Seven Deadly Sins

But first… Let me take a selfie. I Snapchat all my friends to show them how much fun I am having at the beach with my family. I scroll through my Facebook feed and compare my vacation to all of my friends' vacations from this summer. Damn it. Suzie went to Florida AND France this summer. What a slut. Omg. How could I forget Suzie’s birthday? I make a quick collage of pictures of her and I and tell the social media world how much I love her and that I wish her the best birthday a beautiful girl like her should have. I quickly tweet about the most ridiculous thing the cashier at McDonalds said to me, and then I put away my phone so my dad doesn't tell me to for the SIXTH time… Five was enough.

America is a nation wrapped up in social media. We complete with our friends and create social profiles that only display a small fraction of who we really are. I have a zit on my right cheek, so you better believe I will only take selfies on my left side until it is gone. Nodder explains that throughout history, philosophers and religious scholars have categorized human weaknesses as a set of ‘sins’. The Seven Deadly Sins are Pride, Sloth, Gluttony, Anger, Envy, Lust, and Greed (2013). Contemporary web designs exploit our weaknesses for both good and evil. The power block uses these techniques on popular social media sites which limits our ability refuse the seven deadly sins.

The internet has become an easy gateway to the seven deadly sins. These sins take place outside of the internet, yet the world-wide-web has made it particularly easy to do so while sitting at a computer or hiding behind your smart phone. As long as we are actively participating in social media, our weaknesses will be controlled by the power holders of America.

The first deadly sin, pride, is identified as believing one is essentially better than others and excessive admiration of the personal self. Pride is prevalent in our “selfie” culture. With every Snapchat you send your friends of your “awesome” life, you hope that the person opening it thinks about how fun it would be to be you. You open your friend’s Snap, and it is of them watching Netflix alone on a Friday night. Subconsciously, you think about how much more fun you are having than them, and you think about how it sucks to be them. Let’s have a reality check: You don’t know if this person is alone on a Friday night because they don’t have anything better to do, or if they have chosen to do so because they had a much more “awesome” night than you did the night before. Snapchat is a social media outlet that encourages its users to be proud and boast about themselves.

The second deadly sin, sloth, is defined as physical laziness. It is also a failure to do things one should and a failure to use one’s talents and gifts. Google is the prime example of laziness. I would hate for someone to actually have to stretch their mind when I ask them a question, so thank God for smart phones with Google. It is almost too much to ask for someone to think logically about a question when they could mindlessly find the answer on Google. In fact, we have turned this phenomenon into a transitive verb. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines Google as, “to use the Google search engine to obtain information about (as a person) on the World Wide Web”. When we have free time, many of us are guilty of spending countless hours Googling different topics, browsing through our Facebook feed, watching Youtube videos, and looking for our next DIY project on Pinterest. How about we put away our computers and put down our phones and replace these activities with volunteering to help a neighbor or better ourselves for the future?

The third deadly sin, Gluttony, is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. Twitter is a prime examples of gluttony. Many people feel that they need to tweet every aspect of their life regardless of how many other people actually care. We tweet our emotions too soon, we tweet too eagerly, we tweet too wildly, and we simply tweet too much. After we post, we wait to be reposted, and we wait to be favorited. Twitter and other social medium consume our thoughts to the point of waste.

The forth deadly sin, wrath, is a hatred that may provoke feuds that can go on for centuries. Facebook is a battlefield for many people. You hate some bitch because three years ago she slept with your new boyfriend, and she just liked one of his photos. It is a source that fuels your anger, and you can be as nasty as you want to someone because they are not right in front of you to kick your ass. I am no longer surprised when I scroll through my Facebook news feed and see my friends posting passive aggressive statuses about someone who they hate at the moment. Social media is a place for many people to practice wrath towards not only other people but towards political parties and controversial topics.

The fifth deadly sin, envy, is characterized by the desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to someone else.  Envy is the one sin that is never any fun. After feeling envious, people often feel smaller and less secure about themselves because they compare themselves to others. Instagram is designed to have its users follow people or pages they like. In today’s fit culture, many Instagram users follow athletes and compare themselves to the pros. Users often scrutinize themselves after looking through pages and pages of seemingly “perfect” bodies and lives. This can lead to a lower self-esteem when you don’t measure up.

The sixth deadly sin, lust, is an intense desire of money, food, fame, power or sex. The internet is a gateway for lust through social media, online dating sites and pornography sites. There are extramarital dating sites for those who are no longer satisfied in their marriages and want to spice up their life with another person. These sites are designed to make people feel lusted after even though their flame has died with their spouse. Porn sites are also a large social media that is centered on lust. Men and women alike use these sites to fulfill or supplement their needs. Websites such as these make it easy to fall into lust.

The seventh and final deadly sin, greed, is applied to a very excessive pursuit of material possessions. People want to use the latest gadgets to view their social media, and they want to do so at a low cost. They want to use free wi-fi whenever possible, and they absolutely do not want to pay for their social media. People use Youtube to mp3 converters and torrent sites in order to get whatever they can for free. We want the latest iPhone, we want all new music on our iPhones, and we want an app for just about everything. Greed creates a needy culture that never really seems satisfied with what we have.

            Savage critiques the seven deadly sins in his book Skipping Towards Gomarrah (2003). He commits (or tries to) each of the deadly sins and finds the everyday Americans who take delight in them. He points out that American sinners can be and are often good. In context, he would argue that social media may encourage people to engage in the seven deadly sins, but that does not make them bad people.

            If you partake in social media, you will be influenced by at least one of the seven sins on nearly every site. Adorno argues, “The system of cultural production…was controlled by advertising and commercial imperatives, and served to create subservience to the system of consumer capitalism” (Durham, 2006). We have been shaped into a culture that puts our social image on a pedestal, and we are beginning to lose some of our true identity behind our social media masks. There does not seem to be a way around these influences set upon us by the power block other than resisting social media altogether. Good luck.

Reference List

Durham, M. G. (2006). Media and cultural studies keyworks (Rev. ed.). Malden, MA: Blackwell.

Google. 2014. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved July 20, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/google.

Nodder, C., & libro, C. (2013). Evil by design interaction design to lead us into temptation. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons.

Savage, D. (2003). Skipping towards Gomorrah: the seven deadly sins and the pursuit of happiness in America. New York: Plume.