False Rumor Lawsuit and SNS Addiction Reflections by Miss Todai

The story of filing a disclosure request over defamatory posts on X

Some time ago, this happened.

“I had to do sexual favors with a 30-year-old employee for my job hunting.”

I found this kind of post about me on X. When I saw it, I was desperately job hunting and got so angry that before I knew it, I had contacted a lawyer. Looking back calmly, I know such a post wouldn’t really affect me. I can say for sure that the person who wrote this has never done job hunting. Besides, I never applied to a company with such a hiring process.

The people who keep posting these defamatory messages hide behind anonymity and attack others, losing the boundary between themselves and others — they become monsters. But I imagine they probably don’t have malicious intent. I even think they might have a goodwill to get everyone to know about it. Maybe they jumped into the ocean of social media and unknowingly started drowning, losing the ability to judge right from wrong.

At that moment, I stopped and reflected. “Maybe I’m also a full-fledged SNS (social media) addict.” I don’t post things that hurt others, but I realized the root cause connecting those monsters who spread hate and myself might be the same — and that thought sent a chill down my spine.

This time, I want to share my own thoughts about today’s internet society and SNS.

Meeting my smartphone — before becoming addicted to social media

Can you all remember life without smartphones? Unfortunately, I cannot. On the train, everyone sitting opposite me is using their smartphone. No one is reading a book. I am no exception. Smartphones have become indispensable infrastructure for living.

In January 2007, the first iPhone was announced. At that time, I was still in kindergarten. I was a girl eagerly awaiting elementary school, excited that they would serve Yukimi Daifuku for lunch!

Exactly ten years ago, in 2015, when I was in the third year of junior high school, I got my first smartphone. By then, most of my friends already had smartphones. Slightly behind the digital natives, I ended up spending my high school life mostly unaware of SNS (social media) — fortunately or unfortunately (which allowed me to focus on entrance exam study).

In 2019, when my family traveled to the U.S., I still couldn’t understand my sister, who kept uploading mysterious stories that disappeared after 24 hours on Instagram, and I ended up picking a fight with her over it — something I still remember.

One year later, I participated in the Miss University of Tokyo contest. Instagram, which I installed for the first time then, was an extremely strange and incomprehensible app to me. I didn’t really understand how to use it, so I barely made use of it.

“I became addicted to SNS”

Here I am now, addicted to SNS. What exactly is SNS addiction? My definition is: “A state where one is captivated by the stimuli from SNS and loses self-control.” Breaking it down further, I believe there are two types of SNS addiction: one caused by the stimuli received as a user, and the other caused by the stimuli experienced as a content creator.

Addiction to smartphones as a receiver

The first type, addiction caused by stimuli as a receiver, refers to a state where countless interesting or provocative posts keep flowing in, causing you to keep looking at your smartphone for hours—losing your self-control. Beauty, dogs, and academic achievements—these are topics I love. There are countless tasks I should be doing. Even more things I want to do. But I end up postponing all of them and spend hours watching meaningless videos about beauty, dogs, and academic achievements.

Honestly, I sometimes fall into self-loathing. But I can’t control it myself. I keep telling myself, “Just 10 more minutes until a good stopping point,” or “Well, 30 more minutes won’t hurt,” and before I know it, it’s dark outside. It’s a deep depression. Moreover, this addiction has started to affect me physically. I usually sleep facing right, but after over 10 years of spending hours on my smartphone in bed facing right, only my right eye has become severely nearsighted. I really wish this would stop.

Addiction as a content creator

On the other hand, addiction as a content creator refers to the escalating posts driven by the uncontrollable desire for approval through likes. When this addiction worsened for me, I became unable to get any satisfaction unless my posts went viral. If I don’t get regular bursts of attention, I start experiencing withdrawal symptoms.

That’s why I end up chasing viral hits. Recently, a reel video I posted from Cebu went viral, giving me an incomparable rush. However, trying too hard to go viral can sometimes backfire and look embarrassing. A perfect example was when I dressed up in front of the University of Tokyo’s Akamon gate for a TV show project — it was a total cringe moment.

SNS addiction can also become a source of livelihood

So far, I have pointed out the negative side of being obsessed with SNS, but on the other hand, this SNS addiction can also be said to be quite useful in my life.

Posts that go viral get picked up by online news, which leads to recognition, and opportunities to appear on TV and internet programs increase. Those media appearances then become new opportunities to gain more SNS followers, making posts more likely to go viral. In today’s society, where individuals become media and influence public opinion online, the number of SNS followers represents the magnitude of influence and also serves as a proof of trust.

In this online society, SNS addiction is one way to survive. Sometimes, I receive a lot of criticism from controversial posts, but I cannot be intimidated by that. The essay I wrote about Minato-ku girls in the first round received a wide variety of both praise and criticism, which I was truly grateful for and learned a lot from.

However, even that is quickly consumed. Hundreds of posts go viral every day and are consumed immediately. It is a really harsh world. To survive in this kind of online society, I want to continue being a good kind of SNS addict.

The first essay is available here.