Are humans struggling to win the war against weapon-ized addiction?
“Are you suffering from boredom amidst the pandemic? Stay calm and play Minecraft”.
Click, click, click.
“Are you a diabetic and still craving sweets? Tell your wife not to worry. We have a solution. Switch to Sugar-Free Natura.”
These industries (the VIDEO GAMING and SUGAR-free ones) have everything ready under the sun to massage all mechanisms to push us to addiction. They throw at us incredibly irresistible and stimulating stuff that we cannot ignore (by putting our mobiles down), eventually engulfing all shit. Hence, the addiction is not only forced on us but weaponized too. What else can we call ‘an addiction inflicted upon mankind with weapons’? Here, weapons refer to the various tactics in disguise, undertaken by large factories of people who are continuously striving to allure us for no good. Knowingly or unknowingly, we have already been trapped. In the age of abundance, the pursuit of pleasure and fun has become more dominant leading to high-level addiction. Placing ourselves in the rat race, we are chasing opulence and our very existence is on the verge of obliteration.
Weaponized addiction is playing a big role in many forms. If you are not allowed to consume raw sugar, then tasty forms like ice cream, cookies, processed fruit juices, pastries will definitely steal the show. They highly tempt us to consume them overpowering our abilities for refusal.
Why can’t we say ‘No’?
In spite of knowing the hilarious outcomes in form of both physiological and psychological pitfalls like diabetes, obesity, depression, anxiety, we fall victims to such weapons. By the way, our anxiety loves sugar. We have trained our minds enough to avoid raw sugar but we are falling weak for the weaponized ones (the so-called sugar-free cakes, sugar-free ice cream, canned juices, and all such sugar-free stuff). The addiction-inflicted industry might mention ‘SUGAR-FREE’ in bold letters on their products but are they truly sugar-free?
A study in Harvard Medical School suggests that usage of artificial sweeteners can make us avoid healthy, filling, highly nutritious foods and overconsume artificially flavored foods with less nutritional value. Do we know that consumption of diet drinks was associated with a 67% increased risk of Type 2 diabetes? (Source- Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis). Thus, we are constantly in the fight against such addiction only with the hope of winning someday. This is one of the modern struggles of humankind.
Also not far behind is the gigantic video gaming industry that is constantly tickling 3 billion minds to pick up their phones and start playing with a click. In fact, gaming is one of the largest and fastest-growing forms of entertainment. We begin with Stage I of the game and keep playing as if there is no end to it. They have designed the games in such a way that we will keep going to them even after knowing the value of time. In spite of video games being not a requisite, we have fallen prey to their hands. Recently, Microsoft made an announcement of their acquisition of Activision Blizzard (global video game publisher) to bring the joy and community of gaming to everyone, across every device. Do we truly crave the kind of joy in our lives that they claim to bring forth?
According to me, the real essence of ‘joy’ is slowly getting masked by the charade of technology. Thanks to our ultimate level of modernization.
No, I have not missed it. I know what you are thinking about. The Great Social Media Boom.
The great social media has planted in us seeds of addiction to such levels that we have now added a Fourth Ape in the tri-series of Gandhiji’s Three Wise Monkeys. You might be wondering what the hell I am talking about. Let me add an image for correct understanding. The Fourth Ape is the sum of the first three. (Please refer to Wikipedia for further information).
Modern humans are erroneously attracted (or addicted) to social media to such a massive extent that they have lost all associations with their surroundings. This is another area where we are succumbing to the external pressure of social media every moment even after putting in our best efforts of fighting back. Our biggest failure. We are swayed by the flow of social media content and being dictated by influencers.
The problem is that we all are living a compulsive life rather than a conscious one. Not being compelled by external factors, we all have individual choices of living. Once we become aware of when to start and when to stop, be it food, be it online games, be it social media, be it anything, then we will embark on a journey of conscious living. No exaggeration, only a reminder to retaliate before falling into a huge pit.
That’s all folks.
