What would Epictetus make of Social Media?
The modern world is uniquely challenging. While I believe Epictetus's principles hold true, the world we live in — the culture, technology and environment — provide new and specific use cases that Epictetus has not himself spoken about.
What would Epictetus make of social media? I think, to him, it would be seen as a mass adopted global hysteria. The individuals who use it do so because they are bored. It distracts and entertains them. It starts at moments of genuine boredom, and over time encroaches on our lives, finding its way into important moments of connection and, embarrassingly, taking us out of the moments that make life worth living.
Epictetus would view this as a sickness — a widespread plague. It affects individuals at every level of society, every age. Their addiction to the content on the screens makes them diagnosably ill; otherwise healthy teenagers now find themselves incapacitated with nothing to make sense of their incapacity other than the labels their doctors or family members prescribe: eating disorders, bipolar disorders, anxiety, OCD, autism, ADHD, depression.
So how does Epictetus think we should navigate this world? Epictetus says Stoics have been sent down by God to enjoy the festivities. We can stay as long as God allows, but if we are asked to do something that is not in line with nature, we politely leave.
It's not as if sickness was not present in Ancient Rome and Greece — in fact there was probably more around then than there is now. What makes this unique is that this sickness affects almost every single human alive, almost every day of their lives, and is entirely man-made.
I believe he would abstain where possible, and use it primarily in messaging to maintain reasonable cultural duties. If being a friend in the modern world involves the occasional message, I think he would do it. That said, this would be the exception and not the rule.
I believe that this is the great struggle of our generation. It is a struggle which unites the entire world. The question is, "against whom?" - made all the more illusive by the censorship power of these people.
For the individual, this struggle for mental freedom will determine one's life trajectory, and as such I believe Epictetus would have an awful lot to say about it.