ABSTRACT
Over the last few years, the world has experienced a drastic shift in the way we socialize, engage, and interact with others. With the world on lockdown, societal engagement has shifted online more than ever, with unforeseen consequences on mental health and interpersonal relationship dynamics. The increasing global presence of social media raises the questions: how do we understand the engagement between the subject, the other users on the platform, and the platform itself? How does social media impact how we understand ourselves? This chapter explores social media engagement utilizing Wilfred Bion’s theories of thinking and containment. After briefly outlining the interplay between these two theories, we explore the nature of the paranoid-schizoid position, ways that social media can be used maladaptively in the paranoid-schizoid position, and identify implications and possible outcomes of utilizing social media in these ways.
