In a series of six posts, I’ve explained how we can break free from our addiction to social media using teachings from early Buddhist scriptures. These teachings are found in the Vitakkasanthana Sutta, which presents five strategies to overcome persistent thoughts and urges. I’ve dubbed it the “Social Media Sutra” because it directly applies to an important part of our modern lives.
Now, let’s talk about the fifth and final tool, which might surprise you: sheer willpower. With determination—clenching teeth and pressing the tongue against the roof of the mouth—the practitioner should mentally force out negative thoughts. This sounds harsh, even violent, as it’s compared to a strong man overpowering a weaker one.
You might wonder why the Buddha teaches such a forceful method. It’s, in fact, a last resort, only to be used when other methods have failed. Personally, I’ve used it successfully, like when I find myself surfing the internet late at night. A sudden wave of disgust makes me shut my laptop, overriding my cravings.
However, willpower doesn’t always work this way. The sudden disgust isn’t about willpower; it just happens. Luckily, there are better, sneakier ways to overcome urges. You use willpower when you’re not actively craving, making decisions to limit your tendencies.
For instance, deleting social media apps from your phone is pretty forceful. Sure, you could use the browser, but it’s less convenient. You could also use your phone’s parental settings to block social media sites or install browser plugins on your computer to limit usage.
A more drastic step is to delete your social media accounts altogether, which takes significant willpower. Very few can do this. I did this with Instagram because I craved validation that I wasn’t getting. It led to me deleting my account. The same happened with Facebook; I disliked the arguments and privacy issues.
Research shows quitting social media makes us happier, yet addiction and self-deception keep us hooked. I deleted Facebook and Instagram, leaving only Twitter, which also consumed my time and emotional well-being. Twitter’s outrage culture made things worse, and it was time-consuming.
The final trick that helped me quit Twitter involved creating a barrier to access my account. This method doesn’t delete the account but makes it hard to log in. For example, change your password to a complicated one, save it somewhere secure, and log out. Now, you can’t easily log back in unless you retrieve that password. This barrier was enough to keep me away from Twitter for months.
To summarize, we explored five tools from the Vitakkasanthana Sutta to free our minds from obsessive thinking and compulsive urges. Thank you for joining me in this series on using the Dharma to overcome social media addiction. I’m grateful to share this journey with you and appreciate Tricycle magazine for the collaboration.
May we all continue progressing towards living with mindfulness, compassion, and joy.