comment: >
  
  I think that just by looking at western society we can see how the shift has impacted our world negatively. Instead of thinking about how we can be individually better for ourselves and communities, we are encouraged to look at our neighbor's political affiliation and blame them for all the wrongs in the entire world.
  A community built around a religion of doing unto your neighbor as you would have done unto you, is far better than the community built around vague and shifting political causes.
context: /u/Brhino11 (OP) has awarded 1 delta(s) in this post.
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  Please note that a change of view doesn't necessarily mean a reversal, or that the conversation has ended.
  ^Delta System Explained ^| ^Deltaboards >
  
  With this ideology, any vice that gives you comfort replaces religion.
  Drink your problems away?
  Smoke?
  Play video games?
  I mean these are all activities someone could use to escape the real world and avoid facing problems. I'm not sure if you meant to put it this way but it seems like you're saying this is bad and escapism is bad.
  Regardless of religion, social media or otherwise, not everyone can handle all the burdens life presses upon them. A lot of mental disorders start as a way for the brain to cope with extreme trauma. Point is, shit is tough. If it wasn't religion or social media, some other thing would pop up for people to engage in to keep them distracted. >
  
  Δ Wow, that’s a great point. I guess I should probably check my negative value judgement on coping mechanisms. I think maybe I hold myself to such a high threshold that I sometimes feel like I shouldn’t need coping mechanisms at all. Thanks for holding the mirror up friend!
  Edit: Added a Δ >
  
  Aslo, social media doesn't provide comfort.
  It's a source of stress.   Anger,  Jealousy, fear, envy, lies is the currency of social media. >
  
  Do you think social media provides 0 comfort? >
  
  I'm not comforted by it.     Are you? >
  
  Staying connected with friends and family, sharing experiences, archiving your precious moments, a sense of community; yeah I could see these as providing comfort to some. >
  
  All of which I easily accomplish without social media or feeling the need to broadcast my life out in to the world for people to compare themselves to. >
  
  That's great for you. Personally, I don't use social media much (outside of this godforsaken site,) but I can easily understand the comfort it provides some people. >
  
  basically a nonsequitur, friend >
  
  The "opium of the masses" quote is meant that religion is what many people turn to in the uncertainty of existence to find meaning.  Marx didn't intend it as an insult, as you've implied, but rather how opium would be used to cure the pain of a person experiencing terrible pain.
  Given this information, does your view still stand that social media is a positive thing for people? >
  
  Hmmm. I guess I’ve never done a deep dive into the origins of this saying, so maybe I’ll have to do that. But I have always heard it used similarly to wrapping oneself in blanket to protect oneself from the cold. It feels nice in the blanket, so cozy and buffered from the bitter chill. But you miss a lot when you’re in a buffered state. Similarly, social media helps people escape the harsh realities of their everyday life. I guess that’s not necessarily bad, and everyone needs coping mechanisms, but I would argue that a lot of our issues, at least in the US today, are exacerbated by our impersonal interactions online. There are many studies on the decisive nature of many platforms and the way it causes people to engage in us vs them group-think. So to answer your question, as well as the one you didn’t ask, no - I don’t think most organized religion, or most social media, is a net positive for humans. >
  
  I'm confused, is your view that being wrapped in a blanket when it's cold somehow a bad thing?  
  
  but I would argue that a lot of our issues, at least in the US today, are exacerbated by our impersonal interactions online
  
  What issues?  To me it seems like we're here in the US living in the most tolerant and accepting cultural period in human history.  While not every single person is a progressive liberal, it's wildly unpopular to oppose any form of social progress.
  
  There are many studies on the decisive nature of many platforms and the way it causes people to engage in us vs them group-think.
  
  There's just as many studies that show that social media and the internet is an incredible tool for connecting people, sharing cultural exchange, and allowing people to learn different viewpoints. >
  
  Yep, we're so tolerant, that we bomb and sanctions other places who don't share our values, just to make them more tolerant like us. >
  
  I don't see how social media is numbing and self medicating. All of that competitive thirst for likes, followers and approval is stress inducing not comfort.
  I think the idea that woke have adopted religious type thinking is correct, however I see many of them on social media as the priests not the followers. >
  
  It's pull is function of how distracting it can be, but it is also really easy to get access.  Regardless of how emotionally charged it makes people, it offers an escape from reality, and into some make-believe world.  Just like religion; which does impact people emotionally, and can be stressful as well.
  I think the way people dogmatically preach various ideological concepts they've been exposed to on social media is very much an indication it is having the exact same immersive and controlling effects that organized religion has on people.  What's going on in social media has such a powerful effect on people, they're making those things part of their identity.  I'm sure anyone here can name a handful of identifiable things people are as a result of being exposed to it on social media, much in the way you could identify a christian, or a muslim.  There are furries, weebs, trans, ammosecuals, etc.  All popular, "identities," derrived almost exclusively from online communities. >
  
  If our increased political divide and massive overload of communication indicate some kind of drug-related analogy for social media, it's the it's the methamphetamine of the masses. 
  There's literally nothing calming about the anger directed at "someone in the internet who is wrong".  
  Which is another reason your analogy doesn't fit: political activism, anger, and protests have radically increased in the age of social media, which is exactly the opposite of what Marx meant: 
  
  In context, the statement is part of Marx's structural-functionalist argument that religion was constructed by people to calm uncertainty over their role in the universe and in society.
  
  If you're going to try to argue that social media is calming anyone about their role in the universe and society... well... feel free, but the evidence is massively to the contrary. >
  
  You post makes the assumption that people only go to those institutions for comfort.  You don’t understand that there are people who have an honest search for truth which leads them to God and the byproduct of that is comfort and peace.  
  Social media is just the newest substitute. There has always been cheap substitutes for truth. We can see the true value of those “truths” by how they manifest themselves in the believers. >
  
  I mean, in 2023... Don't you feel like opiates are the opiates of the masses? >
  
  I don't think religion or social media is good for 'numbing the senses'. >
  
  Sure it is.  It numbs your senses of what's
  happening in reality, and allows you to
  emerse yourself in something that allows
  you to avoid your real life problems. >
  
  I feel like thats just untrue. Going through high school with social media, it just makes things worse. Its like you can actively see with the amount of likes you have how popular you are and who doesn't like you. It makes people feel paranoid and exasterbates insecurities that already exist in real life >
  
  Social media is so tainted and negative I hardly see why anyone feels it's some sort of balm to escape the real world.
  Many use it for being a keyboard coward to harass and bully others as a sick form of entertainment. >
  
  I think the better answer for religion's replacement is actually political causes. >
  
  I think that's a good change for society.
  People arguing about religion are arguing about how the world is. It's looking at the past, and deciding what happened back then.
  People arguing about politics are arguing about how the world should be. It's looking at the present, and deciding what the future should be.