opinion: you can use social networks to amplify your constant seeking of the drama triangle and gossiping (something rooted in humans that I’ve seen around me my whole life)

When you live a simple life, especially if you are in a small town—I noticed—you may feel compelled to enrich your existence with drama merely for the sake of raising yourself “one-up”, or feeling more alive in some way.

Accepting the mundane simplicity of daily activities is one of the core ingredients for a profound life. Yet, many of us haven’t come to the same conclusion or experiential insight. You may feel uncomfortable with having nothing to talk or gossip about. That may make you feel discomfiting with yourself unless you have gone through enough self-work to understand yourself and the world at a deeper level.

You may think that what you want from life is “tranquillity”—order—but you may feel a different way sometimes—that chaos is needed for you to feel alive. As dr. Peterson points out in his book 12 Rules for Life and Beyond Order, a balance between order and chaos seems to be the sweet spot for a satisfactory life. Sometimes your circumstances may sway you one way or another, and you fight to re-establish the status quo.

When there is too much order in your life (not many problems to be solved), you may look for problems to be solved to feel alive again. You seek some chaos to make your existence less orderly. One of the ways you enact that is by creating artificial drama for yourself—and maybe also for the people close to you. You may start psychological fights with someone, or play one of the roles in the drama triangle.

Social media is an amplifier of such a state of hot boredom. Social media empower you to share your signaling need for chaos and gossip at scale. It’s akin to an old town square where you can gossip about the latest rumors on the king or mayor and the people around them. And you can get those dopamine spikes you may be looking for to make your life feel less mundane.

The truth is, as Alan Watts often points out in his speeches, that true life satisfaction lies in accepting things as they are—no matter their mundanity. It’s only through radical acceptance and letting go of the egoic attachment that one can feel a sense of fulfillment and deep joy. You may improve the world's condition by focusing on liberating yourself from always seeking problems to solve and gossip about.