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Twitter is the Anti-Stoic
You become what you give your attention to
Several times a day the Daily Stoic account sends a tweet. The intention, no doubt, is good. Stoicism is supposed to make us feel better, to calm our minds, to direct our energy where it can help the most. Yet there is something disturbing about these tweets; something that cuts deeply against the teachings of Stocisim.
The problem is not in the advice, nor in the tweets themselves. It lies in the platform delivering them: in Twitter and, more broadly, in social media itself. For while Stoicism is a philosophy that teaches the importance of focus and self control, Twitter demands the exact opposite.
The roots of Stoicism lie in Ancient Athens. Little survives from those times: we know of Zeno, the philosopher credited with founding the school of stoicism. We know the names of Diogenes of Babylon, of Anitpater and Panaetius, though none of their writings survived the test of time.
Today Stoicism is more often associated with the Romans: with the philosophers Seneca and Epictetus and, above all, the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. It is his private writings, the Meditations, that today serves as the classic text of Stoicism.
At its heart, Stoicism teaches the importance of self-control and, crucially, the importance of accepting what we…
