Image and Appearance

free AI image from www.gemini.google.com "iphone hypodermic"

Consider what psychiatrist Anna Lembke describes when discussing the benefits of exercise instead of prescribing medications for her patients with addiction disorders in her best-selling book, Dopamine Nation. Lembke (2023), an expert in addiction medicine, informs the reader that the health benefits of consistent physical activity alone not only improve mood and reduce feelings of anxiety and burnout but can also aid in recuperative sleep and rest. Additionally, for individuals with addictive tendencies, it can reduce obsessive and craving behaviors related to substance dependence, like street drugs and alcohol. All excellent alternatives that a majority would agree with.

The question proposed in this blog post is: At what point do the health benefits of exercise and reducing cravings associated with substance use become evident? Perhaps a total recovery from dependence? Furthermore, does posting on social media one's health journey and images of fitness, muscularity, bikini summer physique, and surfer bod-six-pack abs replace the alcohol/drug-seeking cravings of people with addictive personalities and replace it with a substitute addiction that seeks approval and likes online? That is yet to be discovered.

In a world where praise and recognition are often immediately gratified with a click, technology, as the additive medicine physician suggests, has now become the new electronic drug of choice (Lembke, 2023, p. 23). The ever-increasing desire to portray a pseudo-self online and to look and appear physically attractive and noticeably appealing, as well as muscular, has been described by healthcare providers as hijacking the brain to stimulate feel-good sensations through the responses to social media connections on online posts.

Cast your ballot for who-me?

However, where is the line crossed between staying in shape for health benefits and seeking approval from others, thereby living a manufactured online life? Like a puppeteer pulling the strings, are people marionettes online? Is it all for the show? This is a question that Dr. Jonathan Haidt and others have addressed, suggesting that the appearance of oneself is far more attractive and inviting than what is going on in a person's life, along with trying to look a particular part instead of trying to act a specific part in life suggesting that in person and even online, we are much like a politician trying to get the people to like us than like the diligent laboratory scientist trying to figure out the truth of a matter (Haidt, 2012, pp. 88-89).

In his thought-provoking book, The Righteous Mind, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt pointedly addresses the innate human need for approval and describes the idea that all human beings have an internal social speedometer. This gauge tells us how, in our social order of relationships, we are measuring up or falling behind the popularity scale; hence, the need for likes online (Haidt, 2012, p. 91), where individuals who do not care what others think of them are deemed psychopathic. We have social media platforms to thank for our current epidemic of an exacerbated need for approval.

References:

Haidt, J. (2012). The righteous mind: Why good people are divided by politics and religion. Random House Inc.

Lembke, A. (2021). Dopamine nation: Finding balance in the age of indulgence. Penguin Random House Publishing Group.