I guess I'm writing this for my own sanity. I butcher the English language daily here on Hive. However, I try to use my words properly. At least properly defined. Sure I make mistakes.
Two words that seem to be interchangeable lately are Habit vs Addiction. We seem to use these two words like they're the same but they're not.
A habit is something we make a habit out of. We do it regularly. Maybe daily, maybe weekly, maybe monthly. For instance, my mother is in the habit of going to church every Sunday. She's not addicted to the church, it's just part of her weekly routine. She won't go through withdrawal. She won't get nervous and jerky without it. She just feels good doing it. It makes her happy. I'm in the habit of logging into Hive a few times a week. I also have a small weed habit because I'm in the habit of feeling good and weed helps me achieve that feeling. Again, I'd be just fine without partaking in either of these activities. However, for whatever my reasons are, I choose to partake.
An addiction is something that you have to do. You can't not do it. If you don't do it, you may get sick. You may not be able to function properly. You may have physical symptoms, like shaking, chills, cold sweats, vomiting. Until you break the addiction, this is your fate. An insatiable need, and the sickness or discomfort that comes along with it. You can't do anything about it, until your body adjusts. That could take days, weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime for some people.
As many of you know, I'm NO fan of social media. Facebook, Twitter, and the rest of them are poisoning the minds of the masses with algorithms that force feed us propaganda, disinformation, and politically fueled rhetoric we may or may not agree with. It probably is a huge part of the mental decline of our society. I mean lets face it, there are some nutty acting people out there these days. However, lets call it what it is, a habit. You're not addicted. If you shut off your social media feed, you may feel a little out of the loop for a couple days, but you'll get over it eventually.
It took me a couple weeks to break my HABIT of social media use when I decided to leave X (It will always be Twitter to me.) I get it, it's not always easy to just walk away. However, I didn't like the way it made me feel so I stopped using it. Many of us are in the HABIT of arguing with internet strangers on a daily basis and seem to enjoy this activity. I chose to opt out. However, I would never do anything to take away your right to feel crappy and argue with strangers all day. That's your right if you so choose to exercise it. If you don't want to feel angry and crappy all day, just shut off the social media feed. End of problem!
Yes, I know, some of you have curated a wonderful social media feed, and that hasn't been your experience. If you're one of those people, that's ok too. Everyone is here to experience something different. If social media works for you, I'm not knocking you. I'm generally happy for you. There was a time when I loved it as well. When it's no longer fun though, it's time to part ways, as in any healthy relationship.
I was addicted to tobacco use. I got nervous and jerky if I didn't have a cigarette. I'd actually get downright mean at times without a cigarette. It literally drove me bonkers. There could be a snowstorm or raining hard and I'd walk down to the corner to get a pack of smokes if I had to. No matter what I did, I couldn't stop. I tried hypnotism, pills, patches, and a lot of other stuff. I eventually quit with an e-cig and nicotine reduction. That was several years ago. I've lost track of how long I've been without nicotine. However, I'd never want to be addicted to anything else again. It's the loss of will power. I've never felt that with anything else.
I had two friends that died of heroin overdoses. Well actually a lot more than that, but two people come to mind while writing this piece. My first friend went on a one week bender with heroin and that's all it took to ruin his life. His exact words to me were, "I just can't stop. I can't believe this is happening. If I stop it's like I'm shitting through a needle, I start puking, I get cold and shake. I don't know what I'm going to do." Two weeks later he was dead. He's probably the reason I never got addicted to drugs. I learned from his mistakes and made sure it never happened to me.
Several years later, another friend checked himself into rehab. When he got out, he explained to me how hard it was to stop. He talked about going into convulsions, puking, cramping up. Nothing anyone would want to experience. The guy in the room next to him, died from his withdrawals. His heart couldn't take it and he went into cardiac arrest. THAT'S AN ADDICTION!
See words are important. An addiction will kill you! I don't think many people die from a HABIT. With the exception of the rising suicide rate, and I'm not making fun of it, social media won't kill you. However, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if it wasn't partially responsible for the rise in suicide. If you need help... https://sprc.org/ Still, it's not an addiction, it's a habit.
I guess my point to all this is that we seem to be changing words to fit our narratives. We throw around terms like terrorist and fascist for people that really don't deserve the title. Some do, but most don't. We don't understand the difference between a HABIT and an ADDICTION. Christ we can't even agree on gender anymore but I'm pretty sure that's another psyop like the flat earthers. God's help us all! These are truly bizarre times we're living in.
In some ways I think it's dangerous to misuse these words. An addiction can kill you, most habits wont. If we tell our kids they're addicted to social media, instead of explaining that they need to break the HABIT. Well that's dangerous, because what's to stop them from reasoning,"Well I was addicted to Facebook and quit, I can do the same with heroin or tabacco, or some other drug that is PROVEN to be addictive.
On top of all that, as much as I hate social media, I'd never take away another persons right to feel crappy all day and argue with strangers over topics that probably aren't as important as we'd like to think they are. Especially when it's as simple as just deleting the app or turning off the device. Yeah, I get it, some of ya'll are debating some serious and important stuff, just don't let it steal your mental health.
It's important to think for yourself and even more important to be able to choose for yourself. With that said, stop calling bad habits addictions, because they are not! They are habits and they are much easier to break than actual addictions. There is a huge difference.
On a final note and aside, maybe we should start looking into the algorithms and what's really going on behind the curtain. It's obvious to see that none of this is organic and it's all designed to whittle away at our mental health. If social media is guilty of anything, it's psyops portrayed on it's own users. That, in my humble opinion, is the real crime... That is all.