In a series of six posts, I explain how we can free ourselves from our addiction to social media using teachings from the early Buddhist scriptures. These teachings are found in the Vitakkasanthana Sutta, which outlines five strategies for overcoming compelling trains of thought and the urges that accompany them. I like to call it ‘the Social Media Sutra’ because it’s more relatable and reminds us that these teachings can be directly applied to our modern lives.
The fifth and final strategy might surprise you: sheer willpower. The Buddha suggests using sheer mental force to overcome these urges. While it sounds harsh, it’s described as a last-resort method to use only when other strategies have failed. There are times when we might need this strict approach, but it’s best employed when other, gentler methods haven’t worked.
In my experience, sometimes a sudden surge of willpower can help overcome a strong urge. For instance, I might be browsing the internet late at night, and suddenly feel a strong sense of disgust that makes me stop immediately. However, this isn’t always reliable since it’s not truly about willpower but a sudden emotional shift.
Fortunately, there are better and sneakier ways to deal with our urges. One approach is to make proactive decisions that limit our opportunities to give in to addiction. For example, deleting social media apps from your phone makes it harder to access them. You can take it a step further by using parental controls to block access to these sites entirely on your phone. Browser plugins can also limit the time you spend on social media, or you might even consider deleting your social media accounts altogether.
Personally, I deleted my Instagram and Facebook accounts because they became sources of dissatisfaction and wasted time. Research suggests that quitting social media makes us happier, but addiction and the mind’s lies often prevent us from doing so. We believe social media is essential for our happiness, even though we didn’t always have these platforms and still got by.
Despite reducing my time on Twitter, it still affected my well-being, particularly due to the platform’s tendency to fuel outrage and waste time. But I found a final trick that worked for me: creating barriers to my account. By locking myself out of my account, I made it difficult to access, which freed up a lot of time and reduced my exposure to negativity.
The idea is not to confront your urges directly but to create barriers that make it hard to act on them. Deleting apps, blocking sites, or locking yourself out creates strong barriers against compulsive behaviors. While not foolproof, these barriers have worked for me.
In summary, this series has explored the five tools from the Vitakkasanthana Sutta to help us break free from obsessive thinking and compulsive urges. Thank you for joining me on this journey. I hope we all continue to progress in living with mindfulness, compassion, and joy.