Modern addictions deprive us of the freedom to discover what we value.
“The main thing that makes exploration effective is freedom. When one is free to explore one’s values and one’s criteria, then one is in a position to meet them. If one isn’t free to seek one’s own values, then it’s not surprising when one doesn’t meet them.”
— David Deutsch
But who first stands in the way of that freedom? Who has the earliest and most constant opportunity to shackle us? We do. Everything we subject ourselves to, and everything we let in without a filter, can supply iron for the bars of our personal prison.
Human psychology has been weaponized all around us. Food engineered to be hyper-palatable, short-form content that would put a pilgrim in a coma, and infinite amounts of porn just a click away all exploit innate human desires. They give us the sensation of satisfaction without requiring us to move forward, and consequently move us backward.
We have been hacked and hooked by companies that may not intend to harm us, but do so indirectly by designing products that consume as much of our time and attention as we will surrender. In stripping us of these, they strip us of some measure of our freedom. A person whose attention is perpetually occupied is not free to explore. Without exploration, they cannot discover which values are actually theirs, much less pursue them.
This is not solely the fault of Meta, Google, or TikTok. That these addictions are engineered does not absolve us of responsibility, just as our participation does not absolve these companies of what they've created.
These products succeed because they find something real within us. Our desires for nourishment, sex, novelty, connection, relief, and recognition are not themselves the problem. Each has an effortless counterfeit, and we repeatedly settle for it.
Recognizing an addiction is always the first step out of it. The next is understanding why it formed and what hole it's trying to fill. That answer will always be particular to the individual. The same vice may offer one person relief from boredom, another an escape from anxiety, and another a substitute for connection. Until it is understood, one may remove the object of addiction without removing the need that keeps drawing them back to it. To regain our freedom, we must understand both the weapon and the opening within ourselves through which it entered.
A mind free to explore has no final form. It can reconsider the values it holds, create explanations that could not have been anticipated, and develop interests it does not yet possess. None of this happens without the freedom to think for ourselves.
Engineered addictions interfere with that freedom by pairing a desire with a quick answer: hunger with this food, boredom with this distraction, sexual desire with this screen. If we can resist answering every desire immediately, we may discover that it leads us somewhere new.
Perhaps somewhere better.