Stoic Take On Mental Health: Hurry!
When I told my friends and family I deleted all of my social media outlets this week, I received a wide variety of responses and reactions. In confusion and misunderstanding, some disregard my choice as inconsequential to success. Others are proud of the seemingly difficult feat of letting go of our Instagram updates and the latest TikTok trend.
Although one of the main reasons for this was providing an opportunity for better use of time during midterms and completing case competitions, I’ve found the most worthy reason for this is providing an opportunity to clear head-space in an extremely stressful time.
As I read In Carnuntum, I found some interesting similarities to my current struggle with social media. In book (chapter) 3 of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, he develops similar introspective observations of time and the relationship around us.
1. Not just that every day more of our life is used up and less and less of it is left, but this too: if we live longer, can we be sure our mind will still be up to understanding the world … But getting the most out of ourselves, calculating where our duty lies analyzing what we hear and see, deciding whether it’s time to call it quits … So we need to hurry Not just because we move daily closer to death but also because our understanding – our grasp of the world – may be gone before we get there.
As I read this, I realized how important the decision was to delete social media. Marcus, as he is reminding himself of this in writing, is affirming to us the scarcity of time we have. But more importantly, even in appreciation of that time, as I am attempting to optimize it is not always guaranteed to “grasp” the world.
With that realization earlier this week, I began a consulting style “market sizing” of the time I am actually spending, typically, on social media.
4 hours a day – 17% of each 24 hour day
28 hours a week – equivalent to a part-time job
120 hours a month – 5 entire days of the month
1460 hours annually – equivalent to roughly 2 months of nonstop social media use
Most staggeringly, if I continue this similar habit for the rest of my life assuming I live until I am 70 years old, I would spend 102,200 hours (11.5 years) entirely on social media.
That statistic, as demoralizing as it is, is our modern depiction of the urgency Marcus and stoic philosophy present to us. We don’t have time for anything aside from what is moving us toward self-actualization and betterment.
As many of my friends have reminded me, it’s hard to center our attention, say no to opportunities, delete, unfollow, and to focus on what really matters; but isn’t that exactly why we should?
In a world full of mental health struggles, distractions, opinions, continual political polarization, and information saturation – Stoicism may provide an unconventional opportunity to improve our approach & lives through understanding the scarcity of time and energy.
To conclude, here is one of Marcus’s final quotes from book 3 within thought #4:
… For we carry our fate with us – and it carries us.
Written by Ethan McCarthy – Penn State University – 10/5/23