The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality: An Interview with Elias Aboujaoude
In one of the earliest Christian sermons recorded in Scripture, Stephen states that “Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians” (Acts 7:22). The early saints and apostles believed that Moses’ understanding of his culture was an important element of his ability to lead God’s people. The phrase “plunder the Egyptians,” found initially in Exodus 12:36b, has similarly gone on to forge a lasting impact on the way many Christians have sought out and valued God’s truth wherever it may be found.
Perhaps thinking of this verse, the famous evangelist-theologian John Wesley often referred to this phrase to express the significance of utilizing the best the world has to offer in order to benefit Christian mission. By extension, this would include knowledge of science, current events, technology, literature and other such features of human life. In the same way that Paul quoted a Cretan poet in his letter to Titus (1:12), and an Epicurean philosopher at Mars Hill (Acts 17), the Helwys Society is committed to engaging resources outside the evangelical tradition when we believe it will be beneficial to the church’s mission. Thus, we are happy to introduce Dr. Elias Aboujaoude to our readers.
Professor Aboujaoude is a psychiatrist at the Stanford University School of Medicine where he serves as the director of the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Clinic and the Impulse Control Disorders Clinic. His medical degree is also from Stanford. His specialty in recent years has been in the influence of online behavior on patients. His work has had a profound influence on much psychological/psychiatric reflection in America, as he helped to lead the largest U.S. study on problematic Internet use published to date. A stellar researcher, psychiatrist, Silicon Valley resident, and keen cultural observer, he has much to offer us.
Most recently, his book Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality caught the attention of the Helwys Society. It is this intriguing, thoughtful, and well-researched volume that prompted this following interview.
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Helwys Society: The Helwys Society is happy to have Professor Elias Aboujaoude answering some questions for the Forum about his most recent book, Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality. Dr. Aboujaoude, you’re a psychiatrist. What initially lead you to begin asking questions about how technologies such as the Internet and virtual life impact the mental state of patients?
Elias: As a psychiatrist, I have come across several individuals whose online behaviors were strikingly different from how they behave offline, causing significant problems in their lives. It’s as though they had two distinct “operating manuals”. Looking at the culture more broadly, I found this online-offline split to be rather rampant, and its consequences quite common. All this led me to explore the idea of a parallel “e-personality” that we adopt online but whose consequences are felt in real life.
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Helwys Society: Early in your book you suggest that a gradual and subtle transformation occurs as people’s online personality and habits begin to spill into their “offline lives.” Do you think it is this subtlety that causes some to question this argument? Do you think some will be suspicious of this claim since it questions their control over life and their consumer habits?
Elias: I think it’s normal to want to think that we can control what we do online. The data suggests otherwise, though. It’s an unsettling idea to think that the online experience transforms us and weakens our will power, and that can lead people to resist and question it.
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Helwys Society: You show through research and a number of anecdotes in the book that many psychological neuroses are connected to online behavior and addictions. You suggest that some forms of therapy and medications (SSRIs like Paxil) can help to address this. Do you think that abstinence from Internet use altogether may be essential for some people’s rehabilitation?
Elias: For some, it might be. However, it is nearly impossible to be a functional adult and not have an active online life. Similarly, it is hard to be a well-adjusted teenager and not have a presence on Facebook. For the vast majority of us, abstaining amounts to wishful thinking, and the much more realistic approach if we think online life is harming us is to gradually cut back as we increase awareness into how the Internet is transforming us and into the price we are paying for our over involvement in the virtual world.
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Helwys Society: Your book suggests that there are five personality traits that are born and nurtured in the virtual world: (1) An exaggerated sense of our abilities, (2) a superior attitude toward others, (3) a new moral code we adopt online, (4) a proneness to impulsive behavior, and (5) a tendency to regress into childlike states. Couldn’t one argue that delusions of grandeur, narcissism, viciousness, impulsivity, and infantile behavior could just as easily characterize a person who isn’t a frequent Internet user? What makes the Internet, and sites like Facebook, as opposed to say television, more likely to foster these tendencies?
