GrowingLoveHandles:
I’m going on an annual mental health break.
During Lent, no FantasyFeeder, Feabie, Facebook, news sites, YouTube, etc. I’m going to spend time writing, role playing retro style online, actually sending letters and postcards via snail mail, meditating and planting my garden. Maybe I’ll even get around to finishing some of my long-incomplete stories here (All you many Kandy story fans, don’t give up on me. I’m not good at promises. But I’ll try to finish.).
Just trying to slow my manic brain a bit. If I don’t, I’m going to doomscroll and fetishscroll to deAth.
I’ll be back April. In the meantime, what do you do, if anything, to keep from losing your mind in these online sites?
Or am I the only one?
Zonker
I think you just have to take it easy and not go too overboard, I think.
Another thing you have to remember, is one of the negative consequences of a permanently connected world from advances in technology, and how that relates to news. You also have to considered most news organizations are profit-seeking private enterprise; more on that later.
In the past, most news would have been delivered via the morning newspaper, though many large cities might have had an afternoon/evening edition. The point is, that was only once, or at most, twice a day. Broadcast TV has been around since the 40s, but the news segment would have still been once or twice a day. This meant there was time to consider what news stories to share, and to more easily vet the stories.
Fast forward to within the last 20 years, where there's pressure to provide continuous news throughout the day. Also consider that most news outlets are profit-seeking private enterprises, reliant on advertising revenue, especially since most folks don't want to subscribe, which was the norm for newspapers.
Thus, they are financially motivated to publish content that gets more views. This is why we have click-bait titles, and why it seems the headlines are more scandalous and incendiary than ever. They're meant to motivate you to click, for more ad impressions.
And unfortunately, it does seem that negative news and information tends to travel 5 times as fast.
Same thing with the algorithms on Facebook, YouTube, et. al. The algorithms are carefully crafted to increase engagement, whether positive or negative, because to them it really doesn't matter, all to increase ad impressions for revenue.
I can't speak about Feabie, but FantasyFeeder has no algorithm; it's all first come, first serve, the latest is what's displayed, no matter what it is.
As for YouTube, maybe don't watch the news, political pundits, etc. Maybe try watching fun things that are interesting but aren't that serious or of little to no consequence. For me, that might be videos about esoteric computer hardware or silly challenges without practical value that someone does "just because they can." Modern Gentoo Linux on a 486? A striped storage array consisting of 12 floppies? Why not?! Or how about playing Bohemian Rhapsody on a 100+ year old fairground organ, even going to the trouble of making the paper tape? Video game lore theories and challenges are gold, too. Portal 2 without portals? Maybe! Or can you beat Zelda: Majora's Mask in a single 3 day cycle? Spoiler alert: Yes you can, if you know
exactly what you're doing. I think you get the idea.
The world is not as grim or horrid as the news sometimes makes it out to be. It's not this big scary place where life-threatening danger lurks around every single corner. Most folks are still decent to a fault, like before.
But yeah, I think maybe just take easy from time to time, it doesn't always have to be so long. You don't have to be checking the news every minute of every day. You don't have to respond to every message within 5 minutes or even half hour.
Still, I'm glad to hear that you intend to basically "touch grass" for a little while, it can be good to do from time to time. I support your plan.
While not directed to anyone in particular, sometimes I get the impression some folks need to do that more often, and when they do, the world would be a better place.
