What does a flat piece of glass that looks like a crudely-drawn eye have to do with your phone? More than you might think.
Many traditional cultures share a common belief in something commonly called the evil eye. While conceptually linked to the idea of malevolent glances, the evil eye is a spiritual poison or negative energy generated by envy and ill will.
Wealth, beauty, love – anything that other people might covet can lead to them “casting the evil eye on you.” This can cause you to experience misfortune, and even lose whatever it is that provoked the envy.
This belief isn’t unique to one region, or even one continent. In India, the evil eye is nazar. Ancient Greeks called it baskania. Italians have the malocchio. Arabs still discuss the al-’ayn, while Jews call it the ayin hara. In Latin America, mal de ojo is widely feared to this day.
To ward off the evil eye, cultures developed a variety of charms and talismans. Hand gestures like the “fig sign” (a fist with the thumb inserted between the index and middle fingers), have been in use since at least the Roman era. The glass eye (pictured above) is found throughout Europe and the Middle East. Across the Mediterranean region, people tie a red string around their wrists, and spit three times in the suspected presence of evil. But the main way to guard against the evil eye has always been to avoid displays of good fortune.
It may sound like primitive superstition, but when a concept emerges in different places, and sticks around for millennia, there might be something to it. This is particularly relevant today, because our modern world is a tremendously fertile environment for the evil eye.
Consider social media. It’s all about showing off what you have, whether it’s a nice vacation, a nice house, or a nice body. It’s as though an entire communication ecosystem was inspired by the ethos of Max in The Producers – “If you’ve got it, flaunt it, baby, flaunt it!”
But what happens when you flaunt it online? The haters, the cyberbullies, and the trolls come out. From a mystical perspective, they’re casting the evil eye on you, whether you realize it or not. One can only wonder if this has been a factor in the mental health struggles that often plague successful influencers – sometimes with tragic consequences.
Whether you believe in unseen forces or not, research clearly shows that social media use makes us miserable, primarily because comparing ourselves to each other fosters dissatisfaction and resentment. Flaunting what you’ve got creates pressure to keep looking perfect, while looking at what other people are flaunting feeds inadequacy and envy. Either way, it drives addiction, mental health issues, and self-harm.
Social media platforms don’t just enable this self-destructive, exhibitionist behavior, they actively encourage and profit from it. Tech company algorithms are designed to amplify content that elicits a strong response – and envy is a very strong response. From a spiritual perspective, one could say that social media acts as a giant lens, focusing negative energy on our souls the way a magnifying glass can focus a sunbeam onto ants.
Even if you prefer to keep your feet planted firmly in the material world, there are tangible risks to flaunting what you’ve got online: hacking, stalking, identity theft, and public shaming, just to name a few.
With all this in mind, maybe we should take some advice from our great-grandparents. Instead of bragging about our treasures and good fortune, maybe we should keep our blessings a little more private. By doing so, we can ward off the ancient risks of the evil eye, while mitigating the modern harm of social media.