Death by Social Media

Been trying to focus more on my writing again, which is why there have been more consistent, (sometimes rambling), journal posts as of late. I have to find my way back to just writing for me, just being for me. It is so important to not lose my humanity.

I have discovered that, over the past several years of social media use, I have lost my ability to concentrate. I have all of these ideas I want to write about, which of course always seem daunting to start, yet I use to just start them. Now, I allow myself to get distracted by scrolling through social media - commenting, posting, re-sharing, peering into lives of friends and people from my past regularly.

Even when I do get started writing I get off task easily. I write for a little bit and then my subconscious is like, "you should see if you have any notifications on your social media?" "Hey, social media is fun, go use it." "Hey, hey, you have wrote two paragraphs, that is way more of a word count than anyone will even bother to read anymore."

So I shove off and go scroll through social media, come back, re-read what I already wrote, try and add to it, sometimes do, sometimes don't. Sometimes just scrapping the whole thing because, "it's irrelevant now," "I am just not feeling this anymore," and "time."

I have to get my scattered brain back under control. Social media serves some valid purposes, I just need to remember what those are and then let the rest go.

No more commenting on completely incorrect items people post to further expound upon how they were right all along about some topic they simply have such an attachment too; that even if the evidence they are presenting is completely false, and provably so, they still would never change there mind about said topic anyway. Not that changing minds was ever my goal. I don't truly care. I just thought they did.

This very point simply makes me realize how far out there one of my biggest personality traits, (flaws depending on your point of view), are; and that is analyzing the shit out of everything until the most logical answer is found. I should call it my Spock complex.

Due to my Spock complex I just believed that everyone would want to know the facts, logic, science, reasoning, etc. behind the topics they posted. I really thought people were that interested and that involved in these topics. Truly.

Especially when most everyone is posting the same shit, "GMO's are bad", "don't put fluoride in the water", "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," "America's democratic system is not broken, just being taken advantage of", "vaccines are bad", "such-and-such famous person is dead", "you can make a camp light using mountain dew and baking soda", "this political candidate is the best!" etc., etc., etc.

There was usually a lot of passion behind these posts.

Because of this passion, I didn't have any reason not to trust that people were posting these topics with a Spock complex leading the way. I had no reason not to trust that they truly had a deep knowledge and understanding of the topics at hand. I do not mean that to sound stuck up, although, I suppose, how can it not?

Anyway, I truly just thought everyone had the same Spock complex I do. Especially when espousing and sharing such sometimes complex, life defining topics.

The topics that interested me or that I saw the most frequently, and therefore were intrigued to know more about, I would follow-up with. Research myself. Following the links and then continue on to find more, typically from the article/posts referenced research material itself. Research material which claimed - "this or that scientific peer reviewed journal proved" whatever was being reported. Only to find most everything was bullshit.

That is when I went back to checking SNOPES first. Why waste my time doing all the research when a group was already there doing it for me - in most cases.

Currently, there are a few "scientists" and "doctors" claiming SNOPES is rigged and can't be trusted. Now I find all the people who get "check SNOPES this is false" responses regularly are posting how they "always knew SNOPES was not all it is cracked up to be" and "it "can't be trusted."

Ugh!

I researched that bit of information as well. Yeah, it's bullshit too. The men claiming to be scientists/doctors who know what they are talking about in regards to SNOPES are charlatans - plain and simple.

*sigh*

Anyway, the whole point of this is ...

There was a time when I got caught in the social media game. Riled up with the masses. Which lead right into the 2008 elections ... and things got political all over social media.

After posting nothing but debunk and politics everyone started blocking or unfriending me. Why? Well, first off and most importantly - because I was fucking annoying as all hell. Second, no one cares. No one wants to hear the truth. No one wants their opinionated, un-fact checked bias to be trampled or even questioned. No one wants to be constantly reminded that our government is so corrupt and we are so complacently controlled with consuming that we just allow it because - cell phone, cool car, right clothes, designer puppy, and, that celebrity said so!

Especially on the biggest social media site out there, Facebook.

Once the obvious bell rang in my head and I realized how I had pushed people away because of all the above which equates to - "I am fucking annoying!" Well, I was pretty fed up with myself and the whole depressing social media experience.

So, recognizing my addiction, for 3 months I shut down my Facebook account, and stopped going to numerous other social sites.

At this time I also started using G+. Following like minded, science focused, save the world but know the truth people. Focusing on only learning, positive and inspirational post sharing. The whole platform was just different than Facebook and a couple other social sites I use. Partly because of who I was following, and partly because it was so new.

For many reasons I wish could have been handled elsewhere and, for many people I cannot connect with elsewhere, I went back to Facebook. I do not know if three months is a long enough break though, because, although I focus on positive, fun, uplifting, knowledge sharing posts now, I still post to often there. I still end up checking in all the time. I still can't help put be pulled away from my writing to go and scroll through the news feed and see how many people "liked" something I posted.

So, that is my next challenge. To break the FB habit. It takes 21 days to make a habit and it takes 21 days to break a habit. So a habit I shall break!

We shall see right? We shall see ....

~TigressSky~