Epicurus said most pleasures aren’t worth pursuing. They create more pain than joy.
He was talking about expensive food and political ambition. But he nailed social media 2,300 years early.
Think about it. You open Instagram for pleasure. A quick hit of entertainment. Connection. Maybe some laughs.
Instead you get: anxiety about your life compared to others. Anger about politics. Envy disguised as inspiration. The pleasure lasted thirty seconds. The agitation lingers for hours.
Epicurus called this a “kinetic pleasure” — intense but brief, followed by disturbance. He preferred “katastematic pleasures” — stable, lasting states of contentment.
Reading a book is katastematic. Scrolling TikTok is kinetic.
Having coffee with a friend is katastematic. Checking how many likes your photo got is kinetic.
Epicurus wasn’t against all intense pleasures. He just noticed that chasing them usually backfires. The anticipation creates anxiety. The aftermath creates craving. You end up less happy than when you started.
Social media companies figured this out. They’re not selling you the pleasure of connection. They’re selling you the anxiety of missing it. The fear that somewhere, someone is having more fun than you.
Epicurus would have deleted the apps.
Not because he was anti-technology. Because he was pro-pleasure. Real pleasure. The kind that actually makes life better.
Your phone buzzes. You can check it, or you can notice how good this moment feels without it.