Facebook was originally supposed to be nudity-free and family-friendly when it began, but it’s become far from that. Things have definitely changed these days for this mega social media site, as there are now acceptable levels of nudity and sexual content being allowed. Unfortunately, for a guy like me, who’s recovering from a sex and love addiction that used to involve regularly looking at adult pornography of guys that looked just like my current partner, that’s not a good thing.
The fact is, social media sites like Facebook can often be quite addictive for a variety of reasons. I actually met someone not too long ago who was institutionalized for having a Facebook addiction because they were spending 24/7 on their newsfeed and were getting panic attacks if they didn’t constantly stay on top of it. While that’s not a problem for me, it’s the pictures that are posted that are and pose the most dangerous threat to my six and a half years of sobriety from this addiction.
So, you can probably understand why the last thing I want to see on any social media site I’m on, is nudity or explicit sexual content. Frankly, I only use social media to re-post my blog articles with the hopes of reaching a wider reading audience. But unfortunately, from time to time, I come across friends and sometimes friends of friends that post such triggering content that I have to either unfriend or block them, solely to protect my sobriety.
Just last week for example, I became friends with someone new on Facebook who seemed interesting and harmless enough. But when I glanced at some of their content, I noticed a number of their pictures were of them in the nude from the backside and some were even showing sexual suggestions.
This is precisely one of the main reasons why I don’t follow anyone on Facebook and have an entirely blank newsfeed, except for my own postings. I absolutely don’t want to be triggered by someone’s content being posted, as my sobriety and recovery for this addiction is that important to me. I’m thankful that Facebook at least allows me to unfollow everyone so that when I log into my own account, I don’t have to suddenly see a picture of someone in the buff. As seeing something like that for a recovering sex and love addict, it can be totally detrimental and lead into a full-blown relapse.
Sadly, in recent years, I’ve actually noticed a much stronger rise in explicit content being posted on Facebook. From violence to nudity, Facebook doesn’t seem to be doing a very good job of keeping things PG-rated. Even worse is Facebook’s messaging tool. Not too long ago, someone I know sent me a funny meme in a message, well at least one that they thought was funny, except to me it wasn’t. It was of a 90-year-old woman offering oral sex on some middle-aged guy with quite a large endowment. I was extremely angry at my friend because of this, for randomly sending what I deem as porn and told him if he did it again, I would unfriend him and most likely block him as well.
Look, I take my sobriety that serious. I don’t ever want to return to a life where I was ok with doing things like looking at pornography or having sexual conversations over the Internet. Because it’s those very things that ultimately killed my spirituality and connection to God.
While I remain hopeful that social media sites like Facebook will increase their censorship of what’s considered acceptable content, regrettably, I think it’s heading in the exact opposite direction, as it seems like more and more people are becoming ok with seeing explicit content, like nudity.
All I know is that my sobriety and recovery with sex and love addiction, my relationship to God, and my spirituality are the most important things in my life right now, which is why unfriending someone on Facebook whose content might potentially jeopardize that, is often a very necessary thing to do…
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
