Are you ever concerned about how long you spend scrolling on your phone each day? Or tell yourself that you need to stop, only to go back a few hours later, sucked into the variety of different entertainment all within your phone screen. But why are we so susceptible to short forms of entertainment? That’s because these platforms utilise the human desire for temporary pleasure, or in other words, hedonism.
The word “hedonism” is derived from the ancient Greek word “hedone,” which means pleasure. This concept is essentially a theory of value. Hedonism states that the value of something is determined by how much pleasure it brings or how much pain it inflicts. Pleasure was seen as something desirable, and pain was the opposite. It defines how people behave and what drives us to behave the way we do. Pleasure is classified under the id in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. It is the instinctive drive to seek out pleasure and avoid pain. Hedonists also always prioritise immediate satisfaction.
Now, how has this philosophical theory unveiled itself in our everyday lives? Well, with the development of the internet and various platforms such as TikTok or Instagram, our attention has been directed to the constant flow of information. Both pleasure and pain are broad umbrella terms; the pleasure we experience from the internet varies from short videos, to winning a video game to even receiving positive comments on a post, the internet constantly causes us to receive short-term dopamine boosts. These short shots of pleasure are exactly what hedonists like. Especially since these pleasures are temporary, we have to keep going back in order to re-experience and satisfy the hedonistic part within us. This is how the internet constantly lures us back.
Furthermore, hedonists state that we should always put pleasure first. Also, let’s be honest here, as humans, all of us want to do what makes us happy. If given the freedom, everyone is just going to do as they please, which often means doing what brings us pleasure.
Entertainment on the internet grasps this aspect of human nature and uses it to control us. Your logical mind might be telling you to study for your test next week, but the hedonist inside you quietly encourages you to open TikTok and start scrolling. I know that, more often than not, this quiet voice inside you wins. Myself included. I often give in to the temptation of my phone.
Another factor is the absence of pain. We are so comfortable on the internet because it shows us what we want. It amends what you see on your page so as to maximise the pleasure you experience. The comfort and safety that it creates shields us from the uncomfort of reality. This is also something hedonists strive to achieve, they want to eliminate all forms of pain.
Allowing yourself to succumb to your inner hedonist is not always a bad thing. It’s completely fine to seek pleasures in our daily lives because that’s what makes each day enjoyable. However, over prioritising pleasures over everything else becomes a problem. In this day and age, there is constant competition between platforms on the internet to fight for your attention. They exploit our nature of seeking temporary pleasures in order to grasp our attention and show us what they want. So we must control ourselves and not let our inner hedonist come loose.
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