Though written by a believer not of our faith, this post addresses something nearly all Mormons struggle with—an addiction many of us let control or shape our lives from time to time. So what is emotional porn and how can we avoid it? I love this quote:
"Emotional porn is looking at something that isn't a reality and being frustrated that it isn't your reality. Pastor Steven Furtick puts it this way, 'The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else's highlights.'"
The other night at youth group a student asked me, "Why don't you follow anybody on Instagram?" I explained to him that I was simply wasting too much time on the app and if I don't follow anyone, there isn't anything new to see, therefore I don't waste as much time. And that reason is partly true -- that was absolutely a big part of my reasoning on why I chose to unfollow everyone that I use to follow, but it's not the full story.
The second, and more important, reason I decided to unfollow everyone on my Instagram feed is, to put it bluntly, because of this -- I am a recovering emotional porn addict.
I really don't like to use the word porn. Years ago, I spent a summer interning for . . . a non-profit helping people overcome and recover from their porn addiction. It was a summer where I saw and heard some rough stories about porn addiction—people losing their jobs, wives, businesses, respect, etc. So again, if I am honest, I hate the word porn. I don't use it lightly. But, when I was thinking about this post and I was trying to come up with a different word to use, I just couldn't find one that accurately described what I wanted to say.