In a series of six posts, I’ve been using teachings from early Buddhist scriptures to explain how we can break free from our addiction to social media. These teachings are found in the Vitakkasanthana Sutta, which outlines five strategies for overcoming urges.
“Vitakkasanthana Sutta” translates to “The Discourse on Quieting Thinking,” but I’m calling it “the Social Media Sutra.” Here, “thinking” includes our inner self-talk and the emotional urges that accompany it. The urge to compulsively use social media or surf the internet is a form of this thinking.
The first strategy is to shift our attention to something positive in our experience. The second is to examine the drawbacks of our unskillful activities. The third involves learning to reduce temptation.
Now, let’s delve into the fourth tool from the Vitakkasanthana Sutta, which can help us manage social media addiction. This tool involves “stopping the formation of thoughts.” It’s about finding a way to turn down our thinking or urges.
The discourse suggests that if other methods don’t quiet our unskillful thoughts and urges, and if thoughts connected with desire, hate, and delusion persist, the practitioner should focus on stopping the formation of thoughts. This helps bad thoughts to dissipate, leading to a peaceful and unified mind.
To better understand this, imagine someone walking quickly who decides to slow down, then stand still, sit down, and eventually lie down. This analogy helps us see how we can become aware of what drives our fast-paced thoughts and slow them down.
Similarly, when we notice thoughts and urges prompting us to engage in compulsive online activities, we need to understand what is driving these actions. By identifying these causes, we can let our mind rest.
If we find ourselves mindlessly surfing the web, there might be underlying feelings of anxiety—a tight, prickly sensation in the gut. Our brain generates this sensation, thinking boredom or missing out is a threat to our well-being. This unpleasant feeling often drives our actions online, triggering impulses like “Just one more article.”
Feelings are pivotal in Buddhist practice. The Buddha mentioned that “everything converges on feeling” because they play a crucial role in our experience. It’s often the unpleasant feeling driving our behavior. By becoming mindful of these feelings, we can learn not to react impulsively but to observe them compassionately.
Mindful self-compassion creates a gap where we can choose a wiser, more compassionate response. In the context of internet addiction, this unpleasant feeling varies—it could be boredom, hollowness, dread, or anxiety.
By turning towards our discomfort and accepting it with kindness and compassion, we shift from reactivity to mindful, creative response. I often use this approach when I’m glued to my computer. By recognizing my suffering and mindfully addressing the underlying feelings, usually an unpleasant sensation in the gut, I can resist the urge to go online for a quick fix.
When we’re mindful, we see the unpleasant feeling as just a body sensation, not something to react to. By acknowledging the suffering part of us compassionately, we can offer ourselves some kindness. This helps weaken our emotional connection to compulsive online activities.
When we crave something, an invisible cord runs between us and it, transmitting our emotions. Mindfully attending to the pain underlying our cravings cuts this cord. Doing so weakens or breaks the emotional connection to the internet and social media, allowing us to choose more wholesome activities.
This fourth strategy involves stopping the formation of unskillful urges. By recognizing the feelings driving our thoughts and urges, we can respond in a more wholesome way, helping us break free from compulsive social media use.