Want to Be Happier? Stay Off the Internet!
I was having such a nice time until I spent time on the web
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The title of this article is obvious and self-explanatory, but hear me out:
- TikTok aesthetic trends and who’s too old for them.
- The Depp vs. Heard defamation trial and who’s the actual abuser.
- Whether Sweden (and Scandinavia in general) is a white supremacist mecca because they don’t feed house guests.
- Is it a commodification of racial issues to write about the appropriation of a black joy-based TikTok trend as a white person?
These are all things I’ve encountered on Social Media (aka Twitter) and Medium in the last couple days.
And I’m left with feelings of being ruffled and generally discontent.
It’s my own fault to some extent. I’m supposed to be off Twitter for good. But, I’d been feeling so at peace with myself that I thought I’d dip my toes back in the water.
I wonder why I was feeling so at peace.
While “Stay off the internet” is something that many people have been suggesting for a while as a way to help mental health, I’d never felt the effect so acutely until today.
Maybe I hadn’t realized how true the advice was because I’d never experienced it myself. I was too consumed by the general suckiness of being on Social Media all the time. But I guess I hadn’t realized how well I’d been doing at staying away from all the negativity recently.
Having it both ways might be impossible, though.
Twitter makes it very hard not to see everything unless you trim who you’re following immensely and can ignore the trending topics and news. I’ve proven I can’t ignore it over the last few days.
So I’m going to do what’s best for my mental health and stay away from Social Media as much as I can! And maybe even Medium, since what’s been recommended to me recently has been more negative than I’d like.
Maybe you can pledge to do the same.
