We get addicted to many things in the course of our lives, and I’m pretty sure not many people are aware of just what all kinds of things there are out there to get hooked on. We look with disdain on videos or pictures of tent villages in our inner cities full of people addicted to fentanyl or heroin, and those folks are indeed in dire straits, but there are countless other addictions which take more forms than one might realize.

If we’re not careful, us folks who write posts or do videos on social media can get ourselves hooked on views or clicks or comments on our work. I suspect this phenomenon is more widespread than we might realize, and although those who are monetized have good reason to want as many viewers as possible, it’s likely that we also enjoy being heard, watched, or read to an extent which we might not want to admit, simply because of our attachment to the world and a desire to be a voice in it. That’s just the beginning. I’m saying this because I’m not monetized, and I still relish views and comments more than you’d think should be normal, so I think there may be more than just the monetary reward at play for the “feel good” of view counts. Therefore, it seems like there’s some kind of compulsive behavior involved in being a voice in social media, I might be wrong, but it’s easy to get plagued with self-doubt when I go for days on end with no likes or comments on my posts so I could imagine what it might be like if money was involved, at least I think there’d be a difference.

I’ve known people in my life, and still do, who seem to have an inexplicable need to drive around. They like to go – anywhere – and seem to have an aversion to staying home. Some of them sit around trying to think of somewhere they need to go just to get away from home. I’m just the opposite and really enjoy being at home, in fact, maybe wanting to stay home all the time is an addiction of its own. Is that what agoraphobia is all about? For me, it’s a combination of liking my home environment and being with my four-legged family as well as a nagging discomfort of being around people I don’t know. God has blessed me immensely with the expectation to spend my remaining years out here in the country where it’s peaceful and I’m immersed in the wonders of His creation. That may or may not be an excuse, I don’t know.

One of the saddest of addictions is that of excessive eating. With almost all other forms of compulsive behavior a person can just walk away from their addiction, albeit with varying degrees of difficulty, but no one can just stop eating and survive. Thankfully to the Almighty, and from one who’s never suffered this malady, I can only imagine how hard it would be to try and moderate your food intake when every cell in your body is screaming for you to take another bite beyond what you know you should.

We all know those folks who talk too much. Seems like they always have something to say beyond what comes out of their mouths and that makes it really hard sometimes to decipher where they’re coming from. It’s almost inevitable if we’re not careful, we get to the point where we don’t even listen to them because of their incessant babbling, and that’s sad because lost in the yammering there’s always the possibility of a grain of something that’s important to them, and we often miss it. Excessive talking might be less of an addiction and more of a personality trait (or defect), but it would take someone with more education than myself in psychology to make that distinction. Maybe there is no distinction.

It was mentioned in the introductory paragraph, but drug and alcohol addiction are generally the most destructive to addicts and those around them. The severity of the addiction also varies from person to person, but there is an overwhelming need for endorphins or whatever chemical makes them feel good, possibly as a method of escape from the routines or the vagaries of life. Some folks have reasons to want to get away, but most of the ones I’ve encountered simply need endorphins, and again, I don’t know why this malady is so prevalent, but it’s a serious problem when it gets to a point where people no longer have the capacity to stay (or even to get) sober. Drugs and alcohol addictions have wreaked immeasurable devastation to people, to families, to entire cultures.

In my humble opinion, the greatest addiction of today is by far the addiction to one form or another of social media, but the cell phone in particular, and I believe this one has the propensity to destroy us as a society simply by enslaving our minds. Maybe it’s just me, but I get depressed to see someone walking down the aisle in the store with a phone stuck to their ear. I also get a bit concerned when I see someone trying to drive and text.

I only see my grandkids once a year when they gravitate to the Ozarks for the Fourth of July. It’s one of the highlights of my life anymore – I love all of them dearly, but when they’re here, if myself or some other adult doesn’t guard against it, there will be a living room full of people, mostly kids, but some adults too, not talking nor visiting, all with their faces in their cell phones, not even talking to loved ones with whom they seldom get the opportunity to visit. Their families could be sitting right beside them or out in the orbit of the moon, and there would be no cognitive difference. I know I’m running the risk of sounding like an old geezer grandpa, but when I was a kid, the family sat around the living room getting to know each other. The fact that we already knew each other fairly well had no bearing on our ability and desire to be close, to form and maintain family bonds that have endured all of our lives. Of course, as we got grown and moved into different settings, we spend less time together, but as a result of those early experiences in family life, we still love each other and share fond memories when we’re together. Cell phones have the potential to completely destroy the family units of societies worldwide and we all need to reconsider our extensive use of – and terrible addiction to – our phones. They get my vote for one of the top couple of threats to society’s well-being, for even though they brough us great convenience, they are the number one tool being used (especially by young folks) to separate us all and cause us to maintain an unhealthy connection to the malevolence of the world. Wonder what kind of world we’d have if all those folks were walking around with a Bible in their hand instead of a cell phone.

There are other, better, essays in life we should be pursuing. The most important one by far, we have to make sure our kids learn about Jesus Christ so they will have His help to overcome the threat of addiction in all of it’s forms – for at the heart of the matter, most addictions are insidious weapons of Satan.

May the God of Heaven bless all,

MK