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0 By Kirsty
So, by now we’ve all read about and heard about how social media is bad for our mental health. There is of course much MUCH truth in this.
Social Media Obsessions
Instagram makes us feel inferior and inadequate about our looks, bodies, houses, clothes, make-up, holidays and Hell, even our bookshelves these days (shelffies!).
Facebook makes us feel like we’re failing at life in general because we’re constantly exposed to 10 second snapshots of everyone’s best bits. Highly edited and honed so we don’t see the abject misery, life dissatisfaction, parent fails or bad hair days.
And in both cases we’re obsessed with rallying up the numbers of friends and followers and likes. Well, some of us…
We’re all of us affected differently and to different degrees by our exposure to the socials. Near enough each and every one of us benefits from the occasional digital detox.
I don’t feel like I’ve been too badly affected by my use of Facebook and Instagram, evident mild addiction aside. They can occasionally cause me feel like an inadequate parent but it’s all in relative balance really.
People at their Worst
And then I joined Twitter.
Suddenly I can see how a person could completely lose their mind within a day on here.
Whilst I’ve quickly witnessed and acknowledge that Twitter has provided communities and much needed support for a great great many individuals who struggled without it, I am floored by the level of sheer toxicity that resides there.
Its almost as if it was actually designed as a place for people to go to be the very worst of themselves.
Whilst I’ve only directly had the slightest of brushes with Trolls myself so far, they are utterly rife on Twitter like nowhere else I’ve ever seen on the Internet EVER. Its like a plague. Or Pidgeys in long grass.
Abuse, Anger and the Unmentionables
Have I just led a very sheltered web existence up until now?
I’m seeing about 30 posts a day from women calling out men for being truly grotesque and despicable. Sick abuse and threats, warped attitudes and dick pics galore.
Everyone is SOOOO angry all the time! About everything!! I’m not saying they’re not right to be but for the love of all things holy (and not) people can we not just fucking chill for five goddam minutes??? Can we stop being trendy, think critically and pick our battles for the sake of preserving our collective sanity, please?!?!?
Now I’m an angry person myself. Anger is healthy and normal and shouldn’t be stigmatised nor demonised. I embrace anger as a completely normal human thing and I welcome it as a part of me and for the purpose it serves, I.E acting as an alarm system to tell me that something is fundamentally wrong. Anger is a call to action that often serves us well. But – because it is at its core a very primitive animalistic biological instinct programmed in us for our basic survival-sometimes it doesn’t. Often, in fact.
If you ask me, the anger swarmed across Twitter is way out of whack.
Positivity Vs Negativity
I’ve even found the relatively neutral and “good” people overwhelmingly negative. And this coming from me truly is something. I write a lot about how “Positivity” pisses me off. I bought Mark Mansons The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*** because it said “Fuck Positivity” in the blurb!!! But I just can’t handle this level of cycnicsm, bitterness, sarcasm (and I LOVE sarcasm!!!) and passive aggression. It’s swamping. Choking. And it pulls me down too
1in4 UK Book Store:
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Everyone is just so bullying and posturing.
Why?!?
Before I finish listing my gripes I’ll take a second to bemoan the weird design system. The fact you end up seeing what everyone else has chosen to follow rather than what you yourself has and that you really need to pay careful attention to make sure you’re Tweeting or commenting in the right place.
That sucks.
The Upside
Now on the plus side, Twitter has benefitted Much Love Kirsty greatly and the company I keep on there is the creme de la creme. They keep my Twitter experience from being too despairing and they often keep me laughing, sometimes validated. Much Love has even been nominated for a little blog award through being on Twitter and I’m so thrilled and delighted by that! I am grateful to Twitter for its upsides and I will continue to use it as a valuable tool in the name of blog enhancement
But really and truly, Twitter you’re letting yourself down big time right now
Sort yourself out, mate!
For all our sakes
Much Love
Kirsty
Reproduced with permission, originally posted on muchlovekirsty.co.uk
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