When Society Becomes an Addict – Is our Society Addicted?

This book, published in 1988, written by one Anne Wilson Schaef, shows us how society became addicted to things such as sex, drugs, alcohol, nicotine and the white male power and oppression. The book makes you wonder about today’s state of mind when you look at individuals or entire societies.

Whether we’re addicted is not really a question when we know that the answer is yes. The question should be whether we’re addicted to something specific and how we came to be addicted to that. How would you judge a person who several times a week checks a site like betbonus.com.ng for the new online promotions for betting? Addicted or not? The answer lies somewhere in the society and culture and the individuals themselves.

Ideas in the Book

Anne Wilson Schaef tells us a story of how our society helps fuel our addictions and therefore the entire society becomes addicted to various things. This stems from the bad and unhealthy things such as carcinogenic food, pollution, nuclear waste, racism, sexism, and war. To take the edge off, various activities are promoted, especially addictive ones.

Gambling, alcoholism, smoking, television, and drugs used to be the stress relief methods of her time. These things were promoted, and if not promoted, people found their way to them, to become more numb and zombie-like, in order not to have to deal with all the unhealthy stuff head on. Today, other addictions are getting predominant as there are many more ways to take the edge off, as compared to 1988.

Today’s Addictions

Video Games and Mobile Phones

Today, people can get addicted to anything and many are. The most common ways of getting addicted today are mobile phones and video games. Both are easily available to children and children find their refuge from the constraints of society in virtual worlds where anything is possible, especially you being the hero.

Once you spend an entire decade being addicted to mobile phones or video games, you are not even likely to consider your behavior an addiction as it has always been something you can rely on. That does not change the fact that society still provides us with enough reasons to get addicted and enough ways to do so. Being bullied at school or having a hard day at work can easily be mitigated by a gaming session, whether an all-nighter or just a couple of games to be stress-free.

Social Media Addictions

Ever since social media became popular, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and the like, people have been spending more time online, updating on the most minor things in their lives, including details most people would never even consider talking about.

It is easy and falsely rewarding to be addicted to social media as our dopamine levels increase with every like and comment, ever so slowly. As with any addiction, it is not healthy as it deters from meeting our actual problems head-on.

We are addicted as a society to a plethora of things, from video games to cigarettes and drugs, even. How we deal with that depends on how we deal with our problems, as well as on our own self-awareness and mindfulness.

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *