So years ago I made a pact with myself to never fight online and be a part of comments wars, even with topics I’m passionate about and where know a lot, like nutrition. Maybe even I’m the idiot sometimes, who knows?!īut what I do know is that fighting online changes NOTHING, and only exhausts and drags down the collective whole. You'll never convince the idiot that you're correct, and bystanders won't be able to tell who's who. Mark Twain said it best: Never argue with an idiot. ![]() ![]() I’ve definitely been ‘rejected’ by others online many times, but those were never going to be my people. Besides, keeping up an act is too exhausting anyways. I try to match who I am online with who I am in my everyday life. Some people will love what they see, some will be indifferent, and some people won’t like you at all. I’m important to a few special people in my life who I know would miss me if I’m gone, yet I’m completely irrelevant and unimportant to BILLIONS of people on this planet. That includes me! Most of us evolve past the self-centred 2 year old stage and recognize that the world doesn’t revolve around us, but social media can suck us back in and make many people forget this fact. No one is as important as they think they are. Scrolling through social media pictures and comments may feel ok short-term, but I remind myself that long-term I don’t feel any better, and often, it leaves me feeling worse. … all of which help my mental health tremendously! spending time with friends and family in the real world (or hoping on FaceTime if I can't be near them physically).I try to get my dopamine “pleasure and reward” needs met with things that feel better both in the short-term AND the long-term: Understanding brain chemistry, especially dopamine, is helpful to understanding the addictive nature of social media. ![]() I try to be respectful about it, but it’s ok to make decisions based on what makes my feed feel the best when I do log on and scroll through what other people are posting. will not matter then, just like it doesn’t matter now. unfollow list, number of followers I personally have, how many likes I get, etc. I really want to beat cancer and live to be 80-100 years old, and I can guarantee you that my social media follow vs. Muting or unfollowing someone is ok!ĭo what makes you happy. Remember when you look at your feed that most people are only selectively showing the best parts of who they are, and keeping that fact in mind may give some helpful context to how you see your social media world. endless baby announcements if you’ve just suffered a miscarriage). ![]() It’s ok to celebrate other people’s milestones if that makes you happy to do so, and it’s also ok to skip past it if it causes you too much personal pain (e.g. If you remember that human nature is programmed to show off the good and hide the bad, deep down we’re all still wired in our brains to be cave people in close-knit tribes proving our worth so we don’t get kicked out to fend for ourselves in the scary and cold world. We hear that social media is a highlight reel of people showing you the best parts of their lives. Others celebrating their milestones online is ok. “Better” is a relative and unimportant concept. Be a good human, be kind, live your best life, and don’t worry about the rest of the world. Giving energy to thinking you are “better” or “worse” than someone else is a silly concept. It’s easy to get stuck in the success-money-parenting-fitness-relationship-appearance comparison trap (or insert hurtful comparison addiction of your choice), so awareness when it’s happening inside your own mind is the first helpful step to quieting it down so it doesn’t have so much control over you. I try to keep my head down, stay in my own lane, and ignore what others are doing for the most part. Does anyone else feel like social media is a little too narcissistic, staged, and riddled with ads these days? Often I just stay off but I’ve been thinking hard about our collective mental health, and what I can do to be a part of the solution.Ī few things I know to be true from my own experience:
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