Finnigan 1
Kathryn Finnigan
Professor Loh
Happiness Embodied
12 October 2018
Paper 1
Happiness is something that society strives for in the twenty-first century. If you do not
present yourself with a smile on your face, you are less appealing to those around you. Having
to “appear positive in every post, [effects the] flattening [of ones] emotions” and ultimately tries
to suppress one’s suffering (Kidd). Human beings are too focused on their own lives. When one
becomes too self-centered it inhibits them from being truly happy. While trying to obtain
happiness, frivolous constructs such as technology, phones, and social media get in the way of
obtaining said happiness. If one wants to reach a state of perfect happiness or nirvana, one must
live a life of selflessness.
One who is looking for selfless life one may look to the Four Noble Truths for guidance.
According to the Buddhist religion, nirvana or perfect happiness is a part of the Four Noble
Truths. However, it is the third of said Truths, relaying to the end of suffering. Before one can
achieve Nirvana, they must also achieve the first two Noble Truths. The first being, that Life or
Existence is suffering, another name being Dukkha. Although Buddhism admits that “it is
possible to have a good time and having a good time [can be] enjoyable” social media prohibits
the good time from happening completely (Suzuki). Social media constructs the mindset that one
has to always be perfect. In striving for a nonexistent perfection, human beings are essentially
lying to themselves that there is no suffering in their lives. I argue that this type of suffering falls
Finnigan 2
under suffering of illusion because the whole realm of social media is false and cannot be an
actual reality for anyone. Social media is the twenty-first century distraction. Human beings
look for distractions, “for distractions divert us from what lies beneath the surface” (Suzuki). It is
when one scrolls through another social media feed, likes a picture or posts a hilarious tweet that
one is not focusing on the first truth. Social media promotes a sense of self and a need to display
what one has for example receiving a new car or celebrating a birthday. One’s own self is the
primary source of craving, and when one is constantly seeing what other people have while
scrolling through their own feed, one‘s cravings begin to become insatiable.
The Second Noble Truth states that “the cause of life’s dislocations is Tanha” or in other
words cravings. (Suzuki). By indulging in things, such as social media, one is ignoring the
suffering, not only in their own lives but in the world around them. According to Eric Barker, a
