Back in late 2019, I recorded a series of talks for “Tricycle” magazine explaining how tools from the Buddhist tradition can help us overcome social media and internet addiction. These talks were posted online in January the following year. While waiting, I turned my notes into a series of six articles—one introduction and one article for each of the five tools I discussed in the talks.
I’ve added some extra insights that came to me after the talks. Sometimes, only after speaking do you realize there were points you missed!
Here’s a brief overview of the series, including links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
I consider myself a former social media addict. My work involves spending a lot of time online, and I often found myself getting pulled into social media. Like most people, I carry a smartphone, but I rarely use it for calls. Instead, it’s a gateway to a world of endless distractions.
Spending so much time online and having constant access to it, I often wasted hours on the internet. It affected my work, and I would stay up too late reading interesting articles, mostly about science and psychology. Even though these readings were enriching, I couldn’t stop and often ended up losing sleep. Unlike reading books, which I’ve always loved, I found it harder to focus, which made life feel less fulfilling.
Sometimes, I got involved in online arguments that made me angry and anxious. I craved the validation from social media—to see if my posts were liked or shared. All these struggles are forms of suffering.
I dislike suffering, so I naturally wondered how my Buddhist practice could help me with my social media addiction. I’ve found some tools useful and want to share them with you, in case you also struggle with similar issues.
By the time I wrote these six articles, I had mostly overcome my addictions, although I sometimes spent too much time on Twitter, which affected my mental state. Thankfully, as I practiced the techniques I’ll discuss here, I managed to reduce my Twitter usage too.
When I talk about social media addiction, I don’t just mean enjoying social media. Addiction here means compulsively using social media despite knowing it harms us and others. Compulsion means feeling out of control and finding it very hard to stop even if you want to. This often leads to shame and dishonesty about our addiction’s extent.
I’ll broadly refer to “social media” to include not just platforms like Facebook or Twitter but also online games or compulsive news-checking.
The Buddha didn’t talk about the internet or social media, but he did discuss overcoming compelling thoughts and behaviors. One useful discourse is the Vitakkasanthana Sutta, which means the “Discourse on Quieting Thinking.” Here, thinking includes urges that drive our actions, like picking up our phones without conscious thought. This discourse is fundamentally about letting go of unhelpful urges or habits.
Many people think the Vitakkasanthana Sutta is about quieting urges during meditation, but it doesn’t specifically mention meditation. The principles can be applied in daily life, including when using social media. In a way, this sutta could be seen as a guide for managing social media use.
The discourse offers five tools to handle these urges. You start with the first tool, and if it doesn’t work, you move to the next one, and so on.
To summarize the five tools:
1. The first tool is focusing on something skillful.
2. The second tool involves evaluating the consequences of not letting go.
3. The third tool is shifting attention to something else.
4. The fourth tool is analyzing and understanding the nature of the urge.
5. The fifth tool is applying effort to prevent the urge from arising.
Some illustrations provided in the sutta are more engaging and instructional than others.
These tools offer a comprehensive approach to dealing with addictive behaviors and the associated feelings of anger and anxiety. In each upcoming post, I’ll explain what the Buddha taught and share practical ways to use these tools.
That’s it for today. I hope you find these blog posts helpful.
Notice any addictive behavior you have with social media. What suffering does it cause? How does this compulsion show up? Can you experiment with giving up social media for a day or two? If not, what’s stopping you? What do you feel if you manage to quit for a short period? Joy? Relief? Craving? Anxiety?
Consider reducing your social media time within specific limits and gradually decrease it.
Applying these simple steps, though it requires willpower, can significantly reduce social media usage.