Let me start this by saying that Instagods is a dense and thought provoking book. While Sonny’s last book Of Tyrants & Tellers could be read through in a sitting or two the same cannot be said of Instagods Sonny’s latest. For that don’t know Sonny Arvado runs the site Strength by Sonny which recently got a recommendation in my three sites worth a damn article. In this book Sonny goes in depth about the psychology of social media and its effects on culture as a whole.
So like I said this book covers a whole lot in its 47 chapters. Because of this I’m not going to give a comprehensive review of the entire book but rather as usual highlight certain ideas that stood out to me and that I found interesting. Now I can’t say I agree with everything in the book (of course could be said of any book) but the overall thrust I am in line with and think that this is a book worth picking up. But with that said here are some ideas that stood out to me.
The Internet & Our Brain
We have yet to see what the internet will truly do to us. On one hand it can be used wisely and be a source of great knowledge on the other more likely hand it has a whole host of negative side effects. In this book Sonny talks about another book called The Shallows that talks about the effects of the internet on a culture. He talks about the “quick scan” generation where the details are lost and just the great gist of things barely understood but passed for complete understanding.
This is why I was always so against things like Time Ferris’s speed reading. Sure you “read” 100 books but how much did you actually get out of them? Well the internet does this on a cultural level. He also talks about how the internet can numb the brain as well as instant gratification. While these may seem like things old cranky people complain about many of the problems we face in our personal lives can be attributed to them.
We all want the six pack abs, the hot babe, and the respect and admiration of all men but we all want it either in six easy payments of 9.99 or by having someone else give it to us. Which just isn’t the way the world works. You have to put in the work to get the reward, its as simple as that. Something that is getting lost on people of all ages in the modern day. In this particular chapter Sonny also goes into digital addiction, another interesting topic.
The Nature Of Propaganda
Something I think it is crucial for every man to understand is the nature of propaganda and how it works and how governments and big corporations have joined together to influence us, our families, and our cultures in negative ways. Sonny references Edward Bernays and talks about how he got women to start smoking. He mixed feminism with capitalism creating loads of profit while also pushing a cause. Essentially Bernays staged a group of women to go smoke in public “rebellious” as a symbol of feminism which would cause other women to buy the cigarettes as well.
It worked wonders (after all this was the man that got America to join WWI and lose 116,516 warrior souls for the sake of “democracy”). Now propaganda has only advanced and become more effective and efficient since then. And social media is one of, if not the, greatest tool of modern propaganda. People are monkeys and when they see someone do something they’ll often follow and do the same. Look at how much influence Kim Kardashian has.
Sonny goes on to talk about another great book Crystallizing Popular Opinion also by Bernays as well as the CIA Manual On Propaganda another good read. In the modern world if we are plugged into mainstream sources of any kind then we are exposed to propaganda day in and day out that has a profound effect on our lives.
Social Media & Relation Between The Sexes
There is no one chapter on this rather it is a major theme of the book. Now I never use social media and don’t have any profiles and meet women in the real world so much of this was “new” to me in a way though I have seen many of the effects from a far. Especially with friends in relationships. However I had no idea the depths some descend to. Well I shouldn’t say that rather I was surprised by the normalization of some things. With how petty and lowly people have become it makes me think of how we need struggles but that’s off topic.
Again this takes up a large portion of a large book and is a very interesting look at how social media effects one’s relationships and how it can consume the lives of those that use it. And this is not just women but men as well. I always thought of social media as like porn for women with the same negative effects but I’m thinking its just as negative for men. Again being someone who spends a lot of time outdoors and meet women in the real world a lot of this is foreign to me but its enlightening to see the effects of social media.
Real Vs. Fake
Another thing Sonny talks about in this book is how the real world is losing out to the fake one in most people’s minds and lives. Just like a video game people get lost and drawn into social media and lose sight of their real lives. Video games replace real action and challenge, porn replaces intimacy and sex, and social media replaces friendship and relationships among other things. More and more our world becomes virtualized and we lose touch with reality.
And bad things happen when we lose touch with reality. And never let social media become your god. Again being someone who is very divorced from social media and would never have the time and patience for anything other than a one night stand with a girl whose obsessed with it I’m far removed from a lot of this but as I’ve been saying its interesting to see the effect it has on those caught up in it.
Instagods by Sonny Arvado
All in all an interesting book. I think social media is something that should be limited and used with a purpose and never something to obsess over or become consumed with. Stay grounded in the real world, get out into nature, and live life with a fire in your soul. If you want to know why in an extremely in depth manner (as in 600+ pages) then pick up Sonny’s Instagods.
