a new sedative that is more addictive and easier to access. These bad habits take the form of constant entertainment, social media, and online gambling. My hot take here is that these mediums will cause more long–term damage to American society than cigarettes or alcohol ever could. The scientific consensus is clear: young Americans are becoming more miserable, self-absorbed, and anxious than ever before.
It is no coincidence that these trends began emerging in the mid 2010s around the advent of the iPhone and social media apps. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt talks about this phenomenon all the time. The effects of the Covid Pandemic did not do us any favors and most likely sped up these fastly emerging trends towards isolation and social withdrawal.
I feel increasingly addicted to my cell phone. It has become the first thing I look at in the morning and is the final thing I look at before bed. Whenever there is a moment of quiet or silence, I find myself instinctively reaching for my phone. Many of us have experienced the phantom feeling of our phone going off in our pockets, but when we reach for it, we discover there was no notification. This should raise alarm bells for all of us.
One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from the French philosopher Blase Pascal who said,
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”
-Blase Pascal
I expect most of Gen-Z would go insane if they attempted to do this for longer than ten minutes at a time. I encourage you to try it. See if you can sit in that uncomfortable silence.
The issue here is that we have effectively dulled our senses and anesthetized ourselves into scrolling and watching short-form videos. This new form of entertainment keeps our brain distracted, and we are swiftly losing our ability to concentrate and explore deeper meaning. Inspiration and creativity are born out of silent contemplation.
Life offers us excitement, purpose, and meaning. Leave the screens behind and go find it!