Elias: These traits were hardly invented by the Internet. They have always been part of the human psyche. The Internet, however, magnifies them and makes it easier for them to surface. It gives them freer rein than they ever had. The result is that these negative features of our personalities are being reinforced in ways that can be problematic.
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Helwys Society: You argue that people’s conception of money is very different in the virtual world. To paraphrase you, “when money goes virtual, large numbers become possible because they don’t mean anything anymore.” What do you think the import of this contention might be for Christians who are increasingly making online contributions to their places of worship?
Elias: It is wonderful that worthy causes can, online, find a supportive audience more easily. The spending I worry about is the reckless buying we do of things that we don’t need simply because the Internet makes is so much easier to do so. This binge-buying is encouraged because we have become dissociated from the physical act of handing over cash, or even a credit card, to someone. It is also encouraged because we act more impulsively online, and one of the many arenas this impulsivity manifests itself is in our spending behavior.
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Helwys Society: One of the features of religious piety that one commonly encounters is an emphasis on “delayed gratification.” How might online life undermine the ability of religious practitioners to cultivate this sensibility in their life?
Elias: Before anything else, the Internet is the domain of immediacy. Delaying gratification is a challenge that we are increasingly unable to meet because we spend so much time “practicing” instant reward online. I think it is an obstacle to pious life and to culture in a general sense.
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Helwys Society: For several years, one of the arguments that Internet and social-networking enthusiasts have been making is that these mediums can free people who normally would be withdrawn and isolated to express themselves, learning to cultivate social habits. Facebook would be a chief example of this. Has your research and work with people in any way supported this claim?
Elias: I have certainly recommended social media and online dating to socially anxious individuals in the past. Facebook and similar sites can help “break the ice” in a non-threatening way, making it easier for some to start a friendship or relationship that would be very anxiety-provoking to start otherwise. However, what strikes me perhaps more is the number of individuals I have encountered in my research who have 500 or 600 Facebook friends and yet feel so lonely.
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Helwys Society: While your book gives sustained attention to “online life,” would you have any other concerns as a psychiatrist about the influence that other modern electronic media have on our experience? E-Readers and quite complex iPhones/Smartphones are selling quite voluminously today. Is there any intellectual or social import from addiction to other devices that concerns you?
Elias: While I focus on the Internet, I am careful to note in my book that it has become impossible to separate the Internet from other digital crutches. Most of us carry smart phones that combine online browsers, video games and “apps” in one nifty little device. I think many of the issues I raise about the Internet experience apply to those as well, although much more research needs to be done.
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Helwys Society: Perhaps your most controversial claim in the book is on page 214, when you say, “The consequences of spending too much time in the virtual world are sometimes no less serious than those associated with a mental illness or substance abuse problem.” Two questions: First, is there a consensus in your profession about this particular concern? Second, are you as a psychiatrist more concerned with the content of people’s online experience (the websites themselves), or the form of the virtual world that the Internet offers?
Elias: The aspect to focus on is not the total number of hours but the offline consequences to the individual. There is increased awareness in our field about the trouble with some human-machine interactions, but experts are still actively debating whether, when it comes to the Internet, it is the medium itself that is the problem or the behaviors it makes possible (shopping, gambling, sexual pursuits, etc.). I happen to think it is a bit of both.
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Helwys Society: A lot of the readers of the Forum are pastors. As an objective onlooker from outside evangelicalism, what caution might you offer them about the shape of their ministries given your research and experience with psychologically-troubled individuals?
Elias: Although I use some examples of psychologically troubled individuals, my book is hardly “just” about those or the clinicians and pastors who are trying to help them. I strongly believe that we all fall somewhere on this spectrum, and we are all affected to varying degrees by the processes I describe in the book. As far as evangelical work, I think the effect on our moral fiber of the cruel and immoral streak we sometimes adopt online is of particular relevance. Besides impatience and self-centeredness, we may be becoming less ethical, too, because of the virtual lifestyle, and that can make a pastor’s job more difficult—and important.
More information about Dr. Aboujaoude’s research can be found at www.eliasaboujaoude.com, as well as his Stanford Faculty profile. More author interviews will be a part of the Forum’s 2012 program.
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