Service for Others.

In the last few posts I’ve argued that inside each of us is a deep desire to live as our Highest Self - healthy, virtuous, joyful, and in service to others.

The focus of this post will be the last part of that definition - the importance of being in service.

Let’s begin.

In the most beautiful way, research shows that helping others is deeply beneficial for us as the helper - studies upon studies showing that regularly helping others reduces stress, fights chronic disease, quells depression and anxiety, and improves countless other health markers linked to a longer and more fulfilling life.

There is no better drug than service.

I like to think of this relationship between service for others and improvement to our own quality of life as the most beautiful example of our “divine hardwiring”- aspects of our creation and evolution that are in place to deepen love for ourselves and others.

Unfortunately, I think the modern world both numbs and complicates our hardwiring for helping others.

Social media is in my estimation the greatest culprit, working in a few different ways to degrade both the quantity and type of service we now engage in.

With the rise of social media there has been a DRASTIC increase in the time and energy many people now devote to how they “present” each day, endlessly curating shareable snapshots in an effort to validate their own worth.

These folks in perpetual “performance mode” spend less time deeply engaged in an authentic human experience, having to rely on the neurochemical reward and external feedback that social media provides, rather than being able to derive joy or fulfillment from life itself.

The end result is a society now overwhelmed with “performers”- people more concerned with showing how they’re “living” versus actually living, and so deeply devoted to enhancing their digital portrayal that they lose awareness and concern for the needs of others.

In addition to this gross expansion of narcissistic behavior, social media has also distorted the definition of actual service.

As much of social media has morphed into nauseating arenas for displays of self-righteousness, many people now confuse the act of showing others how concerned/angered/virtuous they are, with genuine action towards improving the quality of life for someone else.

Posting, retweeting, and sharing content often void of any measurable value to another human being has unfortunately taken the place of more action-oriented and humble devotion to our families and immediate communities.

In other words, displays of virtue have been prioritized over authentic (and private) acts of service.

The remedy for this phenomenon is layered, but I think the answer lies in our ability to peel away the digital lens that now frames so much of human action.

This means actually living, not showing others how we’re living.

Eating food for the sake of eating, traveling for the sake of traveling, and helping others for the sake of helping others - none of it for the end goal of other’s digital consumption and feedback.

Essentially, we need a distancing from the external validation that now drives so much of our behavior.

Not to end this post on a pessimistic note, but until that day comes, I think we will continue to see the frightening mental health trends we’re currently seeing - exponential growth in anxiety/depressive disorders, suicides, and substance abuse.

“I slept and dreamt that life was a joy. I woke up and saw that life was service. I acted, and behold, service was joy.” -Rabindranath Tagore

P.S. Some nuance is warranted in the discussion of service and social media - it’s important to note that these platforms have been very useful in building momentum for worthwhile causes. That shouldn’t be discredited. In an ideal world, social media would be used to enhance an individual’s authentic contribution to their community or the world at large, not as a substitute.