I Want to Be Positive About Life
[b]Unplugging From the Outrage Machine: An Experiment[/b]
For the sake of my own mental health, I will be minimizing my exposure to the crazy-making kind of things in all forms of media for the month of February.
I went into my Facebook and hit “snooze for 30 days” on all news, political, and opinion pages. I did the same for friends who never talk about anything except politics.
For the month of February, I will not check my “honest and opinionated” Twitter account. I have a bland, boring Twitter account, and I will continue to check that one.
If I’m on any social media and I see something inflammatory - I will ignore it and scroll past.
I already don’t watch much TV, and what I do watch tends to be streamed without commercials. But if I should happen to see something political on TV, I will mute it, change the channel, turn the TV off, or leave the room.
If other people bring up politics, I will change the subject. If they won’t be deterred, I will remove myself from the situation.
Two things about this experiment will be interesting:
1 - Whether I can actually do this for a whole month; and
2 - If I can do it - will it make any difference to the way I think and feel at the end of the month?
For the sake of my own mental health, I will be minimizing my exposure to the crazy-making kind of things in all forms of media for the month of February.
I went into my Facebook and hit “snooze for 30 days” on all news, political, and opinion pages. I did the same for friends who never talk about anything except politics.
For the month of February, I will not check my “honest and opinionated” Twitter account. I have a bland, boring Twitter account, and I will continue to check that one.
If I’m on any social media and I see something inflammatory - I will ignore it and scroll past.
I already don’t watch much TV, and what I do watch tends to be streamed without commercials. But if I should happen to see something political on TV, I will mute it, change the channel, turn the TV off, or leave the room.
If other people bring up politics, I will change the subject. If they won’t be deterred, I will remove myself from the situation.
Two things about this experiment will be interesting:
1 - Whether I can actually do this for a whole month; and
2 - If I can do it - will it make any difference to the way I think and feel at the end of the month?