Should You Quit Social Media?
Questioner: Acharya Ji, the mind gets influenced by the social media very easily. How can we protect ourselves from its bad influences?
Acharya Prashant: Mind is nothing but an aggregation of influences upon you. Who are you? We have defined that at the beginning of the Satsang.
You are the thirsty one. The thirsty one is influenced by the mind, by the aggregation of the influences, because the ones influencing you promise you relief.
Just see that they cannot deliver what they promise. That’s all. You won’t need to listen to them anymore.
And if the next question is: “To whom then, we listen?”
If you are not listening to the wrong ones, then you are already being powered by the 'Right One'. Otherwise, how would you not listen to the wrong one? From where would the courage come to call the wrong as ‘wrong’?
Are Facebook, or Twitter, or LinkedIn the culprits? Do they have an intention? Do they have an agency even? Are they conscious entities? Are they?
Questioner: No.
Acharya Prashant: So, we go to them, and we use them as per our tendencies. So, what is our tendency?
Questioner: Quick appreciation.
Acharya Prashant: And if you do not have Facebook, then this tendency will seek refuge in something else. Facebook was not always there, then the neighbours were there, then other chatting circles were there, or the telephones were there. When the telephones were not there, the pigeons were there.
If one has a tendency to seek self-worth in the eyes of others, then that tendency will materialize in some form or the other.
So, look at the tendency, and ask yourself, “Am I succeeding in what I am doing? Am I succeeding? I go there to seek self-worth, am I really getting self-worth? Or I am just becoming more fearful, or more addicted?”
Is not all addiction accompanied by fear?
The same social media can also be the vehicle of precious knowledge to you. It is not social media to be blamed. It is the ‘I’, the tendency that goes to the social media.
So, many people sitting here might have met for the first time on social media. Fine. It depends on what you want there. The internet is the entire universe, what are you seeking there? Or do we bring down the internet?
Questioner: Acharya Ji, it was through social media that I came to know about your videos and teachings.
Acharya Prashant: It’s just like the world – there is everything. You must know what your situation is, and therefore what exactly do you need.
Questioner: Is seeking self-worth wrong?
Acharya Prashant: If you want to seek, why not seek the source from where you get the idea of worthlessness. When one seeks self-worth, behind that is the idea of ‘worthlessness’.
Why would I seek something?
Questioner: Because I feel the lack of it.
Acharya Prashant: So, every seeking is propelled by the perception of a lack. Won’t it be a wise thing to seek the source from where the idea of ‘lack’ came to you? What is this thing called, ‘lack’? How do we come to internalize it?
And once you have internalized it, once it has become a part of your identity, then obviously you will go hunting for self-worth.
How did worthlessness come to you?
Questioner: From social media only. From what others say.
Acharya Prashant: Self-knowledge can give you five eureka moments every day.
